230413: Day 2: Taktsang

We had breakfast and left around 8am to Taktsang. We started at the parking lot area where it was covered with pine trees. Really beautiful. 

There was the option, if we want, to go for pony ride up to half way point. We didn't. 

if you zoom in, you can see there is a white building in the middle mountain that looks like a bump. That's Taktsang. 

It wasn't easy, the hike up. But it was definitely fun. 😂 

Up and down took about 6hrs for us hand we were told by Tandin that he can reach the top around 1hours and 10mins.

We get to rest and take some photos at the halfway point they have a cafe. We took some photos from there. 

After like 15mins we resumed or journey up. And it was not long after that we got this view. 

We hiked down, and up again to reach the  tiger's nest. 

No camera is allowed so we couldn't take any photos. 

Inside there are many rooms or houses. Each rooms functions as a different temple that pray to a different Buddha related deity. The one that I can remember if the God of power, Second Buddha and the speaking Buddha. 😅 There is also a God of Wealth holding a mongoose (that act as a wallet). 

We did the posturalization (praying technique), drank some holy water, meditate on one of the room. 

We also went down into a small cave, whereby you need to go down using three different types of ladders. It was quite daunting. Some may turn away from this. 

So this spot, a small place, it's believed to be where the second Buddha meditated. 

Towards the end, there was also a stupa room. According to Tandin, in olden days, stupas are along the road to protect the travelers using the road from evil spirits. 

Stupas, inside them, usually contains precious items to the builder. Whether it be of wealth or sentimental value, otherwise it wouldn't be able to function. This stupa inside Taktsang contains the ashes of a monk who died in India/ Nepal, and the ashes was brought back here to Bhutan to build the stupa. 

After that,  we rested for abit before we track back down to the Cafe for lunch. Here, we had Bhutan famous chilli cheese. There are also dal, ferro head, hard boiled eggs, and curry with mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, bitter gourd) 

I wanted to take one of the pine cone for xh but couldn't find a nice one.