Tiger's nest Bhutan
"kokrokooo kokrokooo" The alarm blares. Its 6 am. I call my husband's name... Vatsappaaaa!!!!!! wake up. Then I quickly realise, I am in Bhutan and I am sharing the room and the bed with Seetha miss, my colleague and not with vatsappa my husband. That makes me give out a villainous smile.
I assess my unfamiliar surroundings, the barking of stray dogs the decorative wooden carvings on the hotel room the sound of the river flowing just outside our room, the extension cord -look alike- bed warmer that kept us warm through out the night, and the faint lemon grass room spray that the keera clad bhutanese housekeeper girls had sprayed yesterday.
I wake up and request seetha to allow me to the wash room first, unlike the other days when I prefer to sleep longer and cajole her to take bath first.
Today is a special day. 12 of us teachers are treking to the Tiger's nest. This has been our dream project, ever since we completed our school project on dwellings this academic year. We usually decide our holiday trips during our project time at school, discuss more about it on teachers excursion day, and we finalize it by our school annual day. By February we are all set for the March.
I had a secret plan, being the eldest in the group of 12 ( please note - the others are not much behind me in age....😊) was not very sure about my treking abilities. Inspite of my having done a difficult one in Himachal and an easy one in kodaikanal and many in Perambikulam, my secret plan was to take a pony ride up the trek.
Seetha, Padmini and Manju miss were concerned of our safety. They had prayers on their lips till we were back. Zinal was on phone throughout keeping track of our health condition from our local guide. In chennai too we had teachers and family members taking care of us in their thoughts. All these people's +ve energy, prayers and divine interventions kept us going. Some teachers were regular trekkers and were quite confident. I was banking on my 2 years of almost regular yoga classes, and the pony.
Of all the Dzongs we visited in Bhutan, Tiger’s Nest was the one most beautifully located. This Dzong also called the Takshag Monastery is clinging to hills in the ParoValley. It is surrounded by blue pine and spruce forests native to the Himalayas.
As we boarded the bus after breakfast, we had four people waving and wishing us a safe trip, our tour organiser turned besty, Zinal and 3 senior teachers who decided to stay back. I was in a double mind to stay back or go since my tolerance level with pain is very bad. Nonetheless I succumbed to Guru Padmasambhava's call.
I was also secretly planning many things as I boarded the bus. I wanted to take a pony ride for the first one third of the trek and stay in the cafeteria, since there are no pony rides after that point. I was worried I might be a spoil sport if I try to trek further. Others might have to help me and loose out on their enjoyment.
As we reached the foot hills,
before I could get down from the bus a pony owner pointed at me and said I will take her with me. Our Bhutanese guide Amit chamuling translated this. I felt as if he was my Prithviraj Chauhan waiting to take me. Overly exited, I spoke to him and found out that the pony ride costed Rs.700. Suddenly his wife took over and I was on a dirty white pony. She was manoeuvring three ponys at the same time. She wanted to earn Rs.2100 at one go. She would leave my pony, go to the second one give it a pat, and then to the third and say something that sounded very funny, like yuuuuuung....Showwwwoooo... joiiiingggg joiiiiiiing.... By then mine would go to the tip of the clif and eat grass. I too tried saying yuuuuuung.....showwwwoooo......
Joiiiiiiing ...
Joiiiiiiiiiiing....
But my pony wouldn't listen to me. Then I started saying Muruga kaapathu, Rama Krishna and at last shouted out ammaaaa ammmaaaa. Even then it wouldn't listen. At one point I lost it. In an angry tone I chided her and threatended her that I would get down. To my astonishment she said "as you like Madame....If you want to, please get down". I just kept quite after that. My horoscope said I will live a long life. So with great belief in that statement on my horoscope, I completed the first part of the trek on my mule which went side ways most of the time.
As I waited in the cafeteria for the rest of the group, I saw the clinging Tiger's nest where Guru Padmasambava had meditated. It looked so beautiful. I wanted to go in and see the cave from inside.
As my group arrived, I joined them on further trek after a cup of coffee and some biscuits. No more mule rides allowed here because the way was steep and more strenuous and had around 700 steps.
We trekked as we cracked jokes laughed aloud, sang songs, breathed heavily and helped each other. Some needed to gulp glucose water, some needed a hand to hold. I was comfortable with a stick we hired for Rs.50, though I was panting heavily. I was like a joker, fun to watch for the tired trekkers, I made different sounds to catch my breadth, but they had a hearty laugh. After an hour or more came the steep steps. Some 700 odd steps. It was cold, the railings were chill, the chill air made our nose drip. It was very difficult. We stopped singing. Our laughter vanished. The path was like a long serpent whose end was visible, but the path to the tail end was not. The path was more complicated than Bhuddha's eight fold path. We could see the Tiger's nest very close, but could not reach it. It was a formidable task.
As we completed the vertiginous journey that was open to the sky, there were more steep steps within the monastery. These steps were made of huge stones and were very cold. We had to use our feet and hands to crawl.
At the end of our strenuous climb to the Dzong, we found ourselves facing one of the most stunning sights ever. The valley and the hills looked so movie like. Like the Karate kid movie where a woman tames a snake standing on the edge of a monastery in a pink and white dress. All of it and many other Chinese martial art movies came to my mind.
As we entered the sanctum, a cloud of incense enveloped us, and in a beautiful way sanctified us of our spite and grudge from within us.
Thus we survived the high Altitude, steep Incline and Rough Terrain. We couldn't believe we had done the Tiger's Nest Monastery, perched on the side of a Himalayan mountain at 3,120 metres (10,240 ft), about 900 metres (3,000 ft) almost straight up.
What a rewarding experience it was!!!! Divineness at 10,240 feet.!!!!
Of all the places we visited so far in this tour and many other tours, none has sent us back so charged. We meditated there for some time, touched the door of the cave where Guru Rinpoche himself meditated. This cave is opened only once in a year during the Tsechu festival. 1000s of people climb up to this place during the festival.
Legend holds that a former wife of an emperor, known as Yeshe Tsogyal, willingly became a disciple of Guru Rinpoche (Guru Padmasambahva) in Tibet. She transformed herself into a tigress and carried the Guru on her back from Tibet to Taktsang in Bhutan. In one of the caves here, the Guru meditated and emerged in eight incarnated forms and the place became holy.
Back to the foot hills was equally strenuous but we were very proud and content of our achievement. We waited for each other, sometimes called out to check if they were coming behind, followed the pony dung ramp and successfully reached the ground. It was dark. One of our group member who came down first had requested the road side jewellery shop keepers to wait. Reason behind this was for safety. Nobody else was to be seen around other than our group. The other reason must be obvious to you all. When you have a happy group of ladies, what else do you expect? 😊😊 Despite our tiredness we shopped mindlessly.
As we hip hip hurrayed and got into the bus we were instructed to get down for shopping once again near the market place because the next day was a holiday due to elections. This was a pleasant surprise for us. Zinal had done a lot of home work for us and got into the bus with enough cash to help all of us shop. It was a quick shopping session. But still we shopped like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't get down from the bus. My feet ached, but once I reached the interior of the perfume shop, my split personality took over.
Infact we have a good chance of getting into guinness book of records for being the only group to have shopped on our way back from Tiger's nest trek.
The lovely people we left in morning were waiting for us. They were very happy to see us. We had dinner together as we narrated all our adventures to them.
Thus ended our TN to TN experience.
Tamil Nadu to Tiger's Nest.
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Slightly out of context but very important read-
Jaigaon is a town in the Alipurduar district, West Bengal, India. It is located on the country's border with Bhutan. The main overland entrance to Bhutan is through Jaigaon and Bhutan Gate separates the two countries.
Bhutan does not have domestic roads linking to all its towns, so Bhutan uses Indian roads passing through Jaigaon.
I can’t help but compare the contrast we saw as we left this country for our own. Just a huge decorated gate across and such a radical difference in ethos, culture, economic status cleanliness and integrity of people!
Lack of hygiene and civic sense, and thorough absence of cleanliness was so striking.
I felt ashamed.
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