Discover Bhutan’s Best Kept Secrets with This Bhutanese Blogger and Solo Traveler.
Labels are never the main focus of travel. However, it is rather significant to be the first Bhutanese blogger in the travel industry and the country’s first solo female traveler.
How many voices of adventurous female South Asian travelers can you discover, for example, if you go through international travel writing archives or even stories on traveling in Bhutan?
I finally met Denkar in Thimphu. He was vivacious, enthusiastic, and humorous, and even though I’m an introvert, we clicked right away since we both loved traveling. We ultimately arrived in Haa Valley thanks to her travelogues, and she has ambitions to visit the far-flung eastern regions someday.
A surprising adventure
I was a jail teacher in Thailand before I became a full-time traveler. “Teacher, how is the world outside?” one inmate asked me one day.
Denkar’s path to become a YouTuber and travel blogger began in the most improbable of settings: a jail.
After volunteering as an English teacher in Thailand, she decided to remain longer in order to further her education. She had the chance to teach at a jail in the northern Thai province of Phitsanulok while volunteering.
She was forced to reconsider her life decisions after being asked a question by a prisoner one day. How is the outer world? She was curious.
Denkar claims that after being plagued by that question, she gradually started to value the things she had previously taken for granted. the freedom to travel, explore, spend time in nature, meet new people, and have unique experiences.
After backpacking around Southeast Asia, she made the decision to visit Bhutan, her own country! She has been traveling alone and staying with locals across Bhutan’s several dzongkhags (districts) for the past two years.
Traveling alone in Bhutan
Let the world become a part of your song while you dance to it. ~ Denkar
Denkar remembers her first solo vacation in 2018 with great clarity.
She took a local bus to Phobjika Valley alone, with a one-way ticket, and said farewell to her friends. She had decided to hitchhike and couch surf if necessary because she was on a limited budget.
She connected with her inner wanderer as the bus meandered through the breathtakingly lush highlands. She felt driven to forge her own path, made new friends fast, and ended herself staying longer than anticipated.
Providing financial support for her travels and making her the first Bhutanese travel blogger
The fact that people now understand what I do is my biggest accomplishment!
Denkar’s parents, like the majority of South Asian parents, were concerned about her financial security. In this region of the world, the notion of working from home for hours on end or getting paid to travel is still somewhat strange.
After she returned to Bhutan with a master’s degree from Thailand, Denkar’s father wanted her to serve as a public servant. However, she was certain that she wanted to try something new. She didn’t think she would fit in at a typical workplace.
Hitchhiking and social stereotypes in Bhutan
Denkar has traveled by hitchhiking on trucks and boleros to the most isolated areas in Bhutan! For Bhutanese women, hitchhiking is strictly forbidden, just like it is everywhere else in the world.
However, Denkar discovered that hitchhiking in Bhutan is safe as long as you have your wits about you when she started defying societal norms and trusting strangers. She has hitched rides with truck drivers, students, and mountain porters. She was given lunch by several. Some told her their darkest secrets. Her bold actions undoubtedly served as an inspiration to many.