Ascent to the Tigers Nest

October 9^th, 2026

Paro, Bhutan

Woke with the alarm at 6:00AM.

I moved over to a chair and sat there for at least 20 minutes, not really wanting to get up.

Finally went in to take a shower, nice hot water, but not much water pressure.

Dressed in normal clothes as we will not be riding today.

I then gathered the cameras and a few things I thought I might need or want during the day and went down to meet the group for breakfast just before 7:00AM.

Arrived in the main hall of the floor, restaurant had not opened yet, so we were all sitting around talking.

Once it opened, we took the big table we used the night before and went through the buffet.

Not a huge selection.  Made sure I grabbed a banana and some fruit juice to help give me some extra energy today.

Once we finished eating, we all went to either grab our stuff from the room, and I went back to use the toilet in my room instead of those in the restaurant.

We met in the lobby and waited a bit, then we all got into the van and we departed.

The first order of business was to pick up one of our guides (the one who lives in this town).

We then drove around looking for a shop to buy more umbrellas as it was raining quite good out since the middle of the night, and we were probably going to get wet.

I had worn my rain jacket to help, but having an umbrella would be nice.

Took us a bit of time to get all that done, so were now running 30-40 minutes behind.

We left the city and drove over to the edge of town and then up a hill that seemed to go on forever.

We reached the parking area and got out, still raining lightly.

The guide went to buy our entrance, and a few of us took the chance to use toilet before we started hiking.

Today we are hiking up to the Tigers Nest.  A monastery built on the face of a cliff.

Originally bult in the 15^th century, the place has been in constant use since then.

Tragically burned to the ground by accident in 1995, the King of Bhutan had it rebuilt to the original specs (whether designs existed, or were made, or from memory of the monks, I am not sure.)

So, the structure today is about 95% new, and all the relics inside are of course from other parts of the country as well.

We headed off to start our hike, which was approximately 2 miles one way, and would be 3000 feet higher, though we would go up and down so much we probably hiked 5000 feet of vertical trail.

Image taken after coming down, was too foggy on way up.

It was still lightly raining, and the trail was quite muddy in spots.

We slowly worked our way upward and it was steep.  Lots of mud, and so many steps I would not want to even try counting them.

Thankfully the rain mostly stopped after about 30 minutes, so I collapsed the umbrella and the guide took it from me to carry it.

I did good for about 20 minutes, then slowly started to decrease speed, and soon my feet were sore, my lower back was sore, and I was quite short of breath.

I have never had good stamina since having pneumonia as a child.  Combine my being horrible overweight, with the altitude (around 3000 meters or more, so 10,000+ feet) and it was a struggle.

One of the guides stayed with me, the other with the main group that soon was out of sight, and one with Jude who was having same issues as me.

About half way up the first trail section I started to regret not renting a walking stick.  The guide handed me back my umbrella to use as a walking stick.  Guess they are built quite strong to server this function.

That helped immensely.

Just over 2 hours it took to reach the half way point of the trial which is a café on the mountain side.

We found all the others there and sat down for a bit.  I had a cappuccino and rested for a few minutes, but as we were the last to arrive, our rest was quite short.

We started back up the hill, though I was having serious concerns on my ability to make it to the top.

But since I was here, I had to try, and it was warmer when moving versus sitting still.

The clouds started to thin a little, they had been clinging to the mountain all morning.

I was by this time completely soaked, 5% from rain, 10% from the mist, and the rest from sweat!

We just kept up a steady pace, again being left behind.  Jude and his guide made a bit better time and pulled ahead a little.

We reached the top of the mountain and got our view of the Tigers Nest.

Then the cruel reality (which I knew was coming) was the 200+ steps to walk down, then back up to reach the actual building.

Going down is easier, but the path was mostly stone or concrete steps, quite narrow in spots and changing direction on the steep descent quite often.   Was also quite busy with many people heading down already.

We reached the bottom where a small bridge crosses the creek that has just cascaded down a waterfall at least 200 feet talk, and it would continue with other drops all the way to the bottom.

Then the steps up again, and these were steep, narrow, and just took the last bit of energy I had.

We finally reached the ending point at the top on the edge of the complex.

We stood around for a few minutes, then found that we had to remove all cameras and phones and put them in a locker.  While I fully understand the history of not filming inside temples, usually you can at least photograph the exterior parts, and the views.

Then there was a bit of an issue that two of our guys had only worn shorts to climb up in, and it was required to be wearing pants inside!

They had to borrow/rent a pair of pants from a building to be allowed inside.

Once all that was settled, we started inside, again going up even more stairs.

We learned some of the history of the complex in general and the local mythologies that supposedly created it.

We then headed over to the edge and were to go inside one of the temples, but had to take of shoes.

I was a bit annoyed at this. It was cold, the floor was cold stone, and damp, and my feet already hurt, so walking without any kind of support was not going to help.

I did it, and inside I was really unimpressed.

While the décor was interesting, and the buddha statues cool, it was a small room that that was intended for prayer.

Without the background to the religion, and its customs, it was hard to grasp the specifics of what we were seeing.  And I was so exhausted I could not really focus on the items around the room, and was hampered by my glasses not being on either. (I had to remove them during the hike as they were so fogged up and streaked with sweat, I could not see out of them.  I had nothing to dry or clean them with and they were still covered in humid fog when I pulled them out on top.)

The guide was explaining everything, but it was hard to hear as he was talking low to not disturb those praying, and again, I was so tired, I could not process what he was saying.

We left, and I grabbed my shoes to carry them with me so I could put them on soon as possible.  We visited another temple, and this one I just sat outside for a bit first, then went in.

I realized that the building hallways I could wear the shoes, only the temple interiors required them off.

So, I put them on, and then never entered any of the other places, I would get in door, peak around, and without offending anyone, they all looked the same.

I sat outside while the others were inside through two more visits, and was getting colder by the minute.

The guide finally asked how I was, so told him, and he asked if I wanted to start back, and that sounded like a good idea.

So, he walked me out to the main entrance, turned me over to the other guide waiting there, we got the key to the locker to remove our bags, retrieved my umbrella and then started down.

Mike joined us as he was just sitting near the exit anyway.

The hike down was painful, slow, and knees and feet were hurting.

We reached the waterfall bridge again and started up.

About this time Brad joined us.  He had seen enough and decided to head down.  John soon came up as well, but he passed us and ran (literally) off to climb up to some higher buildings.

Brad moved on ahead after a bit, and Mike would get ahead, then stop to rest until we passed him, then continue on.

The uphill section again took forever as I could only take the steps one at a time.

I did stop for more photos on the climb up though as the clouds had cleared out some and the views were much better.

Once we reached the top, it was pretty much downhill from here, but still mostly steps, or steep sections of dirt and a bit of mud (though much of it had dried up some).

We reached the café again, where we would stop for lunch, and sat down with the others, who were all there, having caught up and passed us earlier.  Only Jude was still coming, but not more than a minute or two behind me.

I ordered a Coke, and then it started to rain a bit, so we went inside to a table to eat.

The food was not that impressive, though difficult to bring too much up to a place on the side of a mountain.

Had some rice, noodles, and potatoes.  Figured that was enough carbs for me to burn on the hike down.

Once done, we headed down the remainder of the trail, the main group getting ahead (except John who ran off to try another hike).  Only Jude and I were slowly making our way down, but they passed us while I was taking photos and stayed about 100 feet ahead of us for the trip down.

We did catch up with a few, but they took a steep short cut trail, but with my slowness and difficulty getting down, they recommended I stay on the more gradual, but longer trail.  I agreed.

We finally reached the final sections that were not as steep, but were going through the lower forest and all the tree roots had been exposed after years of traffic walking the route.

The mud also got worse down here for some reason.

Upon reaching the parking lot, I dropped off the umbrella, used the toilet and then sat on a bench till we were ready to leave.

The van was not here yet, so sat for about 10 minutes.

We then loaded up and headed down the mountain and back onto the road into town.

The next stop for the day was a hot stone bath house.

Took a bit of driving to reach it, but we arrived a bit earlier than our appointment.  (Mostly my fault, I had warned that it could take me much longer to get down the hill, so we should book later.  I actually did make it down in much better time though, so we were early now).

The guide got us checked in and paid (we will reimburse him tomorrow) and then stood around in the yard outside the main building near the bath house.

To use the time up, we messed around with the bow and arrow they had on had with the target.  Archery is the national sport around here.

Nearly all of us tried a shot, a few then wandered off to sit and talk, and a few more took more shots.

In then end just myself, Ben, and the guide were left, and we were determined to keep trying until either he or me hit the target. (The guide had hit it once).

The one bow was odd as every shot I took with it the arrow would fly off to the right and hit the grass.

The other bow though would fly straighter, and I soon was hitting the wood wall behind the target.

We were both getting better.

I managed to get the shots to fly straighter, but never could get the angle for height right and was hitting way above the target.

Ben was hitting lower, but he did eventually get a hit, and a good hit too.

Then we called it quits.

Not long after the baths became ready.

Due to the late booking, we were unable to get the private solo rooms, so we all had to share rooms that had two baths (mostly intended for couples or families to use).

But they did have a curtain that went down the center, so there was some privacy once in the tub.

The first 4 guys went in, and then I ran off to use the toilet.

When I returned, everyone else was gone, so walked over till I found the guide and he took me to the room I was in with Ben.

The room was small, with a raised floor covering 2/3 of the room, and a small bench on the wall of the lower floor.

We closed the door and changed.  Though in my case, I had not brought an extra pair of clothes as I originally was not going to participate, or would just sit on the edge with my feet in.

I had though they would be pools in the floor, but they were actually wooden tubs.

The tubs were on the wall, actually going through the walls.

They would fill them with water and some kind of herb (lots of leaves floating).  The tub was maybe 3 feet long, and about 2 high and wide.

On the other side of the wall, there was another 1-2 foot of time, and this is where they would dump in the hot stones that would heat up the water.

There was a wooden partition to keep stones from coming into our side, and keep our feet on our side.

Ben got into his tub, and I pulled off my pants and sat on the edge of my tub to soak my feet as originally planned.

But after a few minutes, the warmth felt good, and I was kind of wanting to get in.

I pulled off my soaking wet shirt to at least rub warm water on me, and then decided the hell with it, I would just get in with my underwear.  Once done, I figured I could just wear the pants without them (Commando!) when we went out to dinner.

The water was a bit hot at first on my legs, so when the staff on the other side of the wall asked (thin walls) how things were, I said a bit hot, so they poured some cold water in to help.

Once I lowered myself in, it was still quite hot, but did feel good, though would have been nicer if I could have put my legs out a bit more.

Our sessions were for an hour.  Ben I and both decided that was enough and thought we were getting out early, but actually had used up most of the hour, so time really went by quick.

Ben got out first and was ready before me, and he opened the door a bit to air out the steam now filling the room.

I dried off and sat on the edge of tub a bit to let the cool air finish the drying.

I then pulled my pants off the hook and they were still very damp, so figured I would just wear the wet underwear anyway (and they actually dry really quick, why I paid $30 a pair for them).

Sat on the couch to dry my feet and put on the socks and shoes, and then dried upper body again, but then had to put on the damp, and now cold shirt.

Left the room and went over to the main building.

The group was having tea inside, but again the damn taking off shoe’s thing.

Myself and John did not want to do that, so we took our tea out to the picnic tables in the yard to drink.  Still a very large group using the archery range, so watch them a bit and talked.

We were soon joined by several others of our group.

Ben found us and once everyone was there, we headed out to the van so we could drive over to town for dinner.

We were eating at a well known place in town, Park 76 Café & Pub.

We arrived to a nearly empty place, took some comfy sofa chairs with a long table between them and ordered some drinks.  Music was thumping in the background, some sports on TV, and we spent some time talking while looking at food menu and choosing what we wanted.

The list was turned in and we kept talking, having drinks, and soon Kinley, the local tour operator that partners with Ben on the Bhutan trips joined us again as he had been out of town since we arrived last night.

We finally got our food (took about an hour) and ate, then talked more till we were left to decide if we wanted to go back to hotel, or stay for karaoke.

In then end we all wanted to go back, we were all tired, and we would be hitting the road on the bikes again in the morning.

We waited a bit for the van to arrive, and then rode back to the hotel.

Once back we all found our rooms.

I got out of the now slightly less damp clothes and hung them all out to dry out hopefully overnight.  Put on some dry clothes to sleep in tonight.

Put the GoPro batteries on the charger as 2 were really low and the 1 in the camera was down about 30%.

I also put the battery pack I had been using all day to charge my phone as I had forgot to put it on the charger last night.

I then pulled out the laptop to upload the footage from today and then type up this blog.

Now I will put the phone on the charger (after setting alarm for 7:00 as we are not leaving till 9:00.

Then will go to bed, and hope the pain pill will let me rest better as my body still hurts (though that hot water did help a lot).

Catch ya down the road!