Climbing to the Tiger’s Nest

If you search for Bhutan on the Internet there is one iconic image: A monastery clinging to sheer cliffs, whitewashed walls and gilded roofs shining a welcome to any who can brave the path up to its doors. And that’s what we did today.

The hike involves basically going straight up a pine-covered mountain. There’s a clear, but often quite rough, path and a lot of up. Amazingly about a third of the way up there is a cafe offering a great view of the Monastery and astonishingly good coffee. The cafe looks directly at the side of the Monastery and there is no obvious way to get from one to the other.

Lots more up follows. The Monastery was founded on the site of a sacred cave where the revered saint who brought Buddhism to Bhutan spent three months meditating. He got up there by converting his concubine into a flying tiger, we had to walk.

When you reach the height of the Monastery there’s a final trick. You have to descend onto a gorge cut by a waterfall and then climb back up the other side to reach the Monastery’s door.

Finally inside, the Monastery proved to be a calm and serene spot. Because we had started easily and walked fast we were the only ones there, which certainly helped. By the time we started back down the mountain there was a constant stream of people making the pilgrimage upwards.

We had a well-deserved lunch at a local farm with incredibly fresh ingredients from their own fields. Bhutan’s favourite butter tea was not a big hit, but a new variant on the chilles in cheese was fantastic.

Tomorrow we set out on the remote Druk Path.