Around South Asia: Part Seven
Trek to the Tiger’s Nest
08.11.2025: Tour Day6, City3
Good morning from Paro! I woke up at 05:45am and got ready for the trek. Soniya and I reached the reception at 06:30am, picked up the breakfast packets and boarded the Bus 1. Only 11 out of the yesterday’s 18 count, showed up today. We were accompanied by Pravin and Tshering. The breakfast packet included mango juice, sandwich, egg and banana.
The bus started at 06:40am and we reached the base camp at 07:20am. I slept during the drive. Few finished the breakfast; few went for washroom. We had to take a stick, on rent for INR 100.
The trek started at 07:30am. Everyone started walking at their own pace. We passed by the horse stay, where many horses were grazing grass.
You can rent a horse to go up to the café. My suggestion please don’t burden the animal. I had seen situations where the horse refuses to move ahead, might be the animal is tired or not well, and the owner is hitting on its legs. Final call is yours. Another suggestion is taking whatever quick photos and short videos you want on the way up because there will not be much energy left on the return journey to take good shots. Third suggestion is do not carry heavy woolens and gloves. You might feel the cold while starting the trek on the ground, but as you climb up, the body gets warmer and you will have to remove the woolens. It happened in my case, so I had to carry the woolen load all the way up and back and it slowed me down.
I reached the mini waterfall and a series of chortens at 8am. We have to climb the stairways made of wood and mud for more than half an hour now.
Sangita and Dr. Vidya said they would come till the café. So, Pravin, Divya and myself went ahead.
At 8:45am, we saw the café and the monastery. We met Ashwini here.
We rested for 15mins at the benches. There are benches made of wood for resting. We walked further uphill to reach the café at 09:15am.
By the time, rest of the group had already done with their break and left to trek further up with Tshering. We had tea-coffee and washroom break. At 09:40am, we left the café and started walking uphill. We met Sangita and Dr. Vidya at the café gate. They would visit the café, see the monastery view and head back to the base. Taking one-minute breaks at some points, we reached the start of the stairs 10:45am.
Divya went back to the café at this point and would go down to base along with Sangita and Dr. Vidya. The stairs route is a zigzag path from top of the mountain to the bridge which connects two mountains.
We reached the bridge and waterfall at 11:05am.
Now again walk uphill on the zig-zag stone-stairway route to the monastery.
Tiger’s Nest Monastery (Paro Taktsang)
It is Bhutan’s most iconic spiritual landmark, perched on a cliffside at an altitude of 10,240ft above sea level. We had to climb more stairs to the reach each temple. I remember climbing like a baby with both hands. We worshipped three temples, saw the wishing well and were offered holy water. Then we passed by a room lit up with prayer lamps. We climbed till the entry point of one cave, did not go inside the cave. Then we visited two more temples. Here is the map:
Done with an hour at the monastery, we were back to the locker rooms. We took our stuff, had a washroom break and started descending at 12:40pm. I was the slowest due credit to my extra bag. We had to descend the stone-stairs route and reach the bridge at the waterfall.
Then climb uphill the stair route to this starting tip. I reached here at 1pm. Everyone else were ahead of me.
I reached the cafeteria through the shortcut cum steep route at 2pm. Tshering, Pravin and Ashwini were waiting. Bus 2 had already reached the base and clicked photos. Even Divya, Sangita and Dr. Vidya had reached the base. Pravin asked Jimmy to take Bus 2 to the lunch restaurant. I had a washroom break and then we started from the café to the base. Again, I remained behind. I tried to catchup with them but my legs were shaking at a fast pace so then I slowed down.
I reached the base at 3pm. The alone journey of an hour taught me a lot. I got nostalgia of my monsoon treks where we had a head and tail person who ensured everyone is there and no one is left behind during the trail. But those were my friends since many years now. You cannot expect the same from a group of strangers you met just six days ago. Hence might be one of my friends challenged me to go on a trek with strangers and see the difference. Well, I knew that the group would wait for me at the base. Some might even crib, but they would not run away! I had a feeling of being left behind. Another feeling of not being fit enough to match with my earlier trek speed. A lot of emotions came up when I saw people moving ahead and my pace slowing down. The exhaustion was overpowering the satisfaction of reaching the monastery. But at 02:20pm, I gathered myself, gave a reminder that you have come alone on the tour and you must finish it on time. It was exhausting descend on the wooden and mud stairways with only the birds and pine trees as company. Finally reached the bus and gave the stick to Tshering. We drove towards restaurant Paradise and had lunch at 03:30pm. Some went souvenir shopping. We left for the hotel at 4pm. Many rushed to the spa section. Soniya and myself went to our rooms. I had a painkiller and rested while she freshened up. Legs were terribly paining.
We had dinner at 8:15pm, were supposed to have early dinner because the folk dance was scheduled at 08:30pm. We had missed to check the message. Nevertheless, we attended the last two dances.
But it was less dance and more of the person (dressed as yak) running after us, esp. Soniya, Pooja and Sapna. We went to our rooms and dozed off. Finally the sole reason for booking the tour was successful!
