Bhutan, Kingdom in Gold: Fly-in with Gangtey, 9 Nights

Sit on the left from Delhi and the Himalaya files past the window before the aircraft banks down the Paro valley — one of the few landings worth staying awake for. Permits are stamped on arrival, and the drive to Thimphu follows the river for an hour. Evening free on Norzin Lam with the town’s famous traffic policeman on duty.

The Buddha Dordenma above the valley, the Memorial Chorten among its circling elders, lunch in a garden restaurant, then the school of the thirteen traditional arts where teenagers learn thangka painting stroke by stroke. Tashichho Dzong opens to visitors after office hours, when the monks reclaim the courtyards.

Morning walk up the pine ridge to Tango or Cheri monastery — an hour each way, your first taste of Himalayan trail before Taktsang — with butter tea at the top if the monks are pouring. Afternoon at the weekend market and the archery ground, where a local match usually obliges. Dinner is a private Bhutanese spread at the hotel.

Coffee among the 108 chortens at Dochula with the eastern Himalaya on the horizon, then down through rhododendron and banana — the drop is that dramatic — into the warm valley. The afternoon crosses rice terraces to Chimi Lhakhang and ends on your riverside terrace with the Mo Chhu running below.

Punakha Dzong in the soft morning light, before the day visitors arrive from Thimphu. Then the hour’s climb through farmland to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal chorten, built by the queens, with the whole valley folded out below. Cross the great suspension bridge on the way back, and raft the Mo Chhu if you want the wet version.

East over the Lawala pass into Phobjikha, the glacial bowl where black-necked cranes winter from late October to February and the power lines run underground for their sake. Gangtey monastery first, then the nature trail through dwarf bamboo across the valley floor. Tonight is the quietest night of the trip, beside a bukhari stove.

A driving day taken slowly: back over Dochula for a second look at the peaks, lunch in Thimphu, and into Paro by late afternoon. Rinpung Dzong and the National Museum’s round watchtower before the light goes, then the hand-painted shopfronts of the main street and an early night before the big walk.

On the trail by seven with walking sticks and a packed breakfast from the hotel. Tea at the cafeteria facing the monastery across the gorge, then the stone stairway past the waterfall to the shrine rooms themselves, 900 metres above the valley. Descend for a late lunch and a hot-stone bath at a farmhouse — included tonight, not optional — with dinner by the fire.

Kyichu Lhakhang, seventh century and still lit with butter lamps, then up the valley to the Drukgyel ruins where Jomolhari closes the view on a clear morning. The afternoon is yours — the weaving shops, one more walk by the river, or nothing at all, which in Bhutan is a respectable plan. Farewell dinner in town.

Morning transfer to Paro International, ten minutes away, for the departure — right-hand window seats get the Himalaya this time. You are home the same afternoon, which after nine nights of prayer wheels and pine smoke feels slightly unreasonable.