With a final blast of flaming gas, and just as the sun rises over the snow-powdered mountains to the east, we begin to float upwards. The inaugural flight of the world’s highest commercial hot-air balloon service is under way. On the ground, our team of young helpers whoop with excitement.
随着热气球最后轰地一声点火成功，旭日慢慢东升于白雪皑皑的群山之上，我们乘坐的热气球开始上升。全球飞行高度最高的商用热气球处女航正式拉开了帷幕，地面的年轻助手们见状都欢呼雀跃。
For the next hour we drift down Bhutan’s majestic Phobjikha Valley, savouring a bird’s-eye view of the Himalayan scenery unfolding around us. To the north, the 400-year-old Gangtey Goenpa monastery stands on a ridge, dominating the valley. On each side the valley’s forested flanks — home to leopards, bears and boar — rise steeply to the skyline. Below, the Nakey Chhu river meanders like a silver ribbon through pastures and water meadows.
在接下来的一个小时里，我们将沿着不丹雄伟壮丽的富毕卡谷地(Phobjikha Valley)一路飘游，从空中欣赏绵延不绝的喜马拉雅山(Himalayan)的壮美景色。极目北望，映入眼帘的是有着400年历史的冈提坚帕寺庙(Gangtey Goenpa Monastery)，它矗立于高高的山脊上，俯控了整座山谷。山谷两边，林木茂密（它们是豹子、熊以及野猪们的家园），直插云霄。俯瞰地面，则是蜿蜒曲折、缓缓流淌的纳凯曲河(Nakey Chhu)，它如同银色丝带般穿行于牧场与湿草地之中。

As the sun burns away the mist, we drift silently above thickets of colourful prayer flags, gold-roofed temples and white-walled Bhutanese farmhouses with ornate wooden eaves and windows. We glide southwards over horses, cattle, the odd yak and a pack of dogs that bark furiously as the huge red translucent globe passes above them. Early-rising schoolchildren stare at the apparition in the sky. A peasant farmer stands in a field and watches — one presumes in amazement — a sight the likes of which he would never have seen before.
随着薄雾散尽，艳阳普照大地，我们静静飘游于高空，地面的朵朵五彩经幡、座座金顶寺院以及不丹的特色白墙农舍尽收眼底。向南飘移时，只见牛群马群、怪异的牦牛以及一群狗渐入眼帘。狗儿看到空中飘过的红色半透明巨型热气球后，狂吠不止；早起的学童出神地望着空中的“怪物”；站在田间地头的一位农民也惊讶地抬望半空————他平生可能从未见过这类稀奇玩意儿。
A narrowing of the valley funnels the breeze. Soon we are travelling at four or five knots, but so smoothly it seems that the ground, not the balloon, is moving. Our pick-up truck has been left far behind, bumping along a dirt track. Our young helpers, dressed in a traditional Bhutanese ghos, are splashing through bogs, laughing and shouting as they struggle to keep up. Finally Cary Crawley, a professional balloon pilot from England, lands us on a meadow sandwiched between the river and a tilled field, the wicker basket bumping three times along the frosty grass before it comes to rest on its side.
阵阵微风顺着渐趋狭窄的山谷吹拂而来。没过一会儿，我们就以每小时八公里左右的速度飘移，但身处四平八稳的热气球里，感觉是地面、而非热气球在移动。我们的皮卡已被远远甩在后面，在土路上不住地颠簸前行。穿着不丹传统帼装(Ghos)的年轻助手们笑着喊着，使劲跟着热气球奔跑，在沼泽地溅起片片水花。最后，来自英国的专业飞行员加里•克劳利(Cary Crawley)把热气球停靠于河流与耕地间的一块草地上，载人的柳条筐顺着结霜的草地冲撞了三下，才最终侧停住。
It was a short, experimental flight, but the six passengers are exhilarated — even the two civil aviation officials “inspecting” a means of transport they know absolutely nothing about. “Unbelievable!” cries my daughter Hannah. Khin Omar Win, one of the trip’s organisers, beams and asks rhetorically: “How exciting was that?”
尽管这是一次短时试飞，但热气球上的六位乘客却是心花怒放————甚至两位实地检查指导的民航局官员也是如此，他们实际上对热气球一无所知。“难以置信！”我女儿汉娜欢呼道。本次旅程的组织者Khin Omar Win也是笑容满面，反问道：“真有那么爽吗？”
“I told you we’d do it — and we did,” Win’s husband, Brett Melzer, declares triumphantly. The Melzers have good reason to be elated, for the flight is the culmination of a 10-year venture — or gamble — that can only be described as quixotic.
“我对你说过能行————我们成功了，”Khin Omar Win的丈夫布雷特•梅尔策(Brett Melzer)得意地说道。梅尔策夫妇完全有欣喜若狂的理由，因为该项目是他们推出热气球旅游项目10年来的“巅峰之作”（抑或说是场豪赌），只可比拟为“痴心妄想”。
Win was born in Myanmar but raised in London. In 1997 she met Melzer, then a footloose Australian, in Yangon, and left the UN Development Programme to help him pioneer balloon rides over the famous Bagan temple complex. As “Balloons over Bagan” grew, they branched out, opening Malikha Lodge, a luxury retreat in the jungle of northern Myanmar that was accessible only by air. But in 2009 flights were suspended and they were forced to sell the lodge to a Burmese businessman with close links to the military regime.
Khin Omar Win出生于缅甸，但在伦敦长大。1997年，她与单身汉梅尔策相识于仰光(Yangon)，于是她从联合国开发计划署(UN Development Programme)辞职，与梅尔策一起开创飞越著名的薄甘(Bagan)千座佛塔的热气球旅游项目。随着“飞越薄甘”旅游项目(Balloons over Bagan)渐入佳境，他俩开始拓展业务————于是推出了穿越缅甸北部丛林地带的豪华游项目————Malikha Lodge，因为抵达该地区只能乘坐热气球。但2009年，热气球旅游项目遭“停摆”，夫妻俩被迫把豪华小木屋旅馆卖给了与军政府关系密切的一位缅甸商人。
Undaunted, the Melzers resurrected an idea they had begun work on in 2004: ballooning over Bhutan, another exotic, little-known country that was beginning to open up to the world. At their behest, Crawley spent six weeks scouring the tiny, crumpled kingdom of soaring mountains and plunging valleys created when the Indian subcontinent collided with Eurasia. A balloon could not take off or be retrieved on the rocky plateaux and snowfields of Bhutan’s highest peaks, or in its dense southern jungles. Phobjikha, at almost 3,000 metres above sea level, was the only valley wide and open enough.
但两口子并没气馁，于是把2004年就已酝酿的想法付诸实施：乘热气球飞越不丹，这个不为人所知的奇异国家开始慢慢向世界开放。在梅尔策夫妻俩的吩咐下，克劳利花了六周时间实地考察了这个地形复杂的小国。这里高山深谷密布，是印度次大陆板块与欧亚板块冲撞挤压的结果。热气球无法在不丹白雪皑皑的高山之巅、岩石遍布的高原以及丛林密布的南部地区起飞和停靠。而海拔近3000米的富毕卡山谷地形开阔，是开发热气球旅游项目的唯一理想地。
There were still problems. It was on the outer edge of the tourist circuit — a six-hour drive along the “national highway”, a twisting one-lane ribbon of crumbling tarmac, from Bhutan’s only international airport. The valley is also the winter home of hundreds of thrung thrung karmo — black-necked cranes with six-foot wingspans and flamboyant mating dances — so the balloon cannot fly until those endangered birds have returned to the Tibetan plateau each spring. But Phobjikha was, Crawley says, “the only realistic choice”.
但开发这里，仍有不少问题亟待解决。富毕卡山谷地位于环形旅游线路的外边缘地带————从不丹唯一的国际机场沿国道需6个小时车程，而所谓的国道只是一条蜿蜒的单车道沥青碎石路。富毕卡山谷还是成千上万黑颈鹤的冬季栖息地————这种名叫thrung thrung karmo的鹤翼展开达六尺长，能跳华美夸张的求偶舞————因此，必须等到这些濒危鸟类每年春季全部返回青藏高原后，才能开展热气球旅游项目。但克劳利说，富毕卡山谷是“唯一可行的开展地”。
The Melzers initially envisaged building a modest guest house for their ballooning clients but ended up creating a spectacular $4m 12-suite boutique hotel in this most improbable of locations.
梅尔策夫妇最初的设想是为乘坐热气球的游客建普通旅馆，但最终的结果却是在这异常偏僻的地区开办了这座耗资400万美元、共设12套客房的绝世精品旅馆。
Gangtey Goenpa Lodge opened in 2013 and stands on the same ridge as the monastery, unsignposted and accessible only by a dirt track. From the outside, it resembles two Bhutanese farmhouses connected by a low barn. Inside, however, floor-to-ceiling windows offer sublime views of the cloud-wreathed valley below. The wood and stone is local, but the wood-burning stoves that heat each room come from Switzerland, the fancy bathtubs from the UK, and the fabrics from Australia — all shipped to Kolkata and trucked overland, along with the $100,000 balloon, which was made in Bristol, southwest England.
冈提坚帕豪华旅馆(Gangtey Goenpa Lodge)开办于2013年，与冈提坚帕寺院位于同一山脊，一路上并未设任何标识，只能借助一条狭窄的土路抵达那儿。从外面看，它酷似由谷仓接连的两座不丹农舍。但进到旅馆内，从落地窗望出去，脚下白云缭绕的山谷美景一览无遗。盖旅馆用的木头与石料都是就地取材，但取暖用的柴火炉、豪华浴缸以及客房纺织用品则分别产自瑞士、英国和澳大利亚————所有客房用品先海运至印度的加尔各答(Kolkata)，再由卡车经陆路运达；同时运抵的还有价值10万美元、产自英国西南部城市布列斯托尔(Bristol)的热气球。
Sara Rezgui, the Scandinavian chef, performs marvels with fish and meat imported from India because the Buddhist Bhutanese will not kill animals. Most of the 45 staff, even the masseurs, are villagers trained from scratch and delightfully eager to please. Because the aviation inspectors arrived late, Hannah and I had to spend more days than we bargained for in this luxurious retreat, which was certainly no hardship. It also gave us more time to explore a valley rich in unexpected delights.
来自北欧的大厨萨拉用从印度进口的鱼和肉食做出了令人赞不绝口的美味佳肴，因为笃信佛教的不丹禁止杀生。旅馆共有45名员工。多为本地村民（甚至按摩师也不例外），全是从零开始培训，他们竭诚为宾客提供贴心服务。由于民航局检查人员与我们会合的时间比约定时间晚，我和汉娜只得在这豪华旅馆多呆了几天，旅馆当然很开心，但同时也让我们有更充裕的时间游览这条旷世美景不绝的山谷。
We watched maroon-robed boy monks hurling foot-long homemade darts at a distant target in a game called kuru. We watched two villages compete with astounding skill at the national sport of archery. Dressed in ghos and using bamboo bows, the archers regularly hit a small wooden post 140 metres away, prompting celebratory dances and songs from their teammates. Save for a single rifle shooter, Bhutan has sent only archers to the Olympics, but has never won a medal because Olympic targets are only half that distance.
我们观看身穿栗色僧袍的小僧人正玩一种叫kuru的游戏————把一英尺长的自制飞镖掷向远处的目标。我们也观看两个村庄在全国射箭运动会上决一雌雄，村民们箭术精湛————身穿帼装的箭手使用竹弓，不断射中140米远的小木竿，引来自己队友欢庆的舞蹈和歌声。除了一名汽步枪选手外，不丹只派过射箭选手参加奥运会，但从未夺取任何奖牌，因为奥运会的靶子距离只有70米远，仅为不丹的一半。
We explored the courtyards and temples of the ancient monastery as monks performed rituals with horns, drums and a mournful pipe called a kangling, made from human thigh bones. “We dig them up at night or import them from Nepal,” one official replied without a trace of embarrassment when I asked where the bones came from.
我们探访了古寺院的庭院与庙宇，此时僧侣们正用号角、鼓乐以及小法号（kangling，用人的大腿骨做成，吹奏哀乐之用）举行法会。当我问一位官员这些人骨的来源时，他毫无愧色地回答道：“我们夜晚偷挖墓园或是从尼泊尔进口。”
An elite set of young monks known as tulkus explained to us how they had been identified in infancy as reincarnated Buddhist masters. We visited (but could not enter) a meditation centre ringed by a barbed-wire fence where older monks live incommunicado in single cells for three years, three months and three days, eating food left for them outside the building.
年轻僧人中的精英————即所谓的活佛(tulkus)向我们解释自己如何从小被确认为已故藏传佛教大师的转世灵童。我们参观（但不允许进入）了用铁丝栅栏围起来的闭关修行区，年老的僧侣呆在禁闭的小单间里修行三年、三月或是三天不等，所需饮食就径直放在修行室外。
There was one other place we could not enter: a chamber deep within the monastery containing a mummified “yeti”. There is certainly something there, though it is more likely the corpse of a deformed child. Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner saw it in 1991. “Nailed to the wall by the back of its scalp was the hide of a ‘red yeti’,” he wrote later. “I was trembling with excitement. Bones were still attached to the relic’s hands and legs, and from its head, which was largely bald, hung a long, black hank of hair.”
还有一处禁止我们进入：寺庙内藏有一具“雪人”干尸的密室。这肯定确有其物，尽管干尸更可能是残疾儿童的尸体。意大利登山运动员莱因霍尔德•梅斯纳尔(Reinhold Messner)1991年曾有幸目睹了真容。“后脑头皮钉在墙上，实为‘红雪人’的皮，”他在书中这样写道。“我万分激动，看到骨头仍连于干尸手腿，几乎秃顶的头部还垂下一束长长的黑发。”
Legends and superstitions abound in these parts. The cranes, we were told, circle the monastery three times clockwise when they arrive each winter. Homes are adorned with murals of tigers, snow lions, dragons and mythical serpent-eating garudas, and of giant, erect, sperm-trailing phalluses (commemorating the “Divine Madman”, a 15th-century saint known for unorthodox teaching and sexual encounters). Doorways have raised thresholds to stop the stiff-limbed dead from entering.
传奇与迷信交织其中。我们得知黑颈鹤每年冬季来此过冬时，会顺时针绕飞寺庙三圈。房屋画有老虎、雪狮、龙、传说中吞噬毒蛇的银翅鸟(garudas)以及勃起巨型男根（还喷着精液）的壁画。男根是为纪念15世纪的疯癫圣僧(Divine Madman)，他以非正统方法传法以及处处留爱而著称。房子的门槛往往设得较高，以防僵尸进到屋里。
We hiked through fragrant pine forests where rhododendrons were bursting into flower. We cycled to a hilltop at the far end of the eight-mile valley, where the lodge had prepared a picnic lunch served on a table laid with linen, glass and china. We encountered a village woman shearing a squirming black sheep, a young shepherdess guarding her flock from leopards and foxes, and a yak herder driving his animals up to the higher pastures for the summer.
我们徒步穿过芬芳的松树林，看见争相怒放的杜鹃花；骑自行车抵达山谷（总长八英里）尽头的一座小山头，那儿的旅馆已为我们备好了便当（桌子铺了桌布，上面放着玻璃及瓷器餐具）。一路上，我们曾看到正给一头扭动身躯的黑色绵羊剪羊毛的村姑、一位放羊小女孩（以防猎豹与狐狸觊觎）、以及正赶着牦牛群向海拔更高的夏季牧场的牧人。
One night we forsook the lodge for a peasant family’s home — helping them milk cows and churn butter, sharing their rice, potatoes and arra (rice wine) as we sat cross-legged around their stove, playing grandmother’s footsteps with their four enchanting children.
晚上，我们没住旅馆，转而留宿在当地农户家里————我们帮他们挤奶与搅酥油，盘腿围坐在火炉旁时，品尝他们做的米饭、土豆以及自家酿制的米酒(arra)，并与家里四个可爱的孩子一起模仿老祖母的走路姿势。
But the valley is changing fast. Electricity, TV and mobile phones have all arrived — though not yet the internet. The “national highway” from the capital Thimphu is being upgraded to two lanes. The peasants have discovered that potatoes are a lucrative cash crop, so they no longer live semi-nomadic lives and are building new homes with roofs of steel not wooden shingles.
但山村正在发生巨变。如今家家户户通了电，用上了电视及手机————尽管还未接通因特网。连接首都廷布(Thimphu)的“国道”正在翻建为两车道公路。农民发现种植土豆是利润丰厚的经济作物后，放弃了昔日的半游牧生活，转而盖起铁皮屋顶的新居（而不是传统的木瓦）。
Bhutan, a land sealed off from the world until the 1970s, is now joining it. The much-loved monarchy has surrendered power, volunteering democracy to a population with no experience of it. The young are migrating from the villages to Thimphu. Foreign visitor numbers rose from 23,480 in 2009 to 116,209 in 2013, and new luxury hotels are proliferating.
上世纪70年代前，不丹一直是个与世隔绝的国度，如今它开始向世界开放。深受国人爱戴的王室主动放弃权力，自愿向全体国民实行民主，而该国国民以前从未享受过民主。年轻人不断从农村移居廷布。外国游客数从2009年的23480飚升至2013年的11.6209万人，豪华酒店数激增。
In the face of such change, Bhutan is struggling to preserve its character and pristine environment — national dress is compulsory in schools and government buildings; the constitution requires 60 per cent of the country to be forested; tobacco and plastic bags are banned, and Tuesdays are dry. Mountaineering is restricted because it angers the deities who live on the snowy summits — at 7,570 metres Gangkhar Puensum is the world’s highest unclimbed mountain.
面对如此飞速的变化，不丹仍努力保护其民族性及原生态环境————学生和政府人员必须穿民族服饰；宪法规定国土的森林覆盖率不低于60%；禁止销售香烟与使用塑料袋；规定星期二为禁酒日。国家禁止登山活动，因为此举会触怒居住在雪山之巅的神灵————海拔7570米的甘卡本森峰(Gangkhar Puensum)为全球未登顶的最高山峰。
Bhutan wants tourists, but not the mass tourism that so often destroys the very attractions it feeds off, so visitors are obliged to spend at least $250 a day.
不丹需要游客，但不希望游客大量涌入，担心如此一来，会破坏赖以成名的绝世美景，所以限定每位游客的日消费额不低于250美元。
To date its efforts are largely succeeding. Its spectacular dzongs (fortresses) and monasteries are not yet overrun nor ringed by tacky souvenir shops. Its many festivals and masked dances are still staged primarily for locals, and have not morphed into commercial shows for foreigners. Buddhism still dominates Bhutan’s way of life, and its people still seem driven more by their legendary pursuit of happiness than money.
迄今为止，不丹的种种努力基本上奏效。它宏伟壮丽的城堡与寺庙没有过度开发，也没有被俗气的纪念品商店所包围。它的很多节日与面具舞主要服务对象仍是本国民众，还没有演变成为服务外国游客的商业表演。佛教仍在不丹的生活中占据主导地位，国民似乎仍追求精神快乐而非金钱（这一点享誉世界）。
In a curious way the Melzers’ project supports the government’s goals. The 30-metre-high balloon makes a magnificent sight as it drifts silently down the Phobjikha Valley, enhancing not marring the natural beauty. The occupants of its wicker basket survey the valley without intruding on it. As befits a country known as Druk Yul, or “Land of the Thunder Dragon”, the balloon is emblazoned with huge golden dragons, and the occasional blasts of flame from its gas cylinders resemble nothing so much as a dragon’s fiery breath.
奇妙的是：梅尔策夫妇俩的热气球旅游项目与政府目标“一脉相承”。30米高的热气球静静飘过富毕卡谷地时，显得尤为壮观，而对于自然美景来说，这是锦上添花而非损抑之举。柳条筐里的乘客在不滋扰山谷的情况下，饱览其绝世美景。在这个名符其实的“雷龙之国” (Druk Yul, “Land of the Thunder Dragon)，热气球上饰着巨型金龙，而高压气缸因点火而发出的阵阵轰响酷似巨龙之雷霆之怒。
Just as they greet the cranes each year, the monks appear to welcome this foreign body in their ancient domain. One senior teacher, Chogyal Zangpo, blessed the balloon before joining its second flight, and again after landing. “I’ve had a wonderful experience,” he said. “I’ve never been in the air before and I’ll remember it all my life. I often watch the birds flying above, so now I know what they see.”
正如不丹人会迎接每年前来过冬的黑颈鹤，僧人们似乎也非常欢迎外国游客造访自己的古老国度。一位名叫却加尔•章波(Chogyal Zangpo)的高僧在乘坐热气球（这是它的第二次升空）前做了祈祷，待热气球顺利着陆后，他再次祈祷。“我感觉妙不可言，”他说。“这是贫僧平生第一次升至高空俯瞰大地，我永生难忘。我以前时常看到鸟儿翱翔于高空，我如今感受更深了。”
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Martin Fletcher was a guest of The Ultimate Travel Company, which offers a 13-day “Bhutan Journey”, with four nights at Gangtey Goenpa Lodge, from £6,675 per person, including ballooning, private transfers, guides and all meals. Flights from London with Qatar Airways would add £1,220
马丁•弗莱彻是The Ultimate Travel Company旅行社的游客。该旅行社推出了为期13天的“不丹行”旅游项目，留宿冈提坚帕豪华旅馆四个晚上，每位游客的游费不低于6675英镑，这包括了乘坐热气球的费用、个人转乘车的费用、导游费以及全部餐费。从伦敦搭乘卡塔尔航空公司(Qatar Airways)的航班至廷布另需1220英镑。