Bhutan by Road — Six Nights, Thimphu and Paro at Length

Met at New Jalpaiguri or Bagdogra and driven west across the tea plain to the border, around 170 km and five hours, with the Himalaya standing up abruptly out of flat country. Phuentsholing is the gateway by road and a genuine frontier town at about 300 m, where the border gate divides one street between two countries. Check in and walk the centre in the evening; there is nothing else scheduled.

Immigration formalities and then the long climb to the capital — around 176 km and six hours, from 300 m to about 2,350 m, through subtropical forest that gives way to pine as the road gains height. Into Thimphu and, in the evening, Tashichho Dzong: the fortress of the glorious religion, which houses the throne room and the secretariat and is the summer residence of the Je Khenpo, the chief abbot. It is open to visitors after office hours, which is why it belongs to an evening.

Kuensel Phodrang first, where the Buddha Dordenma sits fifty-one metres high in gilded bronze above the valley with a hundred and twenty-five thousand smaller figures inside it. The National Memorial Chorten of 1974, built for the third king, is circled all day by the city's elders. The Folk Heritage Museum occupies a three-storey rammed-earth farmhouse and is the best account of ordinary Bhutanese life anywhere. The afternoon takes the Sangaygang viewpoint, Changangkha Lhakhang where infants are brought to be named, and the takin preserve.

Up to the Dochu La at about 3,100 m, where a hundred and eight chortens stand in memory of soldiers killed in 2003 and, on a clear morning, the eastern Himalaya fills the northern horizon as far as Gangkhar Puensum. Then back down and west toward Paro, stopping at Tamchog Lhakhang — a private temple of the fourteenth-century bridge-builder Thangtong Gyalpo, reached by an iron chain bridge over the river, which is a short and slightly alarming crossing. Into Paro in the afternoon for Ta Dzong and the National Museum.

The whole morning for the Tiger's Nest, which is the right way to do it. About two hours up through blue pine and rhododendron to a monastery built in 1692 around the cave where Guru Rinpoche is said to have meditated after arriving on a tigress's back, nine hundred metres above the valley. The cafeteria at the halfway point has the view everyone photographs. Photography is not allowed inside. The afternoon takes Kyichu Lhakhang, one of the oldest temples in the country and traditionally among the hundred and eight founded by the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century, and Drukgyel Dzong beyond it.

Rinpung Dzong in the morning if it was not covered on arrival — the fortress of the heap of jewels, whose inner galleries carry paintings of the wheel of life, the four harmonious friends and scenes from the life of Milarepa, and which still serves as the administrative and monastic seat of the district. Then the long descent, around 200 km and six to seven hours, by way of Chuzom where the Paro and Thimphu rivers meet under three stupas in three different architectural styles. Overnight at Phuentsholing.

Exit formalities and then the drive back across the plain, around 170 km and five hours, to New Jalpaiguri railway station or Bagdogra airport. The immigration office's opening time governs how early you can leave, so afternoon and evening departures are the ones that work. The tour ends at the station or the terminal.