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Best of all, I told my dining companion, was that what I wanted from life had changed. I wasn’t waiting for something to fall into place so that life could get started. Life was brimming all around me. And now I understood that what I gave was more important than what I got.

It was Bhutan and the three good things that helped me arrive at these conclusions, I told her, and I explained how the exercise worked. I could see the skepticism in her eyes.

“Try it, if you’d like,” I said. “Maybe then you’ll see.”

MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE isn’t all that’s changed since my first trip to Bhutan in the winter of 2007; so has much in the kingdom.

In advance of the coronation in November 2008, a dog pound was temporarily erected and a new sterilization program launched. Of the estimated 1,200 strays in the city, 360 were spayed or neutered. As a consequence, the canine population has been seriously reduced, and it is now possible to walk the street without being mobbed. Although at night it’s still common to be serenaded by the howls of both strays and house pets.

Despite the cries of the existing papers that there was not enough advertising to go around, three new papers were granted licenses to operate. The kingdom’s first daily, Bhutan Today, began publishing in time for the coronation in November 2008. One eight-page issue in early 2009 was crammed full of reports that illustrated the impact of Bhutan’s association with the outside world. A cover story, in English, lamented the continuing demise of the main language, Dzongkha. One student was quoted as saying the influence of Western movies and fashion and the “coolness” of speaking English leads people to be uninterested in speaking the native Bhutanese tongue. On page two, an editorial lamented the same concern raised by the Kuzoo advisor Madame Carolyn the year before, that more Bhutanese celebrate Valentine’s Day than Losar. The same piece railed against the hypocrisy of the national ban on the sale of tobacco and how it made smoking seem even more alluring. In an editorial titled “Professional Fools,” the writer deemed “weird” the recent announcement by the government that there was room for only 40 percent of the Class Ten students to continue their studies, and wondered, “Where will the rest go?”

In 2008, an enterprising Nepali tailor began an alteration service to make it easier for foreigners to wear the Bhutanese national dress without an army of assistants. For about three dollars, she’ll custom alter a half kira so that it wraps easily around the middle and is fastened with Velcro and hooks that adjust to your inevitably changing waistline. It falls exactly like a half kira would if you put it on the traditional way.

There are now infinitely more karaoke machines in the capital city than the two that existed in early 2007. The most interesting is at the Tiger Bar on Norzin Lam, for it allows you to sing along in Dzongkha.

Toilet paper is now a far more common amenity in various public restrooms than it was during my first visit.

Evidence of a growing leisure class abounds. Shades of Starbucks are evident in coffee shops that debuted on opposite sides of Thimphu in the fall of 2009 and have created a market for what had once been a rare find in the capital city: brewed, takeaway caffeine. There’s also now a wine shop, which features a small selection of French, Australian, and even a couple of California vintages in addition to several from India. The first fast food to come to the city is also an import from Bhutan’s giant neighbor; it’s a franchise called Hot Dog. (Which happens to have been launched by Pema from Kuzoo, along with her entrepreneurial Indian boyfriend.) A second, called Tsab Tsab, Dzongkha for “fast fast,” is modelled after McDonald’s.

Not long after the two-lane Thunder Bowl opened for business in a subterranean location in the center of Thimphu, a second movie theater debuted in a rapidly growing area at the edge of the city. This one boasts a state-of-the-art sound system. (The run-down theater in the center of town is still