PARO
Once again, the roads leave something to be desired.
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| Everything is cut into the side of a mountain that could wash out at any time |
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| With rain, mud and other cars or trucks-well, good luck |
We make it to Paro late at night. Well, you know, when you have to fit as many activities as you can into one day, and then stop in Thimphu to play golf until you can't see the ball any more, and finally continue the drive to Paro, it tends to get dark. Oh well, life is short, fill it to the brim!
Paro is the site of the Tiger’s Nest Temple.
It is said that the Guru Rinpoche rode
on the back of a flying Tiger to this spot and meditated for 3 years.
Thereafter this temple was built.
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| Incredible-there are 12 temples on the mountain winding around. This one is called the Tigers Nest. |
This temple is magical in its appearance built on the side
of a cliff high over the Paro Valley.
We leave our lodge at 7 am in order to beat crowds to take the 2 hour
hike up to the temple.
It is about
50 degrees and raining when we start.
As near as we can tell there is only one group ahead of us on the trail
and we catch them soon.
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| Starting to heat up |
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| Spanish moss hangs from the trees |
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| Spanish moss |
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| It was foggy and wet but since we were first on the trail, it wasn't too slippery---yet. |
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| At times, you might think we were hiking in Oregon! The prayer flags brought us back to reality. |
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| Slow and steady wins the race |
We pass prayer flags and small temples along the way.
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| Always say your prayers |
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| Take turns carrying the pack |
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| One of the 12 temples |
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| It was nice to be there early before the crowds. The horses and the people made the mud a lot more difficult and slippery we found out on the way down. |
We are hiking above 10,000 feet and we are feeling good
except Scott has a bad cold.
We
reach the steps to the temple in good time and we have the views and photos to
ourselves.
The temple passes in
and out of clouds and we snap pictures and have our guide snap pictures of us
as we walk and wonder how this temple could ever be built on the side of a
cliff.
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| Every 2 minutes the clouds will clear and then fog back up |
We visit the various temples inside the temple and offer
prayers and donations and receive blessings of merit from the monks.
There are offerings of incense and food
and candy and flowers near the statutes.
Monks are chanting softly as they walk and incense is burning and butter
lamps are lit.
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| Each small building is a temple |
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| Beautiful waterfalls with a temple in the steep side canyon |
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| Tigers nest is in the middle. There are temples on each side of it. |
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| Iphone self portrait |
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| Incredible |
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| I'm sure some of you are dying to get your harness, rope, and chalk and start climbing......but there is no climbing in Bhutan. They revere their mountains and the rock is sacred and off limits to climbing. |
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| It seemed magical with the fog rolling in and out |
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| Tigers Nest |
On the way back down we encounter many locals, and Indian
army men and tourists coming up.
The tourists from Japan seem to favor hiring small horses to carry them
up part of the trail system.
It’s
a dangerous proposition as the horses are slipping in the mud and falling to
their knees and overweight passengers are being tossed to and fro.
We can hardly look.
It looks cruel for the horse and the
rider.
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| Walking down was a lot more dangerous |
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| Walking down |
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| The horses were slipping to their knees. It seemed dangerous and cruel. |
The horses are also used to pack supplies up to a cafeteria
part way up the trail.
This seems
to be the sensible use for the horse.
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| The horses carry loads as well as people |
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| Barb finds shopping the reward at the end of the trail. She has a magnet for that sort of thing! |
Back to the lodge where we relax for a while. This Aman lodge is the largest we have stayed in Bhutan. They are all very similar.
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| The Amankora Lodge at Paro |
We leave Bhutan tomorrow for Koh Samui, Thailand. We are ready for some R and R.
Looks like an awesome hike!!
ReplyDeleteBhutan seems to get a couple of things wrong though...one of them is no climbing...what?!?! I would think that the rock gods love to be tickled and the humans certainly benefit too.