Thou Shalt Throw Out The CheckList

Horseback across Mongolia's steppe for 10 days? No problem, but don't bring your check list, please. John Reede, from Aman Resorts agrees, in our interview. Just dump those lists please, and come and travel in the moment with yourself. #travel

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Everywhere, a production of I Heart Radio. Hi.
I'm Daniel Scheffler, and this is Everywhere. Every week you'll
hear me talk about travel commandments. God needed ten, I
needed just a few more. This week's travel commandment thou

(00:24):
should throw out the checklist. So I never think of
travel as a list with little boxes waiting for checking.
I see travel more of a continuum where it sort

(00:44):
of never stops, because it never really began. With this
philosophy comes many where am I wake ups into my
husband's great frustration exclaims like what side of the road
am I supposed to drive on? Long live my optimistic
sense of adventure, I say, But as much as I

(01:06):
don't have a list, there are obviously places I have
dreamed of going my whole life and would be so
honored to go to. Mongolia was definitely one of those.
A country of shamans and nomad's where falconry, horse racing
and wrestling in very tight jackets and speedos. It's just

(01:28):
another day in Legobi. Mongolia is one of those places
where everything and nothing is what makes it so special.
They aren't any must see destinations, and nothing about Mongolia
takes off an Instagram perfect photo opportunity. It has a quiet,
soothing way about it that invites you, as an outsider,

(01:52):
to observe and to marvel. My plan was to leave
the capital city of Ulan Batar and for ten days
just to horseback ride a big loop throughout the country.
After about a week in Mongolia, it becomes like a
healing bomb. My cheeky horse finally starts to evolve it's

(02:12):
friendly trot to a freedom inspiring cantor across these verdant plains.
Now that my body has started to move as one
with this being, I was able to feel the vastness
of open space. In Genghis Khan's homeland, Mongolia was once
the largest empire on Earth, and today locals celebrate this

(02:34):
legacy with a reverence for Khan. He valiantly comes up
in every single conversation you have. Actually, I was feeling
a little Genghis Khan myself. I was galloping around the
steps and all I could see was the biggest sky.
I felt like a valiant and proud explorer of the

(02:57):
unknown on my speedy horse. Of course, at some point
during my trip, mother requested a photo, and her response
to the photo was is that a pony so yes
Mongolian horses are a little smaller than other horses, but
did not determine I was a powerful explorer. On pony back.

(03:24):
My hands felt thick after a few days as I
clenched these leather rains, and my thighs were getting their
best Jane Fonder workout. Ever, I felt that the vastness
of Mongolia needed a guide, and so a travel operator
gifted me Zobi. He reminded me of Poe from the
movie Kung Fu Panda, as he had the same sweetness

(03:47):
and that appetite, and so together, mostly in silence, we
let the landscape become our contented distraction. Of course, Zobe
would every now and then, out of nowhere start belting
some traditional throat singing somewhere between a frog and edge shearing.

(04:11):
Was this beautiful sound floating around the Gobi Desert. With us,
we charged across this beauty of Mongolia, with dry air
coming off the Congo sand dunes and more of the
step spreading out aimlessly in all directions. In the distance
the Altai mountains, and tucked into these mountains are these

(04:32):
amazing permanent glaziers that have now started to change shape.
And melt thanks to global warming, but they still contained
some mystery in the spacelike formations. I think Star Wars
should come film here. And really that is exactly how
Mongolia feels a little otherworldly, like you're traveling into another universe.

(04:57):
But besides for these mountainous fishes, in the southern side
of the country, there is mostly just open land, endless
open land. Just think about the luxury of endless open land.
So wherever you go across the country you find these

(05:17):
piles of rocks, somewhat giant piles as big as homes
and others just a couple of dozen rocks heaped on
top of each other. Locals ladies rocks down combined with
blue ribbons, and it's called an ubu. It's a shamanistic
worship to rock and sky. And when you travel, it's

(05:39):
customed to stop encircle an ubu three times, moving clockwise
in order to have a safer journey. Of course, if
you happen to have Mare's milk with you, a little
splash on the rocks is considered a good offering. I
was fortunate enough that Zobe had family all over the country.

(06:00):
Some of them had extra yurts was Mongolians call him
gears for guests like me. A yurt is around house,
almost like a tent, but a little more fun, and
since his family was nomadic, we had an interesting time
finding them. Entering a gear camp is done with no knocking.
Mongolians have an open door policy for all the motley

(06:23):
duo that we are entered and sat down with Zobe's
large extended family, uncle's, aunt's, grandparents and a host of
toddlers and newborns. Russian and Mongolia were offered to me,
and since I didn't speak either, I settled for a
translated version from ZOBEI food here is meat plus dairy

(06:46):
heavy and handed out our mass. Of course I received
the usual are you married? Question, but a Mongolia the
more important question is can you ride a horse? Due
to all the goats I think cash Mare nomads enjoy
the simple boiling or open fire roasting of meat with

(07:06):
some herbs or plants found on the step. Milk, on
the other hand, one of the only Asian countries where
it is celebrated, filters into every meal and even snacks.
Fermented Mare milk sits in waiting before entering. A Buddhist
temple all over the country, and as a sort of
sign of welcome, this almost alcoholic watery fluid is handed

(07:31):
out as visitors arrive. Besides for the slushy delight, Mongolians
love to snack on cookies called bortsch, which is simply
milk curd dried in the sun and then sometimes fried
and dried again, delicious surrounded by somewhat surreal elements. The

(07:52):
country's nothingness is its greatest privilege, and also it's great.
There are no road signs, no real road oads, even
just the step in the sky. Ever, so often a
dust tornado comes up out of nowhere and takes the
meditation a little deeper, and then out of nothing a

(08:13):
gear tent appears with a family of smiles waving us by.
For a country of open spaces. Finding the Buddhist temples,
wild horses and what I would call the Mongolian Olympics
of archery, wrestling, and of course horse riding can be tricky,
but they there if you keep your eyes and ears open.

(08:37):
Some smaller festivals you just happen upon, and they're often creations,
just from different families challenging each other. I rode up
to a small festival one morning, and Zobee suggested we
pick a family and join the festivities. First off, male wrestling.
Genghis Khan considered it to be one of the three

(08:59):
man skills, the other two being archery and horse riding.
When it came to wrestling, I knew how to pick
a team, the one with the best abs. Of course,
I watched these stocky wrestlers started their hypnotic gamble. Nothing
felt disrespectful or conceded or done for the silly fame

(09:21):
of it. It was just a spawn one for the
honor of the family, as a way to continue these
old aged traditions that Mongolia just loves. In fact, they
found some cave paintings in a province dating back to
the Neolithic Age of seven thousand BC, showing two naked
men grappling with surrounding crowds. In the inner Mongolian version

(09:44):
of wrestling. Anybody part other than the feet touching the
ground signals defeat. I of course, would lose this match
right away with my pathetic kneeds. There are also no
weight classes, age limits, or even time limits in a match.
This I found amazing, So it's not uncommon to see

(10:06):
a toddler wrestling a grown man. During these Nadam festivals,
archery seemed a little more serious to me. The Mongol
bow was re curved and composite, and I was ready
to geek out on bows right there, right now. But
I'll give you the smaller version of my study. Basically,

(10:28):
the distinctive recurved shape means that the tips of the
bow to which the string was attached is bent in
the opposite direction of the draw, dramatically increasing velocity and impact.
And composite means various elements were melt into each other,
cured and left for years in a storage room where

(10:48):
humidity and temperature was regulated. At the end of the
curing process, bows were tested, and if the procedures weren't
followed precisely, the bow would buckle or ripper part in
the archer's hands while being drawn. I watched the speed
of the arrows and the precision of each archer's ability,

(11:10):
and I knew exactly why I wasn't competing horse riding
as a competition. I understood better than the other two.
I've spent many a day at the races in England
playing defend the hat. I struggled when the Royal family arrived.
Because some of those hats I really just couldn't defend,
But I digress. After spending a day at basically the

(11:32):
Mongolian Olympics, I really felt I was starting to understand
the Mongolians. They had such pride in country, such love
for doing activities together, that they basically engineered flash Olympics everywhere.
I took to my horse and started to ponder about
this great country. I was experiencing the unexpected, with no

(11:57):
formal plans. I was letting Mongolia's or me, and the
moment I let go of these checklists and I have
to see ideas, Mongolia just bloomed. I was without plans,
and Mongolia rewarded me with its spontaneity. As the sun
was coming down over the step, I felt the country

(12:19):
was so eternal and borders seemed so far away that
I couldn't evengauge at sizing. Genghis Khan was smiling down
at me from the sky and through every pebble and
every bush. Maybe he was even ready to challenge me
to a little horseback riding, and I was ready for anything.

(12:51):
Now for a slight respite, and we'll be right back
with everywhere after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for
sticking around his more of everywhere. As much as Holly
doesn't remind me of Genghis Khan, she does love a
good Genghis Khan, so here she is. Yeah. So one

(13:15):
of the really interesting things that's come up in recent
years is genetic study around Genghis Khan. Like you mentioned
that he comes up all the time when you're visiting there,
and it is entrenched in their culture. Starting in the
ninety nineties, there was an interesting genetics project where it
became apparent that there was a really unusual mutation on

(13:35):
the Y chromosome. I don't know how much you know
about genetics, but the Y chromosome is associated with your
sort of standard male model. Those are the what are
considered the male genes. I know about male models. You do, Oh,
great with the work. Fine, it's going to be a
different story now. But but this one mutation they found
in eight percent of the males in sixteen of the

(13:58):
Asian populations they were studying. It sounds like a small number,
but it's a large percentage for a genetic mutation. And
it was also determined that the most recent common ancestor
of this group that had this mutation lived approximately a
thousand years ago, and the thing that started showing up
in headlines was that approximately sixteen million men around the

(14:20):
globe are probably related to Genghis Khan. There was a
scientific paper done about the study, written by tatianaal I
may be pronouncing that wrong and her colleagues, and they wrote, quote,
the pattern of variation within the lineage suggested that it
originated in Mongolia approximately one thousand years ago. Such a
rapid spread cannot have occurred by chance. It must have

(14:43):
been a result of selection. The lineage is carried by
likely male line descendants of Genghis Khan, and we therefore
propose that it has spread by a novel form of
social selection resulting from their behavior. That's fascinating, it is
so this whole idea is that because we have long

(15:04):
heard of how Genghis Khan conquered and took over places
that basically like he was spreading this gene so quickly
that it has become pervasive throughout a lot of these populations.
So his son did a similar thing. His son Tushi
apparently had forty sons of his own. Then if they
were reproducing a similar rate, you see where we get
to this sixteen million number over generations. But here's the thing.

(15:26):
All of this is conjecture. I mean, it's some scientific evidence,
but the only way that we could ever say absolutely
Genghis Khan is the nexus point for this happening would
be to test his DNA. Well, that's not going to
happen right Well, as I'm signing into my twenty three
and me account while we speak, I cannot see that

(15:47):
I'm related to Genghis Khan. I do, however, see that
I'm I share a paternal line with King Louis the
sixteen Ah, which makes sense. It makes sense why I
love you so much, because you know I love King Louis.
He was a mess, but I he caused many problems,
but he's one of those people that I feel like,
if you took him out of the the world stage

(16:10):
and the royal position he found himself in, if he
were just a kid that I had met in high school,
He's exactly the kid I would have tried to take
under my wing and protect, which is what you do
with me, but less because I'm a mess, you don't
really need it. So here's the thing, though, do you
want to know why it's going to be impossible to
test his DNA because we don't know where he is.

(16:30):
Very purposely, no one knows where he is. So the
legend so he died when he was on a military
campaign in China. We don't know the cause of his death,
but the legend goes that his successors actually killed anyone
who saw his funeral procession. They didn't want anyone to

(16:51):
have seen him in anything but his strongest position. So
being dead is not your strongest position usually, And so
as his body was to taken back to the Mongol capital,
they were just killing anybody who saw them along the way.
So there were eight hundred soldiers in this entourage and
they the estimate is that they killed more than two

(17:12):
thousand people while they were traveling back with his body.
But then once they reached their destination, those eight hundred
soldiers were also killed. And then his corpse was buried
in an unmarked grave. They wanted his rest to be undisturbed.
Horses trampled the ground so that there would be no
evidence of a recent burial. There are some rumors that

(17:32):
say a river was actually shifted purposely to cover the site.
We don't know if that's true or not. But even
though there are lots of scientists and historians and researchers
always trying to kind of triangulate the most likely position
of his remains, odds are long we will ever have
them to test and find out if he really is
the source of this genetic mutation that has become relatively

(17:55):
common in a in a genetic sense. Well, isn't that
a fun trip to do? Tracing the history of Genghis Khan?
I mean, I went to Mongolia with this idea that
I wanted to understand a little sense of him because
I'm fascinated with him. Biggest empire, this incredible warrior and
all on a little pony. And I mean, like all

(18:17):
of the really large scale claims made about him in
terms of how many people he massacred, and how efficient
he was, and how ruthless he was in his approach
to seizing power. And then when you do put it
in the perspective of on a little pony, then it
becomes slightly comedic. But really, I mean, this is a

(18:37):
figure that is so massive it's still a huge part
of Mongolian culture. To talk about him today, well, what
I loved him out Mongolia, and there's this incredible reverence
for their culture and love for country. Ellahan Ella my
dog who's here with us today. As per usual, she's
soon to have her doggy DNA done because I spend

(19:01):
my whole life with people stopping me in the side
of the street, especially in Central Park, telling me what
breed is. She's a Vishla. She's a Vishla. I'm like,
why am I speaking to you? Who are you? Or
people stopping there like I see a ridge back? Great,
thank you so much for this information. Imagine I did

(19:22):
that to your child in Estrola. I see a little
gangas Khan and him, and oh my goodness that that's
a fast way to get slapped, I think probably. And
it's interesting because twenty three and me, I mean, it
has spread in a way than is really fascinating. As
much as I'm related to that king, good old Louis

(19:43):
my husband direct descendant of no other Marie Antoinette. Isn't
that romantic? It is deeply somehow our genetic streams have
pulled us not to be related. When you seek direct
descendant of her, then he too would have to be
related to Louis sixteen. You mean like from their child. Right,

(20:07):
If he's a direct descendant and Marie Antoinette, he would
have to be the child. Did she have children? Yes?
How many with him with Louis? Yes? There, come on,
she had children with everyone. No. Didn't she sleeput around? No?
The rumor is that she in axel Von person and
fair and potentially resulted in a child. But she and

(20:28):
Louie definitely had children together. I think that I put
like our family trees together, and it showed that he
comes from her side of the family and I come
from his. So yes, he's probably from the Austrian side,
but not her issue. And then you're probably from the
French side. I'm a lot more French than what I
thought I was. Maybe that's right. Adore you so oh sweet? Okay.

(20:51):
So the other thing that I would love us to
talk about Mongolia is it's one of the only Asian
countries that really celebrates daring in a way that I've
never seen that anywhere else. These cookies that I kind
of got obsessed with while I was there, that's just
basically like fermented milk dried and it's beautiful, delicious thing,
and they make them by hand. Like these cookies have

(21:15):
fingerprints from the lady who's making them. Yeah, you mentioned
like it's kind of a dried milk hered essentially. How
sweet is it as a cookie? Well, it's most sour.
It's really my palate. It's that like surry strange fermented
kaffir taste, which Michael hates. I know, you don't seem

(21:38):
thrill them either. So this is what I also really
love about Mongolia. They do their tea with salt. It
Oh yeah, so unbelievably delicious. It makes perfect sense to me. Well,
they call it sutai, which is basically just tea with milk,
and then they add a little salt and they use

(22:00):
green tea for this, and that's unbelievable. So Mongolians take
milk from cattle, from camels, from horses, from yaks, from goats,
and from sheep, so it's kind of this amazing thing. Yeah,
that's a vast range of sources. And then arach is
this milk alcohol that comes from the fermented mare's milk.

(22:23):
And I almost wish that everyone in the whole world
can taste this because it's so unique. It's just like
almost alcoholic milky substance. It tastes like water down Keffer,
but more fermented, and you have it as you as
you're about to go into a temple. You'll have a
little swig and you lave Vanka. This is like a

(22:44):
milky version of Vanka. Oh interesting, Yeah, I might like it.
I think you will. Now everyone for a time out,
except for sponsors. We'll be right back with more everywhere.
Welcome once again to everywhere. Let's half back to it.

(23:07):
Welcome back. Now. I'd like you to meet John Reed,
who's based in Bhotan and is the head guru of
the Amman Resorts, possibly the best hotels in the world. Morning. John,
it is such a pleasure for me to be talking

(23:29):
to you once more. Thank you so much for spending
time with me. Daniel, It's great to see you again
and and have you joined us on your journey through
the country. Let's talk a little bit about throwing out
the checklist and how you do that yourself personally, and
how Bhotan slash Asia is all about throwing out the checklist.

(23:52):
Wow um, throwing out the checklist? I mean, I'm I'm
going to start that by saying that I always think
getting lost is the best thing that can happen to you, because, um,
you end up discovering a nook or cranny of a
of a small city or town or just out in
the countryside, and you end up walking into a little
hole in the wall or being invited into somebody's home

(24:13):
and having the most beautiful experience with the local persons.
Of course, when I go to a destination myself, I
I do look at some of the highlights of what
I should perhaps take in, but then a lot of
what I personally like to do is just start walking
and enjoying the neighborhoods in the districts, and and taking
him what's there, and you suddenly come across so many

(24:34):
beautiful things that that are never on a tourist checklist
or or even on your own checklist. So to say
that's what makes travel so special is if you are
so bound to a rigid schedule and minute by minute,
you're not gonna have fun. I mean, you're you're you
truly are busy checking the list. And travel is about
the journey, It's not about the destination. Right, How does

(24:57):
the average person, the average aspirational let's call them traveler,
how did they tap into that? Because I guess the
amman in some ways, that's prohibitively expensive for some. Flying
across the world is prohibitively expensive for some. So somebody
like I talk about you can go to New Jersey

(25:18):
and have an amazing time. How does that average person
tap into this philosophy you think, I think we're it's
a matter of taking that step, so to say, and
just letting go. You know, I come from Louisiana, and
every time I go home for a visit, I as
much as I enjoy in New Orleans, and New Orleans

(25:38):
has so much to offer. I love to just get
in the car and drive north south east west and
just stop at a little dinner, have a great meal,
interact with whoever's there, chat with the people behind the counter,
find out what's going on. You know, sometimes you never
know there's a little state fair or something going on.
I think, you know, often the most important thing is
taking that step of of engaging um and communicating and

(26:01):
and doing it with no no agenda, And suddenly you're
introduced to many things which people wouldn't otherwise come across,
or it certainly wouldn't be it would never be on
their checklist. But more than that, you are you're engaging
beautiful people who as well, very often they're so keen
to share. I think it's so important just to let
go and and be guided so to say. Well, I

(26:25):
think to me, the kind of key to that, to
overcome the fear of travel is to tap into love,
like if you can just put that into the world
instead of fear. I think a lot of people travel
and they're scared to speak to strangers, they're scared to
open up. But once you let go of all that

(26:45):
and you just able to pull that love into your heart,
it happens naturally, right, like it just keeps happening. And
all these magical experiences have happened to me not because
I'm in a state of fear, but because I'm in
a state of love. Like I want to accept and
give love in this reciprocal way. If you get onto

(27:07):
a plane, let that kindness and love start from the
moment you start traveling, and then take that with you.
Take that idea of I don't only want to take
from your country, from your place, I want to also
return this generosity in this love. I dream of Bhoton

(27:28):
so often because it, to me, is one of the
most magical places I've ever been. And as a travel
right to people ask me what is your favorite place
you've ever been, and my answers always Botan. It's like
nowhere else. You arrive with the craziest flight where you

(27:49):
think you might die as you see Mount Everest to
your side, and the plane dips down into this incredible valley,
down the rabbit hole, and you're in a magical kingdom.
That's Bhutan. Definitely h Some people say that there's so
many layers to Bhutan, and and there certainly are. But

(28:11):
I think one of the things that makes Bhuton so
amazing is this incredible strong sense of community and how
much people care for each other and look out for
each other and do things for each other. We've even
in our big, booming, dred and twenty thousand metropolis of Tempo,
you you see this care and love that is extended.
But I think, particularly if we're we're talking about those

(28:33):
coming from as example, North America, from the US English
speaking countries, first and foremost, you don't have that that
language barrier at all. I mean, you're able to engage
with people the level of intellect that's here. Surprisingly here
we are this little landlocked country in the Himalayas. But
the level of education that's here, the number of Boutaneese
that go outside the country for higher education, whether it's
the US, UK, across Europe, Australia, they come back with,

(28:57):
you know, high level degrees and whatnot. And the Boutsanse
are very worldly and they thinking it's it's amazing. Quite
often you see them staying on top of the news
what's happening in the world. So you can have that
conversation and and have that understanding on on both sides.
So you've got that, then you've got this amazing backdrop
of this pristine country with beautiful forested mountains. You know,

(29:18):
by by policy, by law, ument of the country must
remain under forest cover, so you've you've got this this
policy to maintain the environments. And then this is all
supported with the government's Policy of Gross National Happiness g
n H. So they do have commission that that works
hand in hand with the government to ensure the well

(29:38):
being of the people. Really truly, I mean it's in
it's behind the economy, it's behind the environment, it's it's
cultural and social preservation, uh, tied in with with the
Buddhist religion as well. We are a democracy where we're
now in our eleventh year of being a democracy. But
His Majesty the King um is still very much involved

(29:59):
in the in ensuring the well being of the people.
There is this benevolence that comes very much from the
top and filters its way down through the government. And
so democracy is truly there. It's it's we don't see
the ego that we see, you know sadly in other
countries these days, Um that is driving so much of
governance and it is truly about looking out for the

(30:21):
well being of the people. So guests pick that up
very very quickly when they come into the country. They
walk away quite humble. They walk away very often in
tears because we see people that that come in who
you know, with that do have a lot of wealth.
They've got multiple homes, we've got multiple businesses. They're very
very successful. And so guests go away from Bhutan and say,

(30:42):
these people, the Bhutanese really don't have a lot of
wealth in terms of financial wealth. They may have a
nice home, or they've got their farmland and whatnot, but
they don't have a lot of gadgets and and this
and that, and and I think people walk away and
they say what they have truly is I have each
other and that is something that's missing my life. And
and so many many guests that come through this going

(31:03):
to many tourists walk away with this beautiful message in
their heart. And we see a lot of guests actually
coming back to Bhutan and the real when we ask
you know you're you're coming back and it's you know,
it's not about checking Bhutan off that checklist. I come
back because I want to be reminded of how the
Bhutanese live and take that message back home with me
and not only live at myself, but share it with

(31:25):
my family and friends. Tell me about the first time
when you went to Bhutan, how that felt for you.
The first time I came to Bhutan was actually in
September two thousand one. I had been invited up on
a wrecky trip basically to um scout out the locations
for where we were planning to build our Almand Cora

(31:46):
lodges across the kingdom. But it was more so an
opportunity for my wife at the time and I too
make a decision whether we wanted to live here or not.
We were living at in Bali. I was the general
manager of Almandari there and anyway, we we arrived and
you know, we were so gracefully and warmly welcomed by
the Bhutanese, by our hosts. It was amazing, just that

(32:08):
immediate warmth that you felt as you came into the kingdom.
And then everywhere we went, everybody again was just gave
you this warm smile, warm welcome cusa pola or just
good morning, good evening. Um. English is the language for
education here, So in that first visit it was quite amazing,
just that immediate interaction you could have with pretty much

(32:30):
anyone in on the street and in the shops and whatnot.
But we did this amazing journey all the way across
all of the valleys Paro Timpoo, Punica, Folbjica and then
out to Boom Tang, and then the day we came back,
this is where the story starts to get a little
bit special and emotional, So excuse me if I pause
it occasionally at the time. But as we we came

(32:51):
back from boom Tug to tempo Um, we had a
big roadblock and and there was big trees and everything
that had come down a big landslide, and so that
had to be removed. It took several hours. But what
was amazing is there was probably about fifty cars lined
up and and everybody broke out their tea, and everybody
broke out their biscuits, and it just sort of became
a very impromptu social gathering and everybody just chatting and

(33:14):
catching up and sharing all of their goodies together until
everything was cleared. But then when we got back to Tempo,
it was the evening of September eleventh, two thoe and um.
As I say this, I get goose bumps on my arms.
But we we arrived into the capital, we had no
idea what was going on across the world in the
United States, And very quickly we got a phone call

(33:35):
from our our joint venture partner who said, guys, this
is what happened. I'm watching television now. And at that
time they were just a handful of television sets in Bhutan,
and so we had a very sleepless night trying to
call home, called relatives to see if people were okay.
We couldn't get a line through at all. I had
family in Washington, D C. And New Orleans, where I'm from.

(33:58):
And then the next morning we we got up early
and went to our partner's little local hotel and they
did have a television, so we're watching CNN and whatnot.
And on my flight original flight in there was an
American woman that was married to a Frenchman who was
doing NGO work here in Bhutan. She managed to track
me down at this little hotel and and call and say,

(34:19):
there's a special ceremony today at the Main Zong in Timpoo.
His Majesty the King has invited any Americans who are
here in the country to please join the special ceremony
in light of the tragedy that's happened. So I asked
our joint venture partner, you know this is something I
should go, and he said, absolutely, you must go. So
my wife and I got dressed in the best travel

(34:40):
clothes that we had went to the main Zong, the
main fortress where the seat of government in His Majesty's
offices in Timpoo, and so lined up around the outside
of this beautiful fortress in the chief of protocol to
call our names down and off we went. After a
few minutes and entered, walked up a set of stairs
and into what was an amazing prayer room. But as

(35:00):
we stepped through the threshold of the door into a
very sort of dimly lit room. The Chief of Protocol
read out our names, Mr. And Mrs John Reed from Moman,
and out came a hand and it was His Majesty
the Fourth King, and he my condolences, you know, and
my my feelings to you and your countrymen. So in
we went, and we entered a room and beautiful altar

(35:23):
room with beautiful Buddhist statues and other deity statues, and
there was the four queens, many members of the cabinet,
other members of the royal family, and about thirty five
monks sitting on the floor. And we all sat, and
the monks started chanting and praying, and after a while
we were invited to go up and light a bank

(35:43):
of a thousand butter lamps. We all stopped and we
were lighting these butter lamps. And here I am shoulder
to shoulder with with the Queen. Here His Majesty the
King there and and it was such an incredible and
emotional moment. And so Her Majesty the Queen, one of
the queens lean and said, do you understand what this is?
And I said, no, your majesty, and she replied, she said, well,

(36:04):
these butter lamps are to guide all of the souls
that have been lost in this horrible tragedy over the
last twenty four hours. And so with that we we
finished lighting all of these butter lamps. And then we
went and sat back down, and the monks chanted and
prayed for another twenty thirty minutes, and this beautiful ceremony
was over. That had truly been done to give a

(36:25):
guiding energy and light to the souls that had been lost.
And as we finished in his majesty the King and
their majesty is the queen mothers were starting to file
out of the room. They came to us each individually
and embraced us and gave us a big hug and said,
you know, we hope that you've been in touch with
your family and you haven't lost anyone, and have you

(36:45):
been able to touch base with friends and whatnot. And
as they're speaking to us, I mean, I'm hye to
hie with one of the queens and tears are streaming
down her face. We've had that engagement with each of them,
and then off they went, and I just thought to
my self, I'm in in the most remote you know
Harry of the Himalayas. In this country, this kingdom, I

(37:06):
know very little about. I've only been here for a
few days, and I have no idea what's happened with
my family back in the United States. I can't get
in touch with him. And yet these amazing, beautiful souls,
these beautiful people, have embraced me as one of their own,
as a fellow sentient being, with so much outcring of
love and true emotion and sort of taking responsibility for

(37:29):
me and and those of us that were there. And
my wife and I had promised ourselves that we would
not make a decision about moving to Bhutan or not
until we were basically back in Bali and settled and
make that decision. But as we left the altar room
and we were walking down this set of stairs, she
looked back at me, and I just looked at her
and I said, I think the decisions made and she said, yes,

(37:53):
that you know what happened on that one day. That
tragedy is symbolic of Bhuton in terms of the true
sense of community and how much people care for each
other across the kingdom, and how much they care for
travelers when they come into the kingdom as well. It's
truly outstanding, um that you you see this outpouring of
of care and grief and and support between members of

(38:15):
the community and to anybody that comes into the country itself.
I well, we don't have the talk anymore. Thanks John.
That was so beautiful and that is so indicative the
reason why I travel, not for any other reason but
to find that exact humanity. And it's a testament that

(38:36):
in all this chaos in the world, constant chaos, that
there is always a place where people will find kindness
in their hearts and a way to see you as
not different but exactly the same. Thank you most welcome.
I'm so grateful and let me say you know, as

(38:57):
we say in Bhutan, tashi delay, may all good things
come to you. Thanks for hanging out with Ella and I.
You can connect with us on Instagram and everywhere podcast.

(39:18):
I couldn't have done this by myself, of course, so
a big thanks to my executive producers Christopher Has and
the loveliest of loveliest Holly Fry and then Chandler Mays
and Casey pegram my lead producers, plus that gorgeous original
music by Tristan McNeil. Big love, guys, So this is it.

(39:44):
I'm your host, Daniel Scheffler, and I have a plane
to catch. I'll be seeing you everywhere. For more podcasts
from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

(40:06):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.