Paro

Day 45 – Thimphu to Paro – 8 Oct 2018

After a sound sleep, and an amazing breakfast,  we did some more shopping at the Thimphu streets, and found some time to click more pictures at the Tashichho Dzong.  We got ready to set out for Paro by 11am. After a very smooth and relaxed drive, we reached Paro in 2 hours, and went directly to the hotel. Our stay was very much inside the suburbs, and it did take some time for us to spot the place once we took a diversion from the main road.  As Paro is the country’s only airport, we could watch the flights disappearing into the far away clouds from the amazing view of our room. We relaxed in the room for sometime and headed out in the evening to visit Paro Dzong.

Paro Dzong had a majestic structure etched onto the hillside, displaying the glory of authentic Bhutanese architecture. Monks in traditional dresses were walking along the wooden bridge towards the Dzong, and the evening sun gave a perfect charm for the whole scene. Unfortunately, we couldn’t climb up the Dzong as it was already late in the evening by the time we enjoyed the entrance and its surroundings. We had to skip the Royal Museum too, as it was already past 5PM. We did some shopping in the peaceful Paro streets and went back to room. We headed to bed early with the excitement to conquer the mighty Tigers’ Nest in the coming day!

Day 46 – Paro – 9 Oct 2018

We got up early in the morning as this was planned to be a trek day. We were mentally prepared for the trek of the trip. After a good breakfast, we set off for Bhutan’s iconic landmark and religious site – the Tigers’ Nest.

The start of the trek is a 20 mins drive from the the city center and easily reachable. Upon reaching the trek point, we hired a pony for 600Rs and a walking stick for 50Rs. The plan was wife and daughter would go on the pony and I would walk. We started climbing towards our destination at 9.15AM, which was 900 metres above the Paro Valley!

After a few metres, I took a supposedly shorter route which ended up to be a very steep climb. After one hour of steep climbing for me and a pony ride for both of them, we reached near the cafeteria. This is the only place in between where you will be able to refuel yourself. Cafeteria provides tea and biscuits for 240 rupees per person. There is no pony from here for the rest of the journey. After a 20 mins break, we started walking again. Daughter showed lots of energy for first 5 minutes and then found her seat on my shoulder for the rest of the climb. 

The walk was easy for next half an hour where there wasn’t much ascend. And there are enough spots on the way to get good panoramic views of the monastery from a distance. We could see a cluster of wood and mortar buildings at the very end of the narrow zig zag uphill roads, forming a divine atmosphere at a dangerously positioned hillside. 

After sometime, the climb became steeper and also the last set of steps to the monastery is a real challenge. While we were struggling to make each step forward, we could see some young Lamas just running up so easily to reach the temple! We could hear people occasionally shouting “just few more kilometres”, which gave us some positivity to climb harder! Daughter had fallen asleep on my shoulder in between, and that made the ascend even tougher.  Wife was telling that her calf muscles were shivering like anything towards the end.  After a pretty hectic and tiresome climb for three hours, through beautiful and shady pine forests, we finally reached the top at 12.15pm.

It was windy and cold on the top. Also, there is one important thing to note here. We missed to take the entry ticket for the monastery from the trek starting point. We didn’t notice this at all. However, we were lucky that they let us purchase a ticket at the monastery. So whoever, visiting the place, make sure you get the ticket before you start climbing. No trip to Bhutan would be complete without visiting this amazing place!  We overheard some tourist guides saying that the monastery had undergone drastic transformations as it withstood two severe fires, and was reverently explaining how the most important parts of the shrine was unaffected by the fires even though there were several butter lamps lighting up the place.

We spent one hour at the top and started our journey back at 1.15PM. We halted at the cafeteria for a decent lunch and tea, and a much needed rest for our legs. We could notice that 90% of the tourists doing the trek were above 55 years of age. We could see them struggling to take every step forward. The last stretch of stairs is pretty hectic for anyone and most of the elderly people were struggling to get to the top. Many of them came to us, talked to us and appreciated us for our decision to do this trek at a young age. They were all very happy to see us carrying our daughter on the shoulder and climbing up – indeed a proud moment for us! The return journey took another 2.5 hours. Finally we completed the trek of 7 kms in almost 7 hours and reached back at the starting point at 3.50PM. We collected several pine tree seeds while we were climbing down, as a souvenir for ourselves for successfully making it to the top!

Once we reached back home, I couldn’t feel my legs. After a hot water shower and dinner, I only remember falling on the bed. Slept in seconds. 

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