"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." So said Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1933 Inaugural Address when he first became US President. It was a year when almost 1 in 3 were unemployed in the US, a year when a Jewish pacifist called Albert Einstein left Germany to work at Princeton, a year when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and opened Dachau, the first concentration camp.

The money changers, as Roosevelt called them, had created a Great Depression.

"Happiness" he said "lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." Having left Sri Lanka, I was about to explore Malaysia, Borneo, Bangkok and ultimately visit the almost mythical Kingdom of Bhutan, reported to be the Happiest Place on Earth.

I was about to confront my own deepest fear.