The Last Shangri La (Bhutan)

Twelve nights from Phuntsholing across Bhutan to the eastern border, guided, on a Royal Enfield Bullet.

Bhutan admitted its first tourists in 1974, limits numbers with a daily fee and measures itself by gross national happiness rather than output, so a motorcycle crossing of the country is not something that can be arranged independently.

A flight to Bagdogra and the border town of Phuntsholing open it, then Paro and its dzongs. Thimphu follows over the Chele La at 3,988 metres, with the four-hour walk up to the Tiger’s Nest, a monastery fixed to a cliff nine hundred metres above the valley, as the alternative. Punakha and the Dochu La come next, with the Dordenma Buddha above Thimphu and the dzong at Punakha on a spit between two rivers, then Bumthang by Trongsa, and Mongar over the Sertang La and Trumshing La, with Gangkar Puensum in view, the highest mountain in Bhutan and the highest unclimbed peak in the world, since climbing it is not permitted. Trashigang, Trashiyangtse and Bhangtar close the route east.

The bike hire is included; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking, and Bhutan’s daily visitor fee is worth clarifying at the same time. Spring and autumn are the seasons. Thirteen days crossing the country from the Indian border to the far east covers far more of Bhutan than the standard Paro and Thimphu circuit, which is the argument for doing it this way. The passes come thick and fast through the middle of the route, four of them above three thousand five hundred metres, and the descent east from Trumshing La drops through cedar forest into rice terraces and tropical fruit, which is a remarkable amount of change in one day’s riding.