Diethelm Travel Bhutan News http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/AllItems.aspx RSS feed for the homepage-news list. Tue, 21 May 2013 19:16:38 GMT Windows SharePoint Services V3 RSS Generator 60 list Bhutan: homepage-news /bhutan/_layouts/dtg-logo-small.png http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/AllItems.aspx Bhutan and Thailand revise air service agreement http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=39 Column: Right
No: 2
Expire: 4/12/2014 12:00 PM
Body:

Bhutan and Thailand revise air service agreement
 

Courtesy – BBS
To discuss the air services between the two countries, Bhutan andThailand signed a memorandum of understanding in the capital, yesterday. TheMoU was signed by the Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communicationsand the Director General of Department of Civil Aviation, Thailand.
The other focus of the discussion was also to revise the air serviceagreement signed between the two countries in 1993.
Issues related to traffic rights of the flights and allowing more than oneairliner to fly to Thailand were also discussed.

]]> System Account Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:46:20 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=39 Two new species of Rhododendron found http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=46 Column: Right
No: 1
Expire: 5/2/2014 12:00 PM
Body:

Two new species of Rhododendron found

Courtesy: BBS

Two new species of Rhododendron have beenfound in the country. These species- now named the Khochii-var album and Princenamgiae-were discovered by forest officials at Dochula while collecting rhododendronflower specimens for the upcoming Rhododendron Festival, says the Ministry ofAgriculture and Forests.

Khochii-var album has white flowers while Princenamgiae haspinkish flowers. Princenamgiae was named after His Royal Highness the GyaltshabNamgyal Wangchuck.

The Ministry states these species never existed before in thecountry and they could be endemic, but only in Bhutan.

With the inclusion of these two new species, Bhutan’sRhododendron diversity now increases from 46 to 48 and the Royal Botanical Parkat Lamperi now boasts of 31 wild species of Rhododendron within the park’szone, including the two species.

]]> System Account Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:59:35 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=46 A Menchu (Treatment Bath) Must Soak To Kick Off Farming Season http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=44 Column: Right
No: 3
Expire: 4/26/2014 12:00 PM
Body:

A Menchu (Treatment Bath) Must Soak To Kick Off Farming Season

Courtesy:Kuensel
By tradition, before farmers of Domkhar village hit the fields to begina season of toil, there is one last recreation of sorts that they indulge in. Every year, before farming season starts in Domkhar, a village underTshenkhar gewog in Lhuentse, all farmers, including women and children, come toPhowan, about an hour’s walk from the village.
Families pitch tarpaulin tents, one end resting against a giant boulderon a small patch of land below the Mongar-Lhuentse highway, with little shrubshedging the three open sides.
More than five to 10 tents are pitched in the menchu premises.
Between their tents and the Kurichu River is a giant stone tub,basically a massive boulder, on which is a naturally carved deep sink.
About eight men and women form the bucket brigade, a chain between thetub and the river, drawing water from the river in four buckets, and passing italong to be emptied into the deep tub that can fit about four people. Aboutfour-five people soak at a time. Once out of the menchu people eat and rest.
Apart from pampering their bodies by soaking in the menchu, it was afamily feast, where villagers overindulged in meals, alternating with pork,beef, egg, butter and cheese.
The first was meant to heal villagers of any ailment for the comingfarming season, and the latter to make one’s body robust for the coming hardlabours.

]]> System Account Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:29:12 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=44 Drukair spreads wings to Hong Kong and Mumbai http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=45 Column: Left
No: 0
Expire: 4/26/2014 12:00 PM
Body:

Drukair spreads wings to Hong Kong and Mumbai
 

Courtesy: BBS

Come 2014, the NationalAirline, Drukair will operate international flights to Hong Kong and Mumbai. Atpresent, Drukair has international flights to Singapore, Thailand, Nepal,Bangladesh, Kolkata and New Delhi in India.
The opening of airroutes to Hongkong and Mumbai was planned based on the increasing number oftourists’ arrivals from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, the US and western partsof India.
Hongkong is anotherimportant gateway as far as tourists coming in from Japan, China, Korea and US.The Department of Civil Aviation has completed all the formalities to launchair routes to Mumbai.  But the department is yet to sign the Air ServiceAgreement for Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Qatar hasalso expressed an interest to sign the Air Service agreement with Bhutan.

]]> System Account Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:33:58 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=45 Bhutan Visa Form http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=7 Column: Right
No: 2
Expire: 12/31/2014 12:00 AM
Body:

Bhutan Visa Form

]]> System Account Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:17:20 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=7 Diethelm Travel Bhutan Questionnaire http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=2 Column: Left
No: 10
Expire: 10/31/2014 12:00 AM
Body:
Questionnaire

Travelled with us ?

Let you know what you think about our services.

Click here to fill out our online questionnaire.

Your help to improve our services is greatly appreciated!

]]> System Account Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:01:03 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=2 Recommended Reading http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=1 Column: Left
No: 9
Expire: 10/31/2014 12:00 AM
Body:

Recommended Reading

"The Blessings of Bhutan" is a personal and fascinating compilation of very short, and very readable, essays (or "sketches") about 2 authors' experiences and understanding of Bhutanese life.

Click here for more info.



]]> System Account Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:59:32 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=1 Five blind people get eye transplant to witness the royal wedding http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=5 Column: Left
No: 1
Expire: 11/30/2014 12:00 AM
Body:

Five blind people get eye transplant to witness the royal wedding

For the 65 year-old Dunchen Dem from Zhemgang, the royal wedding of His Majesty to Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck was extra special. Having lived in darkness for the last 18 years of her life, she couldn’t have wished for a better time to get her vision back.

Squatting on the bed in the hospital ward, she flips through a magazine strewn with the pictures of the Royal couple. As she sees the Queen’s portrait, for the first time in her life, she holds the magazine on her head, her already moist eyes give in and tears stream down her face. She then lets out stifled sobs.

When she stops sobbing after a while, she caresses the picture with her frail fingers, and almost instantly says, “The Queen is very beautiful.”

Dunchen Dem is among the fortunate four who received corneal transplant on Wednesday last week. “I am so happy I can see and I am glad that I will be able to witness the historic event,” she said the day before the wedding.

A week before the wedding, the Tilganga Eye Hospital in Nepal donated five corneas to the Thimphu hospital. Without donors of its own, hospitals in the country depend on organs received from outside the country. The Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) has been receiving corneas from Tilganga Eye Hospital although there is no formal agreement between the two.

Karma lost her eyesight due to an injury. However, after 17 years of agonizing wait, she finally got her eye operated last week. The 51 year-old from Paro is euphoric although only one of her eyes was operated on. She hopes to get her other eye operate someday. “But for now, it is better to have one eye than none,” she says, with a grin.

Almost in childish excitement, she said, “now that I have got my eyesight, I can witness the Royal wedding. Although my eye has not healed well I will be able to see it on TV.” The mother of three also said that getting an eye on the eve of the wedding is the biggest gift she could have ever expected.

Twenty one year-old, Shiva Kumar Ghalley, who has been blind since he was one year-old, also received the transplant. Initially, he said he faced problems knowing the colors. “I didn’t know the colors; which color was which. Everything for me was black,” he said.  “When people said the shirt is red or white, in my mind, it was black because I never got the chance to learn which color is red or white. However now I know what a red color looks like.”

Despite being disabled, he has worked as a dishwasher with a restaurant at Tshimakoti in Chukha. “I know I couldn’t see but these were some few things I could do and I needed to earn a living,” he said.

 “I have never had a chance to see the King and I am definitely going to be the part of the celebrations of the Royal wedding,” he said.

]]> System Account Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:27:10 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=5 Tashi Air and Drukair to operate domestic air http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=6 Column: Center
No: 2
Expire: 11/30/2014 12:00 AM
Body:

Tashi Air and Drukair to operate domestic air

Tashi Air and Drukair has been given the approval to operate domestic air service in the country.

The airlines were approved by the Cabinet yesterday on the basis that the two projects had submitted an independent ‘project document’ as required and had responded thoroughly and meaningfully to the requirements of the project manifest.

Domestic air service will start by March 1 next year but the Ministry of Information and Communications will grant a flexibility period of one month which means the deadline of operation will be April 1 next year.

After obtaining the domestic air license, Tashi Air will be allowed to operate international air services. A third party, Bhutan Air Private Limited which also made its bid was disqualified.

This is because the Bhutan Air Private Limited had not responded adequately to the requirements of the project manifest. Bhutan Air Private Limited apparently has not made any move towards establishment of a ‘Unit Airline Company’ comprising four partners and has not fulfilled the preliminary requisites such as office location, equipment and installations which were required to be evidenced in the ‘project document’.

The release from the Prime Minister’s office stated that Drukair met all the requirements while Tashi Air which submitted a proposal along commercial lines was deemed financially strong.

According to the project document, Drukair has opted that it will be able to execute the necessary agreement upon being awarded the contract for procurement of any of the DHC 6 or ATR aircraft.

On the other hand, Tashi Air has made a selection of a brand new self owned PC-12 which is a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland.

]]> System Account Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:31:48 GMT http://www.diethelmtravel.com/bhutan/Lists/homepagenews/DispForm.aspx?ID=6