Itineraries — Fall 2010: Cross Country Cultural and Festivals Tour — Spring 2011: Cross Country Cultural and Festivals Tour

 — Tiger’s Nest —  After breakfast we leave for a religious pilgrimage,  a climb to the fabled Tiger’s Nest Monastery.  We will leave early to catch the morning light and avoid a tour bus or two that might be there on the same day. (Tour buses in Bhutan hold 16 people.)

If you choose to you can ride a small Himalayan “bony pony” up--but not down—the mountain.  The climb is steep on a well-maintained path and takes about 1.5 hours to ascend comfortably.  We will have our guides and drivers to carry our photography gear, water, foul weather gear, etc., and more importantly to urge us on.  All we have to carry is our walking stick and our globe-trotting curiosity.

An important place of pilgrimage and refuge for  more than 1200 years, Taktsang Monastery clings to sheer cliffs two-thousand feet above Paro Valley, and from the most popular vantage points on rocky ledges directly across a chasm we will still need a zoom (200 mm?)  lens and a steady tripod to get tight photographs.  As of 2004 we have received special permission to hike all the way to Tiger’s Nest, visit some of the altar rooms and maybe get a grand tour from Lam Renzin, the lama stationed there.  We have become friends with Lam Renzin, bringing him photographs from previous visits, gifts such as a Swiss Army multi-tool, and most importantly, food for his cat.  In 2007 he requested we bring him a pair of binoculars to see who is coming and Robin delivered them in 2008, so he might be watching our ascent.

This sacred place got its name when Guru Rimpoche rode there on the back of a flying tiger and meditated in a cave behind the present-day monastery.  Sadly, in 1998, the central temple was destroyed by fire, leaving the country in mourning for their holiest of spiritual places.  But religious leaders and the King quickly developed a plan to rebuild Taktsang and donations poured in from Buddhist centers all over the world. Today, the magnificent temple is completely rebuilt to its original glory.  Tiger’s Nest is once again the subject of cloud-shrouded posters that say, “Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon.” 

Lunch halfway down the mountain at the “Cafeteria.”  After lunch we descend to the base of Taktsang where your car will take you back for a walk around Paro and then to Rainbow’s new multi-million-dollar resort, Nak-Sel Boutique Hotel, where you can luxuriate yourself with a hot stone bath and massage and then walk down through the authentic Bhutanese cluster village just beneath the resort, visiting farm houses for photo ops.  Dinner and overnight:  Nak-Sel Boutique Hotel