Spring is on its way to Thimphu. All over the city, pink flowers are sprouting to break the million shades of brown that dull Bhutan for the winter.

That being the case (rebirth, new beginnings, and all of that) and seeing as the magazine has been stuck in a bit of a financial rough patch, our editor-in-chief decided that it was time for a little party.

All the guys were called in, food was collected, and vodka was brought forth. Huddled around a heater in the small room that plays home to the editorial department, we spent the evening making light of the situation and brainstorming ways the magazine might actually make some money.

It was also the last night in Bhutan for Jake, a freelance journalist from Montana who I’ve been hanging out with here. Jake’s spent the last few weeks in the country working on a documentary for NPR. Having fallen in with the magazine much like I have, he earned himself something of a goodbye party last night.

A really interesting guy. For a decade now, Jake’s been recording traditional music in developing countries scattered all over Asia and North Africa. And the last few years, he’s largely split his time between Nepal and the Thailand-Burma border region, the latter where he’s helping Burmese dissidents in Mae Sot establish a media presence inside Burma.

The line of the night, said to Jake during a discussion about sex tourism: “That’s interesting. So we’ve both spent much of the last decade in Thailand —your reasons, admittedly better than mine.