The worlds most dangerous commercial flight on earth went boringly smooth today from Bangkok, Thailand to Paro, Bhutan. The most exciting part of our early departing 4 hour 17 minute flight was our stopover. I said it would be Daka India yesterday. I was incorrect, it was Dhaka, Bangladesh. Jim, Chris and I could see well in our descent and departure and Dhaka might be one the most hectic crowded places on earth. And all three of us have spent time in India so this is a legit statement!
We weren’t allowed to get off the plane. That was fine with us. Drukair changed pilots like I mentioned they would yesterday. Then we were on our way. It took about 45 minutes from Bangladesh to Paro, Bhutan. Though our flight was smooth, it was still a bit hairy when you see the crazy path we took dodging cliffs, mountain tops and fur trees in an A319 during the approach.
You deplane right on to the runway and the weather was gorgeous. Few people rushed for the customs line right away. Most stood and photographed the plane and looked around at the mountains. The Himalayan mountains were hidden behind smokey haze.
Clearing customs was as relaxed as could be. There was heaps of homework getting permission and special VISA’s in order to be here. We had it all though. Bhutan keeps its tourism to a minimum on purpose. They believe in providing a high quality experience – sort of a less is more belief – and after my first experience here in 2014 I can attest the system works. Of course due to this approach, a visit here is expensive.
We are mostly sponsored to be here and I should make clear our exact reason for being here. We are here to check our friend Bryant Dunn’s fly fishing operation, Himalayan Flyfishing Adventures. We being, Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures. Our crew includes YD founder Jim Klug, former Waren Miller ski movies now turned YD cinemaphotographer Chris Patterson, and I. Because we know Bryant and fishing programs he’s designed around the world already, we are certain this will be another great one. So we are here to film and photograph the location so that Yellow Dog has good representation of the new destination on their website and in their 2025 catalog.
I’m the lucky guy chosen to be on this crew for a number of reasons. First being I have more fly fishing for golden mahseer experience than possibly any American. Jim and Chris are also close friends and we’ve done some successful projects like this in the past. Great examples would be the African Waters Tanzania tigerfish program we set up and filmed in 2010 (See the Fly Fishing Film tour movie, Connect) and when we set up a golden mahseer program in India in 2013 (when we filmed a segment for Waypoints}.
No more plane rides until April 21 luckily. We’ve all had enough. Once we had our feet on the ground here in Bhutan, Bryant and some of his crew took us to a hotel here in Paro for the night. In the afternoon we walked the town immersing in this great culture. We had dinner and beers and called it an early one.
We won’t actually be fishing until the 14th. Tomorrow we will do a serious hike up to the famous Tigers Nest. We have permission to film this amazing site that will show people the true feel of Bhutan. Then its two days car travel to the river put in. Stay tuned!
I was lucky to have internet today. This could be the last post until the end. But realize the day by day accounts will post when I have connection. And they will be detailed as always!
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