I have often thought about the pros and cons of independent travel, on the one hand, and traveling with a tour on the other. I like the freedom of independent travel. Come and go as you please. Choose your own itinerary day by day. Nobody else's schedule to constrain you. On the other hand, there are places on earth which are devilishly hard to do as an independent traveler. This is one of them.

We were traveling with National Geographic Expeditions. Without them, we would not have been able to get Visas. We would have found it hard to get reservations on Druk Air to Paro. And we would never have had the chance to meet this Bhutanese farm family and share a morning with them in their house. It was a neat neat experience. It was an experience which helped solidify Bhutanese culture in my memory.

We have traveled with National Geographic once before, to Antarctica, and I recommend them without reservation.

These photos were taken in October 2008 mostly with a Nikon D3.