Sunday, May 7, 2017

4/30 -- Tiger's Nest and Farewell Activities

This was the day we had been training for and I knew I was not as ready as I wanted to be. The valley floor is at 7700 feet and the high point on the trail is over 10,000 with 479 steps down from there and 231 up to enter the monastery. I had little faith that I could deal with going back up the 479 steps and thought that I would be doing well just to make it to the high point.

There used to be horses you could take up the second half, but now they are only available on the bottom half and three of our group elected to try that. The only person who was truly ready for the hike was Shelly, who was traveling with her mom and has a husband who loves challenging treks in Colorado. She actually completed the first mile up in 35 minutes vs. the hour or so it took the rest of the non-horse riders. She even beat the horses. But then, she is several years younger than my daughter so maybe that it to be expected, given her interests.

There is a restaurant about halfway up with great views of the monastery for the faint of heart. Every one in our group actually made it to the high altitude view point and 6 of us completed the whole trip, though some were faster than others. I turned on my endomondo app to see how long/fast etc. From the horse park to the first part of the monastery (30 steps up to go -- we had to leave all electronics and baggage at the gate) these are the stats from endomondo: Distance: 2.45 miles,  Duration: 2h:52m:51s, Calories: 1,789 kcal (YAY -- eat anything I want today!!), Avg Speed: 0.85 mph (I am a slow hill climber, especially at high altitude), Max Speed: 4.54 mph (the road flattened out at the top and at the restaurant), Avg Pace: 1:10:27 min/mi, Max Pace: 13:13 min/mi, Min Altitude: 8448 ft (probably 150-200 feet higher--at home Endomondo says I get to more than 100 feet below sea level at the bottom of our hill), Max Altitude: 10135 ft (add 150 - 200),  Ascent: 1919 ft (Total ups), Descent: 469 ft, Hydration: 0.83 L
 
Our objective, from a distance.
This was a nice part of the trail.  Much of it was rutted with
horse trails. There is no incentive to improve because people
think it should not be to easy to  make the ascent. The sense
is that you have to earn your way in
Zoomed in on one of the  buildings

Jim & Lynn with the monastery in the background,
Two more views: not zoomed, zoomed.
 
Water fall and  Lion's Cave (which doesn't really lean like that).
The 479 steps back up
I also used my fitbit to monitor my heart rate and rested whenever I went over 140 beats per minute, though in the early stages, I felt very winded even when my pulse was under 100, due to the altitude, I am sure.
 
Once we got to the monastery, Chimi took us to three worship spaces which were tiny, crowded, and filled with people speaking softly, which largely prevented me from hearing anything. We sat on the floor, which is a challenge because I can't do cross-legged any more, and Shelly  maneuvered so my feet didn't show, because showing feet (especially the bottoms), is a problem in the temple. By the third place to look at, I bailed out and waited for the group to return because I had had it with steps (each place was higher than the last) and I couldn't hear anyway.  

I thought the way down would be faster, and it was, except that Jim slipped when the dirt trail gave way with about a mile to go. Fortunately another tour guide was near him and caught him before he fell, but he twisted  his ankle and his pace for the last mile slowed quite a bit. I finally convinced him to use one of my walking poles to assist his descent. Endomondo details (this time, I tracked us to the bus level, a bit lower than the horse level):  Distance: 2.43 mi (we didn't stop at the cafeteria this time), Duration: 2h:35m:17s, Calories: 1,607 kcal, Avg Speed: 0.94 mph, Max Speed: 4.90 mph, Avg Pace: 1:03:52 min/mi, Max Pace: 12:15 min/mi, Min Altitude: 8389 ft, Max Altitude: 10292 ft: Ascent: 420 ft, Descent: 2379 ft, Hydration: 0.75 L
 
At the bottom, we had a delightful picnic lunch and then boarded the bus. We were supposed to see yet another temple, but no one in the group wanted to go there, so we went back to the hotel to clean up and recover from our day. 
 
At 5:45 pm, we gathered again to be dressed in traditional Bhutanese clothing and watched a dance presentation by local students. It was supposed to be outside, but the rains that had held off all day started to sprinkle, and then the lights went out, but with candles and cell phone flashlights, we could see it all. 
 



 
The country manager attended our farewell dinner to get a sense of what we thought of the trip, since this is only the 4th iteration of this itinerary, and provided us with a nice bottle of red wine as thanks. Wine is not plentiful here, and since we got off the plane in India on 4/16, I have only had 2.5 glasses of wine in 2+ weeks, which might be a new low record for me as a Californian. 

Mickey Mouse joined us for dinner and brought photos of some of the dorma he created as a monk..These are flour/butter/water artistic displays that we have seen in every temple, but have not been allowed to photograph.  Mickey was well on his way to being a major master of this art. His work was significantly more intricate than anything else we have seen.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment