We were incredibly lucky today to have the most glorious weather for our hike to the famous Tiger’s Nest Monastery. Yesterday it had rained most of the day, which didn’t bother us since we were in transit, but it made the Tiger’s Nest hike difficult for those who were a day ahead of us on the circuit. We, instead, awoke to a beautiful mist which looked almost magical, and which kept us cool for the ascent, but then cleared by the time we were at the top for sensational views. I attribute this amazingly perfect weather to the fact that Lenny is still wearing his good luck red and blue strings from our earlier blessings.
It is hard to describe how incredible this place is. It is a series of buildings seemingly glued to the edge of an inaccessible cliff. One cannot imagine how they could have been built. You see them across an enormous canyon, and it seems like it would be impossible to get there. In reality the path there is wide and not treacherous feeling at all. But it definitely is difficult as you have to ascend approximately 2700 feet at very high altitude (from 7000 to 10,000 feet). You trudge up for several hours. (In my case anyway; the others were a bit faster.) Once you are across from the monastery, you start descending, then ascending again on over 800 steps. You pass a giant waterfall and go over a bridge before you start up again. You finally reach a staging area where you must leave your packs, cameras and mobile phones behind. But then you continue up on even more steps to explore the monastery.
This site is one of the most visited in Bhutan, and we were in a pretty constant stream of other tourists. Most went up like we did, on our own two legs, but others rode on the backs of pack animals – I wasn’t quite sure if they were donkeys, mules or ponies. I much preferred being under my own steam than on the back of an animal, given the steepness and muddiness of the trail.
At the top we went into two of the temples. In spite of all the tourists, these are “working temples” and we saw lots of young monks around, either just milling about or busy chanting in the holiest areas. Their mantras made the experience feel “other worldly”.
After almost an hour at the top we headed back down, which unfortunately actually meant going up a whole bunch of those 800 steps. I didn’t think either my lungs or my legs could handle one more step, but eventually I made it. The rest of the descent was smooth, although it was long, and I have to say that I was impressed at the ground we had covered. There is no doubt that visiting the Tiger’s Nest was the highlight of our trip, and definitely an amazing life experience.
After lunch we decided to try our hand at archery. Our guide got a traditional bow for us rather than one of the high-tech kinds that we had seen in use on the first day. We had a contest between the French team, the Bhutanese team (guide and driver) and the American team; a mini-Olympics you might say. I’m happy to report that the American team won first place with two direct hits on the target. Guy gets an honorary mention for his shot that went straight into a tree rather than the target.
We now will have a massage, a lecture on Buddhism, and our farewell dinner before heading home tomorrow.
-- Donna
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