Nobody who travels to Bhutan leaves unaffected by the magic of this mountain kingdom in the Himalayas and Singapore-based travel executive Joni Herison is no exception, Herison first heard of Bhutan in 1997 when he was in Nepal on a university trekking trip to Annapurna.

“People on the trip were talking about this place and that was my first understanding of it. It made me want to go.”

In 2008, he got the chance. Then working in banking on the IT side in Singapore, he had a friend who ran a travel agency and he asked Herison if he wanted to start a company focusing on trips to the Himalayas. The pair went on a familiarisation trip to Bhutan and started working on the idea.

“Unfortunately it didn’t turn out. Things went bad and in 2009, I returned to Bhutan to apologise to our partners for the troubles we had caused. Instead of being angry with me, they asked me to continue with the business,” said Herison.

“It’s a very beautiful place, a magical land.”

Already inspired from his first trip �" “it’s a very beautiful place, a magical land” �" this unexpected encouragement motivated him further. “I thought if I can pay the rent with the business, I’d be happy but if it didn’t, I’d find another way to pay the rent. The ulterior motive was so I could continue to travel to Bhutan,” he laughed.

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