The Road Less Traveled

I’d venture to say that few readers of this magazine have ever heard of Bhutan, a landlocked eastern Himalayan kingdom.

Also known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon because of the severe thunderstorms that can sweep the area, Bhutan deals in extremes. It has no traffic lights and no indoor heating, despite the fact that winter temperatures can dip below freezing. It had no television or Internet until 1999, and its main airport is reputed to be one of the world’s most dangerous. It is the only carbon-negative country in the world, and every single one of its citizens marks their birthday on the exact same day.

Given those realities, is it any surprise that serial traveler Moshe Klein found himself drawn to Bhutan?

And while some might be put off by Bhutan’s hefty daily tourist fee and the obligation to sign the kingdom’s pledge of friendship, these only added to the tiny country’s allure. Just weeks after Succos last year, the 29-year-old Satmar chassid from Williamsburg, New York, and his wife Esther boarded their Drukair flight from Nepal to Bhutan.

Inspired by his personal mission to document lesser-known Jewish communities, especially those that are on the verge of disappearing, Klein made his first foray into the world of serious travel seven years ago, with a pre-Abraham Accords trip to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. By the beginning of last fall, he had already been to 89 countries, with visits to better-known locales offset by trips to Iraq, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Typically, the Kleins had been averaging trips three times annually, but with an extensive bucket list of countries to cover, last year they decided to take some time off from their jobs, spending seven months on a 24-country trip.