Day Thirteen in Bhutan

Taktsang (Tiger’s Nest) Monastery

My last full day in Bhutan and we have saved the most famous site in Bhutan for today. I am going to Taktsang Monastery. I moved through my morning routine a bit quicker as we wanted to leave at 8am instead of 9am. I went to breakfast all ready to go so we left right after breakfast. I had the usual fried rice with an egg, washed down with some milk tea and fruit. Today I also went to for the chicken sausage as well. The chicken sausage was okay - sort of like a chicken meat hot dog. Right after breakfast we set out on the 30 minute drive to the base of the hike.

It was quite cold when we arrived at the parking lot. I didn’t want to start with my jacket on so I waited in the car till the last moment and then jumped out and set off. The climb started immediately and I was soon quite warm. We passed through a field where there were ponies for rent to take people halfway up. The ponies are only allowed to take people to the halfway point. I was soon into a rhythm with shuffling up along the well worn trail. The sun came out and I was feeling pretty good. I even passed a couple people as I shuffled along up the hill. At various points along the trail I got glimpses of the temple perched on the side of a cliff far above me. As I worked my way up the trail those glimpses were slowly getting closer and closer. At the halfway point we stopped at a cafe for a cup of tea. It had an amazing view of the temple but despite having my jacket on I was cooling off quickly so I drank my tea quickly and continued the hike up. The trail climbed up above the temple on the other side of the cliff we were on. It then plunged down a steep set of stairs along the cliff side to a waterfall set way back in the cliff and not really even visible till we were almost on it. The waterfall was quite pretty and had small pieces of frozen water breaking off of it. The steps now went straight up the other side to the temple I could now see on the cliff side towering above me. At the entrance we had to leave all out bags and phones before entering the temple. I did remember to take out the prayer flags I bought in Paro as I was going to have them blessed here.

This temple is called the Tiger’s Nest because of Guru Rinpoche (the person who brought Buddhism formally to Bhutan) flew up to the cave on the hillside on the back of his consort in the form of a flying tiger. He then entered the cave and meditated for three months. The temple is built on the cliff side around that cave. The cave is usually locked up but once a year it is open to the public. We looked in through a hole in the floor above it in the temple. The cave is apparently in the shape of a resting tiger. I gave my prayer flags to the attending monk who went through a ritual to bless them. I left a small donation for him. We toured around a couple other temple rooms in the complex climbing up and down stairs and in and out of small doorways. We finally stopped in a room to light butter lamps and say a short prayer. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with this place and the views looking out were amazing but now the next step was to get back down and the meant a long climb back up the steep stairs we had just descended.

I got back into a rhythm with going up the stairs 15-20 at a time and then taking a bit of a break. Just for reference this temple sits at about 10,000 feet to the altitude is not inconsequential. After a slow methodical climb I was back up on the trail heading down again. It felt good to be heading down but the step descent now was hard on my knees. I was thankful for the hiking pole I had brought with me on this trip and was using extensively today. We stopped for lunch at the cafe. It was much warmer now with a couple hours of sun on it. I was still feeling the hike so only managed to nibble on a couple things in the lunch. I did put away three cups of tea though with a unhealthy sugar load in them. I also enjoyed the watermelon as well. We soon set off again down the trail back to the parking lot. My GPS had malfunctioned at some point having my trail jump all over the place so I am not sure the exact details of the hike. According to Tsering it is about 9kms and about 400-500m climb. When we got back to the parking lot we jumped into the car and headed back to town.

I had wanted to see if I could buy some books about Bhutan while I was here. Yesterday the bookstore was closed when we stopped by. As we passed through town today though it was open so we stopped in. They didn’t have all the books I was interested in but they did have one called The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I bought it and it was very inexpensive. The bookstore owner added a nice postcard as well. At this point we just headed back to the hotel since it was almost 3pm and there wasn’t anything else in particular to do. I sat in the lobby for a while and had a couple cups of tea. I chatted with Tsering and also the lady at the reception of the hotel before heading to my room to read before dinner. Back at my room I could hear a door opening and closing but couldn’t see anyone coming or going. I finally stepped outside and saw that there was an access panel the electrical that was swinging in the wind. The hotel attendant came and fixed it. At 7pm I headed over to the restaurant for dinner. Dinner was good and we chatted with the restaurant attendant as we were the only ones there. I then came back to my room and after reading a bit went to sleep. I slept well. I am now getting ready for my last day in Bhutan with a flight leaving at 2:30 for Singapore.