Higher and higher

By D. Daniel, Globe Staff, 01/27/02

		Destinations  Where they went  Travel gear  Student travel  Sensible traveler

When Carolyn Bess resigned as director of Outdoor Explorations, the Medford nonprofit group she founded to bring together people with and without disabilities, one of the board members used his frequent-flier miles to give her a round-trip ticket to Nepal.

Bess, 36, who plans to go to business school in the fall, had decided to take off up to a year, starting last June, in order to travel, do outdoors activities, and research business schools. She gave up her apartment to reduce expenses and has been staying with friends and family.

"I loved the idea of backpacking in the Himalayas. For outdoor folks, it's the pinnacle of trekking," says Bess, who 13 years ago hiked all 2,050 miles of the Appalachian Trail.

Through a mutual friend, she was introduced to Michael Hawley and Sandy Choi of Cambridge-based Friendly Planet, who were headed for the Kingdom of Bhutan, just east of Nepal, to work on a children's photography book. Bess was invited to join them, so they could have "a tourist, with open eyes" to assist their research.

"I never could have gone there on my own," Bess says, because the country charges up to $250 a day for tourist services in order to control the number of visitors. Bhutan, a monarchy mostly closed to the West until about 30 years ago, is pristine territory surrounded by China and India, with a population of 2 million (although estimates range as low as 850,000), and about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire put together - but with much higher mountains.

The trio flew into Katmandu, Nepal, in early November. A short flight took them to Bhutan. The service fee bought them an Englishspeaking guide, car, driver, meals, and hotels. "It's like a tailored package, but so authentic that it's not a package at all," Bess says. They first went to the capital, Thimphu, for a meeting about the book project.

The next part of their three-week stay was a six-day trek to the sacred mountain of Jomolhari. For this, their guide brought along three others and 10 horses. "I'd never hiked where somebody carries all my bags and makes my food," Bess notes.

The highest she climbed was 15,000 feet. The Bhutanese do not allow climbing on Jomolhari, but "it's perhaps the most beautiful base camp in the world," says Bess, who was wowed by the "gorgeousness of the mountains, the quality of the air, the rivers, and the natural weaving of people and nature." Trek highlights included a spontaneous native dance performance by nearby villagers and a hot stone bath supplied by a local family.

The next leg of their trip was a slow drive on treacherous mountain roads to visit as many dzongkhag (districts) as time allowed. They met with schoolchildren and observed a festival to ward off evil deities.

Bess parted from her companions in Bangkok, spent a little time in Nepal, and then visited Thailand for fun in the sun. On Railay Beach in Krabi, she scuba dived, rock climbed, and kayaked.

Bess credits the trip with narrowing her career plans. "It's really given me a lot of direction and determination to do a lot more work internationally in terms of developing countries and making links between our resources and theirs." She's now "done playing" and is working on her school applications. But she plans to return someday to Bhutan for an even longer and maybe even higher trek.

Send suggestions for "Where they went" to ddaniel@globe.com.