Stylist’s Contributing Travel Editor Anna Hart travels to the remote Himalayan kingdom, in search of temples, mountain treks and a break from the 21st century

I set off on every single trip with great expectations: I want it to change me. Whether it’s a 10-day jungle trek in Borneo or a weekend of debauchery at Glastonbury, I fully expect to return with some travel experiences under my belt that make me a better, wiser or more interesting person. (NB In the case of Glastonbury, I also expect to return a more hungover person.) Although I’m rarely disappointed, I’ve never quite been anywhere that delivers life-changing getaways with such ease and panache as Bhutan. From the moment we land at Paro Airport, 1.5 miles above sea level (an approach so tricksy that only five pilots with Druk Air, the national carrier, are permitted to fly in) and surrounded by soaring 18,000-high peaks, I’m in a whole new world.

A world where progress is measured in ‘Gross National Happiness’ rather than our comparatively crass Western system of materialistic bean-counting. The GNH index was coined by the 17-year-old reformist, British-educated King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972, as a declaration of his commitment to Bhutanese culture and Buddhist values. This was no mere soundbite; four decades later, no-littering signs in national parks read, ‘Nature makes us happy. Please make nature happy.’ Garishly-painted lorries are emblazoned with cheery warnings: ‘Stay back! Be safe and happy!’. The H-word word is EVERYWHERE in Bhutan.

Get away from it all in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan