Amber and Paul Aguirre

We are back in Hawaii after a truly amazing trip!  It honestly was the trip of a lifetime.  I especially want Sharad, Arun and Karma to know how much we appreciated them.   I don’t have Arun or Karma’s email, so I would be pleased if you would forward a copy of this email to them. GIve them all a raise ($).  They are worth every penny you pay them, and if any of our friends want to go to Bhutan I will give them your contact info, and the names of Sharad, Arun and Karma so that they can specially request them. First of all, I can not say enough wonderful things about our guides.  In Bhutan, our guide Arun Rai and driver Karma Ongchuk were amazing.  The first thing we asked them to do upon our arrival was help us buy a Gho and Kira so we could fit in and show respect for the local culture.  It was amazing how wearing the local clothing opened so many doors for us.  People were constantly approaching us and telling us we looked good in their local clothes.  It broke down the barriers that often exist between outsiders and locals.  We loved having conversations with local people and sharing stories.  A big part of traveling for us is seeing how humans are all the same though we may have different cultures, customs and religions.  We feel a bit like ambassadors when we travel.  We try to break down barriers and show other cultures how we are all the same humans.  We feel this promotes peace for all people.   Arun is a font of knowledge about everything Bhutan from the Bhuddist deities to the flora and fauna and everything in between.  Karma is a sweet and considerate man who loves to make us smile. Once we got to know them a bit, they had a great sense of humor and we enjoyed their company so much.  There was lots of “teasing” between us all, especially when we got on competitive teams to do some archery.  I am not an athletic person and I wasn’t particularly excited about archery (though my husband is very athletic and he was looking forward to it). In the end, I had so much fun!  It was all because of Arun and Karma’s easy going fun-loving energy.  It was also a bonus that they took us to see some archery before we actually tried it out. Arun also went out of his way to see to it that we got local Bhutanese food every day.  The hotels serve “continental” food, but part of the joy of traveling for us was eating the local food.  Arun would call ahead for every dinner to make sure that Paul got lots of “Ema Datsi” and other spicy/chili foods that he loved.   Well, I could go on and on about how wonderful our trip was.  The guides are such an important part of traveling.  They can literally make or break a trip.  After spending all day, every day with our guides we feel like we made friends for life.  We dearly hope to see all of them again someday and they are all invited to stay with us in Hawaii if they can get visas to visit.