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Arran’s own campaigning minister Rev John Webster is about to set off to one of the most isolated and least developed countries in the world.
On Saturday, November 3, he is leading a party of 27 people, including eight Arran folk, on an adventure to the Kingdom of Bhutan.
He told The Banner: ‘We shall be seeing some of the poverty, deprivation, majesty and mysticism of this little-known country.’
Bhutan is a small landlocked nation in the eastern Himalayas, sandwiched between India and China in south east Asia.
Independent travel is not permitted in the country and all visitors must be part of recognised groups. It has only been open to tourism since 1974 and last year just 18,000 tourists entered the kingdom. The Bhutanese people call their country Druk Yul; the land of the thunder dragon.
Rev Webster is no stranger to travel in Asia and for many years has supported Dr Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong, founded in 1900 by Church of Scotland missionary Rev John Anderson Graham to care for neglected Anglo Indian children.
The group will be flying to Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, and spending three days there before taking the one-and-a-half hour flight to Paro airport in Bhutan via Druk Airways. ‘It will be a hard-working holiday,’ he said. ‘Everyone will be paying their own fares and expenses. In Kalimpong we will meet the children’s choir from Dr Graham’s Homes which sang in Whiting Bay Hall in May.’
The choir’s trip to Arran was part of a UK tour and the first time any of the children had been outside India. While on the island they stayed with local families.
Rev Webster is honorary vice president of the UK committee of Dr Graham’s Homes and helps to raise funds for the upkeep of the schools. While in Bhutan the group will be the guests of Lyono Sonamtogye, chief justice of the country and a former pupil of Dr Graham’s Homes.
‘He will honour us with a gala dinner which should be the highlight of our visit,’ said Rev Webster. ‘I am really looking forward to the expedition. I love travelling and I love India.’
The group will be returning to the UK on 20 November and Rev Webster has promised Banner readers a report of his experiences.
As a postscript he told the Banner that he had recently completed the Loch Ness Marathon to raise funds for another charity in southern India. ‘I wasn’t last,’ he said. ‘I admit to taking six-and-a-half hours but at 74 years old it is definitely going to be my last marathon.’
