Saturday and Sunday, March 23-24, 2013
Day 7 and 8
Intrepid Itinerary:
Our trek to the Taktshang Monastery is a big highlight. The hike up to the viewing point on day 7 takes about one hour approx and the monastery that clings to the cliff face is awe-inspiring. Known as the 'Tiger's Nest Monastery', Taktsang is a sacred pilgrimage site where, legend has it, the great Tantric mystic, Padmasambhava, flew on the back of a tigress and brought the teachings of the Buddhist Dharma to Bhutan. The Monastery clings to a cliff soaring 900 metres above the valley floor. Taktsang was destroyed in a fire in 1998 but restoration works are now almost complete.
Day 7.
The iconic image of the Tiger's Nest Monastery was our draw to Bhutan. And on our trip, the best was saved for last. We started our upward trek from about the 8,000 ft elevation. Tiger's Nest is at 10,000 feet, and the tea house viewing is half way in between. Once the elevation of the teahouse is achieved, trekkers descend into a waterfall valley, cross over the river and re-ascend 1400 steps up to the monastery. Two thousand feet doesn't seem that much of a climb, but at this elevation it is.
The ascent is challenging in that it very steep and the air is thin and cold. Just a few feet forward, and I could feel my heart racing and the need to breathe more deeply and to cover my nose and mouth with a scarf to heat up my intake. We had a beautiful clear and crisp morning for our trek. I had prepared by wearing five layers of top clothing. Within 15 minutes of our cold start, I peeled off the top two layers, and unbuttoned the third, discarding ear warmers, gloves and neck scarf. I envied the people who were taking the equine taxi up the hill. I enjoy walking, but steep switch backs are not my favorite.
It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the viewing point. We had some refreshments and then could decide to stay here or continue on, first by climbing higher, then descending into a waterfall gorge and then backup to the monastery 1400 steps. Russ, my climb-every-mountain guy, chose to go ahead. I too might have considered the rest of the trek, but was informed by our guide, that the inside of the monastery was basically the same as all the others we had seen, and no cameras are allowed inside. Plus I am not on a pilgrimage with religious drive. Okay, I had enough excuses. I was content to stay at the tea house and enjoy the view from the opposite cliff. The sun was pleasantly warm, and a litter of frolicking healthy puppies kept me amused rolling around at my feet.
Russ returned about two hours later triumphant, in good shape, and had a few additional photos. Tiger's Nest is a beautiful monastery built on a cliff. Difficult to hike to with no roads, one can only imagine how difficult it was to build, the first time in the 7th century and within less r20 years ago after the first one burnt down.
In addition to viewing the monastery, we found one geocache at the tea house, and registered a "find" as well as a "did not find". Russ tried to get to the Lion Cave Tiger's Nest geocache, but our guide would not allow him to go up the steep stair path to the meditation cave, even though we assured him in advance that we did not want to enter the cave or disturb any meditations. The guides here keep a pretty tight rein on tourists. It is a confining feeling and one of the aspects of visiting Bhutan one must contend with.
Day 8 - Festival in Paro
Our visit to Bhutan and the festival was coincidental. Many tourists from around the world had come specifically for the festival, which is a time for the Bhutanese to celebrate and reconnect with the religious stories of their religion through traditional dancing. This year a new Warrior dance was introduced to honor those who fought in 2003 to help root out muslim tribes from India who were hiding out in the southern jungles of Bhutan.. Our guide grumbled that the people are traditional and that they don't like new non-religious things being introduced. The minute of silence for the warriors was completely ignored by everyone except the tourists who were being respectful guests.
The dancing was interesting and colorful, but a little slow and repetitive. Local spectators sitting in the mid-day sun without hats (considered disrespectful on Dzong grounds) didn't seem particularly riveted to the dancing. They tried to shelter the suns rays by wearing scarves or shawls over their heads. Our guide told us not to wear hats. He said if we saw others wearing hats, it would probably be okay, but if were approached by the Buddhist community police and asked to take off our hats, we were not to tell them who our guide was. He keeps a tight rein on his charges and is responsible for their misbehavior.
We saw few local people wearing hats, but most of the tourists wore some sort of hat and the police didn't seem particularly interested in enforcing the no hat dress code. Russ respectfully did not wear a hat. Instead he looked even less respectful wearing his long sleeve shirt over his head. I finally ditched the scarf and put on a visor leaving my head uncovered.
The performers were wearing hats. The jesters had long penises on their hats that they would playfully smack people. What is considered respectful and disrespectful here is confusing. There are many dichotomies in Bhutan. The Buddhist won't kill animals, but don't mind eating them. All of their butchered meat is imported. The Buddhists are peaceful and seek a peaceful way of life, but all the boys including some of the young monks on festival day seemed to be toting play guns and shooting one another. Boys with water pistols were shooting everyone. It was so warm, no one complained.
There was much visiting going on, and there was no applause or show of appreciation for the performers. I suppose in some respects it would be like applauding the choir at church. It was interesting just watching the Bhutanese festival goers dressed in their finest for the festival, sitting in family groups and enjoying picnic lunches. They come armed with thermal pots of already cooked rice, vegetables and meat, and dig in with their hands. The royal dignitaries including the the queen mother sat in a shaded box area. I saw tea and coffee being served. There are no public restrooms or porta potties brought in for the spectators. If you have to go, you have to walk back to town or find a bush. There are no places to wash your hands either. Sanitation is not a high priority apparently.
The traditional parts of Bhutan are charming, but the growth of tourism and exposure to the world through visitors and internet is creating growing pains. The king wants to encourage tourism but keep the traditions. Finding a balance will be difficult.
Already the infrastructure of trash collection and sewage handling is not keeping up. The Bhutanese themselves are the worst offenders. Rural people who have lived remote, simple lives in the hills and have always used nature for toiletting, wash their hands in a stream, spitting red betel juice in the dirt, and tossing away bio degradable things on the ground, have moved into towns to seek tourist related jobs in guest houses, retail establishments, restaurants, etc.. Without knowing how to live in close confinement with others in a town, they continue to toilet outside, spit betel juice everywhere on sidewalks, and steps inside and outside of buildings, drop trash bio-dergradeable or not, everywhere. We have seen a lot of this in he South Pacific islands as well. You can take the boy out of the village, but not the village out of the boy.
Day 9-10 Travel Days Home to America via Bangkok, Tokyo, and Los Angeles.
We'll catch up with photos and some reflective pieces on the blog when we return, but until our next travel adventure, I'm giving myself and the blog a rest.
All is well with the Worrall Travel R's
