Every destination has a story and exploring it as a solo traveller has its own charm. And when that mission is as exotic a destination as Bhutan, it is justified to be impatient. But wait, things just get more interesting when you share your travel diary and exploration, on video. This is the story of Bhutan’s first travel vlogger Denkar’s Getaway.
It all started some two years ago as a backpacker and a good internet connection. And until today, the pursuit continues. Call it a passion or some kind of calling, but for 29-year-old Tshering Denkar, life has literally been on the road.
As Bhutan’s first travel vlogger, she has 1,300 subscribers on YouTube, over 5,000 people following her on Facebook and close to 11,000 followers on Instagram.
Tshering posts about travel videos, photos and travel tips, especially for adventurous activities.
“When I was doing my masters in tourism management, I faced difficulty in finding literature regarding the Bhutanese Tourism Industry. So the only resources that I would have were like the websites of the travel agents, I hate to say this but then if you check hundreds of tour websites, most of them would be plagiarised, like copy and paste. So I couldn’t really rely on Bhutanese literature resources. So I thought maybe I could do something within my capacity by writing travel narratives through my experience,” Tshering Denkar said.
To some extent, she wants to take Bhutanese beyond the notion of boarding on a plane and travelling outside and define ‘travel’. Tshering wants to promote travel within Bhutan making the best use of the in style tool at hand – social media.
“I think now in this digitalised world, it’s a high time people actually get tuned to using social media. So for me, I have learned to take advantage of social media because I find so many opportunities through social media,” she added.
But it is not always about hiking up the mountains or exploring places that Denkar is confined to.
For her next mission, she is at Naturally Bhutan to promote their product. Denkarsgetaway offers a way to promote the products usually overlooked by conventional channels.
“So the owners of this tea house, they really understand the importance of social media. Therefore, they invited me to come over and taste the tea and give the review and probably write about the product on social media because once the product is on social media, the public visibility goes really well,” Tshering said.
“Denkergetaway showcases all the different places, activities and products domestically in Bhutan in itself. And what we try to do in cordyceps tasting house is we also try to showcase and bring back Bhutan’s reputation as a land of medicinal herbs. For those reasons, we wanted to collaborate with Denkar and through her strong social media presence and influence, it’s actually very beneficial for small places and small tourists attractions like us to showcase our products and our activities not just to the local market but also beyond that,” Rabsel Dorji, the Co-Founder of Naturally Bhutan, said.
She has explored 17 of the 20 districts in Bhutan.
For Tshering, Bhutan is like a chocolate box, full of surprises. And as much as we know now, her higher calling has been sweet.
Samten Dolkar
