TIGER'S NEST HIKE   JAN. 15

Today we got an early start to the base of the hike up to Tiger's Nest (Taktsang Monastery). Perched 3,000 feet up on a cliff above the valley floor, it is a place of pilgrimage for locals. There is a photo below of me with an 84 year old Bhutanese woman whose son is a monk up there. She makes the climb to the cafeteria level about once a week and prays at the shrines there. Legend has it that Guru Rin poche flew to the site of the monastery on the back of a tigress from Tibet and meditate there for three months - thus bringing Buddhism to Bhutan. The main building was burned in 1998 but now is restored. There are 13 temples up there, but the group saw 3 of them. A few monks are living up there.

We started out the hike with Mick riding the horse up to the cafeteria. 1/2 way up, I mentioned I should have taken a horse as I was really huffing from the altitude ((10,000+) and they cell phoned down and a horse was brought up. We all stopped at the cafeteria for tea, great photo ops of the monastery across the valley. Then the hardy group, including Barbara, continued on to the next perch with another closer view. Barbara and Nina hiked back down to wait with Larry, Mick and I in the cafeteria. The others went down 480+ steps and up 350+ steps to the actual monastery, with just a railing between them and DEATH!! on a steep cliff! Barbara didn't mind the hike and could have done it, as long as there were trees around. But this was above the tree line, only rock and a narrow walkway! Art, Suzanne, Debbie, Lee and of course CRing continued on up and back! Nima our driver stayed with us and we started down after about 3 hours. with the walking sticks (a real help) I made it down just fine! It was a breath-taking (literally!) day and a beautiful site!

They take saving their environment very seriously!

Horses waiting

I'm on this horse, led by about a 9 year old!

She's 84 and she did this climb WITHOUT a horse, every week!!

She's praying at the shrine

Barbara, C Ring, Debbie, Suzanne, Rick, Nina and Art went on from the cafeteria! Barbara and Nina did another 45 minutes up and back. The others did the 700+ steps to the monastery!! Impressive!!

Mick and my horses after we got off!!

Mick and his horse, before I got on mine!

Barbara shopping at the bottom

At the starting point. See the monastery in the far distance.

Our view from the cafeteria. Can you imagine carrying all the building materials up there, all your everyday supplies? No quick runs to the store!! 

One of our resting places. 

Getting ready to start up

We picked up Mary Alice back at the Lodge and headed to town for lunch. No one wanted any more shopping so we headed back for a rest before our Farewell dinner and cultural show. There are many festivals in Bhutan and we had seen so many of the masks used and video footage of their dances in the museum. C Ring arranged our own show with about 12 dancers and a musician performing for us. Just beautiful, colorful and a great way to end our trip!