Weekly travel reads: Bhutan’s spiritual heartland

[The Travel Wire #78] The best way to understand India is to travel by train, ‘Serengeti of South America’, travel without an audience, and more travel reads.

Travel reads

• Cheese, beer and divine intervention in Bumthang, Bhutan’s spiritual heartland [Eastside Asia]
“As a Bhutanese, I often get asked by curious travellers: “Where is your favourite place in Bhutan?””

• ‘The intimate and the epic’: the best way to understand India is to travel by train [The Guardian]
“Being a passenger in this vast country is ‘a full-blooded immersion in the local’, says the novelist whose latest protagonist is lured by the romance of the rails.”

• The little-known ‘Serengeti of South America’ [BBC Travel]
“In the vast tropical grasslands of Los Llanos, visitors will find a stunning array of biodiversity, a proud cowboy culture and almost no other tourists.”

• From ancient temples to bomb craters: explore Laos’s layered history — in photos [Nature]
“All-action archaeologist Daniel Davenport unpacks the country’s complex past from inside its vast national parks.”

• How Chongqing in China offers an enthralling ‘8D’ experience like nothing else [SCMP]
“With its vertical landscape, vibrant food scene and captivating chaos, the Chinese city of Chongqing is certain to catch you unprepared.”

• Travel without an audience [Travelling Troubadour]
“The moment I realized I was documenting my travels instead of living them.”

• How has travel changed? [Shellphone Chronicles]
“The democratization and Instagramableness of international travel. For better or worse?”

• 25 ways travel has changed this century (archive) [The Washington Post]
“RIP, MapQuest, anonymity and open seating.”

• Give Linz a chance [Accidentally Austrian]
“Explore Austria: Linz, a riverfront state capital with dynamic culture, betwixt Munich, Salzburg, Prague, Vienna, and the Alps.”

• The information gap that vanished [Odyssey And Meaning]
“Contrasting the DIY travel of yesterday with today.”