Riding the thunder dragon

Riding a motorcycle through Bhutan&rsquos unspoilt lush, high valleys is magical, almost spiritual. Almost all the country is mountainous and over two-thirds is densely forested, carved by furious rivers that vent their ire on banks far below the road. This dramatic landscape is coloured by mighty dzongs (fortresses) and monasteries, fluttering prayer flags that release invocations, prayers and mantras into the wind, lonely chortens and people clad in vivid traditional attire. Bhutan is a world apart, a sequestered realm that the locals call Druk-yul, &lsquoLand of the Thunder Dragon&rsquo.

Clouds creep up mountains and lie on valley floors like the breath of a dragon. The beauty of Bhutan only seems to get more transcendent the farther you go &mdash it confronts you at every turn and rise with something more spectacular, more dizzying. Roads are generally good, traffic is sparse and distances are short, giving you enough time to dawdle on this road trip that is best done on a motorcycle.

Famously cloistered and tentative in its approach to the modern world, Bhutan at times feels like travel into the medieval past. Yet this is not a land stuck in time. You&rsquoll find satellite TV, monks with mobile phones and email addresses and students in Thimphu who can debate Rostow&rsquos economic model with you in perfect English. And yet the modern world feels very, very far away. Bhutan has famously decided to chart a fine line between development and the preservation of its traditional culture &mdash Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product. New world, old happiness