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 It's deathly quiet up here in the eastern Himalayas on the bank of Paro `chu’, Bhutan. It’s neighbours - India, China and Tibet may be right at the heart of action (with terrorism, political uncertainty, re-evaluation of the Yuan, spiritual squabbling, et al) right now, but it's another story at Kyichu Resorts in Paro perched at 7,200 feet. The unmistakable sound here is the twitter of an incurably romantic pair of white-capped redstarts as they cleave the water surface.
 Until the 70s, this ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’ locally called `Druk Yul’, had appeared to be a mythical place. Particularly for those who had never received a royal invite, then the only overture to Bhutan. Today, all it takes is one pre-planned and pre-paid package tour courtesy a Bhutanese government- approved travel agent. However, this budding cultural destination, stepping out of its cocoon of isolation, is quite an expensive proposition but worth every penny.
Whilst developing countries wrestle with imagined or real terrors of radical westernisation, our genteel neighbour Bhutan has more of the bourgeois kind of problems to fix. Such as globalising a delicacy called `ema datse’ so that arctic taste buds can work around this dish's ingredients: fiery hot green chilies in a yak cheese sauce. Crime is practically fictional, despite the average local's fondness for cannabis (continues to be a fodder for pigs, but now an over-abused drug too) that grows unhindered in the wild and which the government is trying to raze. Juxtapose this with the fact that the country recently achieved the distinction of becoming the only non-smoking country in the world.
 Cut to 2005. Most Bhutanese have their pates stuck in front of the idiot box and the Internet. As unbelievable as it seems, only as recently as 1999 did these fogey agriculturists (read Bhutanese) usher in technology. Until then, the Bhutanese had made a lifelong commitment only to preserve their ancient heritage. Bhutan glorifies its own isolation and fights shy of unrestrained development and external influence. Statistics indicate as much - merely 9,000 visitors in 2004 as opposed to Nepal's million from a few years ago. Hitherto lacking in adequate tourism infrastructure: low-key accommodation and saddled with the ‘world's worst cuisine’ tag, Bhutan is now waking up to offering luxurious holidays with the recent opening of spa-equipped Amankora by AmanResorts.
 Equal to Switzerland in size (north to south 110 miles and east to west 200 miles) and the quality of mountainous life, Bhutan is indeed a marvel of nature with its large number of climes and eco-systems. In the entire Himalayan region, western and central Bhutan is supposedly the most beautiful. The topography is irrepressible, changing form and allure between its three regions (north, central and south) separated by humbling mountain ranges. Within any region, high passes (or la’s) separate the intervening valleys, through which flow perennially babbling rivers (or chu’s). If western Bhutan is a pastoral delight with its cascading rice fields and fruit orchards, the black mountains and valleys of the central region have legendary beauty and hospitable terrain. The subtropical plains of eastern Bhutan, with depreciating forest cover, are the least visited. Though, to let out spiritual steam, this is the place among the most ancient spiritual sites. Monasteries uniformly pepper the country and are present almost everywhere.
 Naturally, a country that boasts a 'single' road (national highway) - the connecting link between Bhutan's bigger cities - perforce has to be unraveled on foot. Loosely construed as trekking, these walking options are plentiful, from the easy ones for the weak-limbed to the impossibly strenuous kind in the north with their views of firs, junipers, pine trees and snow-clad peaks. In western Bhutan, peaks range from 5,000 to 14,000 feet. Lush forests include conifers, laurels, maples, and oaks. On the Chelela pass at 12,000 feet, Mount Jhomolhari is visible through fluttering flags, a view sure to give one a `high.' If not beers offered by the flag bearers will do the trick.
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