Nothing is ever easy; we meet our guide to be told our flight to Nepal was rescheduled at midnight and was leaving at 08.40! As it's 8.30 and we are an hour from the airport, we are toast! It's not unusual for flight alterations, however, this one has slipped through the agent's fingers. The only alternative is to head to the airport to establish our options of getting to Nepal, and when?

En route, it turns out, another flight to Kathmandu has materialised, we are on it and tickets are What's App'd to me. Given that I do not have a telephone service, SA providers huh, this is to prove the next problem. As we check in they cannot find us on the system. My What's App has frozen and we are scurrying around borrowing phones and hot spots to resolve. Ultimately, we are all set, we actually should arrive earlier! Needless to say, that's not the case, our flight is delayed and we are sitting in a lounge, with no departure screens, a PA system thst's unintelligable and 4-500 people becoming more frantic by the minute!

That aside, Bhutan? It is a wonderful country, a beautiful people anmd a trip I shall treasure. Meaningful tourism is less than 20 years old here. The infrastructure will always be playing catch up and this hinders you. For instance, you cannot bring in Bhutan Rupees. This means that unless you want to travel with wadges, you rely upon your cards to access money via ATMs. This is really hit and miss, if they do work, there's no cash and, if they don't work you are struggling. Less than 20% of Bhutanese have credit cards as they distrust the system. Another significant issue is the internet. As it was, my debit card was gobbled by an ATM, which adds to inonvenience elsewhere on the trip! There is no such thing as a secure connection. Very early on, I sent an email to a friend, within 5 minutes I'd had an email pertaining to be from them. There is no way I'd go online to do financial stuff, a disadvantage at the turn of the month when people expect to be paid.

Our package is 4 star. As a result, the cuisine is adequate, with some highlights. However, every day, we are taken for lunch as part of the package. After 7 days of rice and vegetables my taste buds have lost interest. You also take your meals with other tourists, we much prefer to break away from the herd, meet some locals and get more ethnic!

We are here on a tourist visa that has a prescribed itinerary, that means, your agent is obliged to stick to that itinerary, I'm not sure what you'd do if you wanted to vary it.

All in all, a very special place and a significant tick in the box. It's exciting to be exiting one exotic county, heading to another. I'd recommend Bhutan wholeheartedly, as I would our agent, come prepared and you'll have a wonderful trip.