Bhutan by Road — Five Nights with the Dochu La

Across the tea plain west from Bagdogra or New Jalpaiguri to Phuentsholing, around four hours, with the Himalaya rising abruptly out of flat country ahead. The town sits at about 300 m with the border running through the middle of it, marked by an ornate gate: one side of the street is India and the other Bhutan, and the traffic and the shopfronts change accordingly. An evening walk through the centre is the whole of the day's sightseeing.

Immigration first, then the ascent — around 165 km and five hours from 300 m to about 2,320 m, through cloud forest and a great many switchbacks, with the vegetation changing steadily as the road gains height. Into Thimphu in the afternoon. The valley has been settled since at least the thirteenth century and the modern capital was formally established here in 1961, which is why it reads as both very old and very new.

The day the four-night route cannot fit. The National Memorial Chorten was built in 1974 for the third king and is circumambulated all day by the city's elderly. The Buddha Dordenma above the town is fifty-one metres of gilded bronze with a hundred and twenty-five thousand smaller Buddhas inside it. The takin preserve holds the national animal, which looks assembled from spare parts and has its own founding legend. The afternoon takes the National Library, the painting school, the traditional paper works, and Tashichho Dzong in the evening — seat of the government and of the Je Khenpo.

East and up to the Dochu La at about 3,100 m, where a hundred and eight chortens were built in memory of soldiers killed in 2003 and where, on a clear morning, the eastern Himalaya stands along the horizon — Masagang, Tsendagang, Kangphugang and, furthest off, Gangkhar Puensum at 7,497 m, the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. Then back west for Paro, calling at Simtokha Dzong of 1629, the country's oldest fortress. Into Paro in the afternoon.

Taktsang first thing — about two hours up through blue pine to a monastery built in 1692 around Guru Rinpoche's meditation cave, nine hundred metres above the valley floor and clinging to the cliff in a way photographs never quite convey. Down by early afternoon, and then the long descent to Phuentsholing, around 180 km and six hours, stopping at Chuzom where the Paro and Thimphu rivers meet beneath three stupas built in three different styles.

Exit formalities at the border and the drive west across the plain to New Jalpaiguri or Bagdogra, about four hours. The immigration office opening hours are the binding constraint on the morning, so departures from the early afternoon onward are the ones to book. The tour ends at the station or the airport.