The Tiger's Nest @ Paro, Bhutan

Tiger's Nest,  Paro

Postcard view

Paro Taksang or more popularly known as the Tiger's Nest is one of the most popular attraction in Paro, Bhutan. Tiger's Nest is nestled up in the mountains among the lush greenery of the forests.

I was quite excited for the hike as it is always been a dream for me to visit this place. A bit of history of the monastery as copied from wikipedia: (I only remembered our guide, Namgay told us about the flying tigress part)

According to the legend related to this Taktsang, it is believed that Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) flew to this location from Tibet on the back of a tigress from Khenpajong. This place was consecrated to tame the Tiger demon.

An alternative legend holds that a former wife of an emperor, known as Yeshe Tsogyal willingly became a disciple of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambahva) in Tibet. She transformed herself into a tigress and carried the Guru on her back from Tibet to the present location of the Taktsang in Bhutan. In one of the caves here, the Guru then performed meditation and emerged in eight incarnated forms (manifestations) and the place became holy. Subsequently, the place came to be known as the “Tiger's Nest”

More picturesque view

For our 5 days 4 nights visit to Bhutan, we allocated one day for this place as the hike up to the Monastery takes about 1 hour for our guide but for us, we took 1 1/2 hours. The 'credit' goes to Namgay who volunteered to carry one of my friend's backpack so that she can walk faster!

XS climbing from behind

Finally we made it!!

The view is amazing

We started the hike early in the morning to avoid the sunny hot weather of Bhutan. I still remembered when I browse through all the forums and guide books online and discovered that August is not the best time to visit Bhutan due to the monsoon season from June to September. However, we were quite lucky as there were no rain and instead it was scorching hot, even hotter than Tibet!

There's a rest house halfway through the hike and we were very excited to see the monastery. After resting for half an hour, we resume our hike and finally reached the monastery. A long and tiring hike turn into excitement as we were rewarded with the majestic view of Taksang. It is simply too beautiful to describe in words.  Bags, cameras and handphones are not allowed in  the monastery and there's even a policeman located at the Tiger's Nest.

We spend some time at the monastery listening to stories told by Namgay. He had actually hike the Tiger's Nest numerous time, almost once a week! No wonder, he didn't even break a sweat when hiking up the mountain. He also mention that once he had to help his friend carry a Japanese guy who died in the middle of the hike.

After listening to his stories, we hike back down to the rest house for some refreshments and food!

Greenery along the hike

On the way down

Punakha Dzong @ Bhutan

Overall view of Punakha Dzong

Remember the extragavant wedding between Tony Leung and Carina Lau? And also the grand wedding between the current Bhutan king and his wife? The wedding was held in Punakha Dzong. In Bhutan, dzongs are also known as fortress because they are used to defend the city during war.

Punakha Dzong is one of the oldest dzong in Bhutan and located at the confluence of Pho and Mo Chu river which are also known as the male and female river. Punakha used to be the capital of Bhutan before Thimpu. No photographs are allowed in the dzong and we need to be appropriately dress, with no sleveless shirt and  shorts allowed. Somehow I love the interior architecture of the dzong. Very rustic and different from the moden interior building.

 

The wedding and the famous stairs 

view of the Punakha Dzong from Pho and Mo Chu river

The best view is from one of the park before reaching the dzong

amazing architecture

Inside the dzong courtyard

In The Pursuit of Happiness

Druk Air, the only airline which fly into Bhutan

Happiness…

To some it could mean having lots of money.

To some it could mean having a happy and loving family.

To some it could mean having a high flying career.

But to the Bhutanese, it is more important than the economic development of the country.

Bhutan also known as the last Shangri-La, is a small country landlocked between India and China, only recently opened her doors to tourism.

In Bhutan, there are a few distinctive features which differentiate her from the others.

In Bhutan, all buildings are only allowed the maximum of 5 storeys high and required to be Dzong design, even the airport is using the same design as the normal house in Bhutan.

Yes..this is the airport and we spend 15 minutes taking photo at the runway

In Bhutan, all the Bhutanese are required to wear their national costume to work and school whereby men are required to wear gho and women, the kera.

In Bhutan, Gross National Happiness (GNH) is used to measure the happiness of the people rather than GDP.

In Bhutan, crime rate is very low, almost zero and we never saw a single beggar while we were there for 5 days.

In Bhutan, the national sport is achery but strangely they never win any Olimpic medal. The archers need to shoot the arrow from a distance of more than 10 feet and the Bhutanese play in teams. Both teams can insult or distract their opponent and dance of victory if one of their members managed to hit the target.

Archers celebrating their shot to target

In Bhutan, the ‘official’ food is chili cheese. We tried some, it was way too hot even for Malaysians like us.

In Bhutan, the current King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is loved by all the Bhutanese. Unlike William and Kate, his union with Jetsun Pema was only a close country affair. And my travelmate has a huge crush on him!

The current king and queen of Bhutan (credit to bbc.co.uk)

In Bhutan, most importantly we learn that sometimes having a simple life is happiness itself.

A morning market. This is some of the stunning scenary we saw during the trip.

More than 80% of Bhutan still covered in forest