September 18, 2011
-
Bhutan 5 July 2011 (Day 6)
Location: Paro- Tiger Nest- Paro
Tiger Nest temple is probably the most popular touristic destination in Bhutan. It is definitely very attractive with its dramatic look and the legend behind.
Legend of Tiger Nest:
Guru (Saint) knows that there was an evil at the Cliff. His Tibetan wife turned to be a tiger to protect him in the cave while he was doing his meditation to fight the evil. The Villagers always see a tiger outside the cave on the Cliff, so they called it: Tiger Nest.
It was a rainy morning when we started hiking on the trail. The mountain was covered with mist and carried another kind of beauty. The road was muddy and wet. It was quite hard to walk on. Thank you Chimi and Jugu taking care of us on the road. It was not a very long hike but we needed to climb some stairs.
We passed a forest with the thin green vegetation hanging on the trees. Chimi said it could only grow in very clean environment.
We arrived at Tiger Nest in the afternoon. The temple was absolutely stunning. It was quite foggy when we first arrived, but it slowly got clearer after a while. The sun was shining on the temple and it looked totally different. Lydia and I both like the look of it with mist though. It looked even more mysterious.
The dramatic location of the temple surely leads a question- how was it built?
Of course, the standard answer in Bhutan was always: by supernatural power.
Photo taking was not allowed inside the temple. The temple was interesting with its setting. We needed to climb up and down for different houses as it was following the shape of the Cliff to build. The monks were studying in the temple and visitors were wandering around.
We slowly walked down the mountain and got to a location in the mid-way for lunch. As the sun was shining on our way back, we enjoyed some wonderful scenery. When we got to our lunch place, we realized that we were going to eat with the view of Tiger Nest temple at the opposite side of the mountain.
This is the Koma that Chimi was always chewing.
After the lunch, we continued our trip down the hill. At one point, I was standing in the forest with the sound of river. Suddenly the wind came and white flowers were falling from the tree like snow. It was an unforgettable moment and I found it so peaceful to stay there.
I also love the grassland at the end. A white horse was eating grasses under the mountain range. Bhutan is always that green, that natural, that lovely.
Lydia and I just love these stuff so much, but we were lack of $$.
Chimi and Jugu found that the wheel of our car was broken, so it took them a while to fix it before we left.
We then visited a farmhouse and I had my first experience of pulling the milk out from cows. It was a very strange feeling but I found it exciting. The best of all was that I could drink the milk right away. It was the freshest milk ever.
We walked around the “city” a bit. I saw how people lived in such a simple way with basic entertainment and work.
At night, Dechen had farewell dinner with us and even showed us the “night life” in Bhutan. He brought us to a club with ladies dancing on the stage. The ladies were dancing by customer’s order, but they could dance how they like. So, they were just standing on the stage and “move” (I really cannot say that they were dancing). Unbelievable!!!!! Hahahahahaha!
We were drinking and sharing our view of relationship and things like that. Dechen told us about how Bhutanese thought about relationship. It was very inspiring. Haha!
