Bhutan - The fulfilment of a long-held dream! (5)

Tango monastery hike, reaching Paro, Paro market!

The thing about writing travel blogs is that you re-live the whole experience again and that is a bittersweet feeling! It makes one crave for the lovely place again, but also puts a smile one's face, remembering all the good and even the unpleasant experiences.

I was particularly excited on this day of our road trip across Western Bhutan, as a hike to Tango monastery was on the cards! Not many tourists go here and it is an accessible, off-beat location that you can visit if you love hiking. B arrived before the scheduled time, giving us a pleasant surprise indeed!
Path to Tango monastery! PC: Sameer
Tango monastery is an institute for Buddhist studies that is located on the outskirts of Thimphu. The hike is a short one, about 280m (got this number from the lonely planet page), but a steep one. There are supposedly two paths, one is a paved, stone path; and the other is a trail that is steeper than the paved path. We reached the parking lot at around 8.30 am in the morning and started the hike immediately. We chose the marked-out stone path. The trail is extremely lovely and well-covered by tall trees, and hence shaded. The trees have Buddhist spiritual quotations hung on them, that make for a lovely read when you pause to catch your breath. It took us exactly fifty minutes to hike up to the monastery, which wasn't bad at all (various other reviews have mentioned that it takes between 45 minutes for some people and 90 minutes for others).
Butter lamps being prepared in the traditional way! PC: Sameer

The entry to the monastery is free, but there are no guides available here. The structure has three storeys, but we were forbidden from going to the second and third floors by a monk. This is also the place where the current Lama resides, but we didn't know about it when we were there (only knew about it when our guide at the Tiger's nest excitedly asked us if we had received the Lama's blessings since we visited Tango). The ground floor houses a library, a temple and a cafeteria. The library had some really interesting titles such as "Gross National Happiness" and the "Politics of Gross National Happiness". We would have loved to buy these books, but they weren't for sale.
Selfie with a monk! PC: Sameer
The best part of the visit however, was watching a monk prepare the butter lamps that are used during prayers. There he stood, wearing a mask over his mouth, a staff in hand, making sure that the wicks had soaked up enough of the yak/ vegetable butter; and we were grateful when he agreed to let us take a picture.

The hike down was equally pleasurable and we reached the parking lot in 30 minutes, and were back at the hotel for lunch. Though Taschhi Cho dzong was on the cards, we decided to skip it in order to be able to reach Paro in time and explore Paro a bit. Since B was behaving like a normal human being, we reached the town of Paro by 4pm. Though we wanted to visit the museum that day, it couldn't be done as the ticket counter was open only till 4.30 pm. We therefore decided to get the shopping done.
On the streets of the lovely town of Paro! PC: Sameer
Paro is a really lovely town and our hotel was situated right on the banks of the Paro river. There were a lot of peach, orange, and apple trees here too, just like Thimphu, but being smaller than Thimphu, it felt lovelier; just like a picture postcard. Even though I don't really enjoy shopping, walking through the market looking at the shop windows, enjoying the absence of crowds and just soaking in the pleasure of actually being there felt absolutely lovely! We had also heard a lot about the peach wine that is available in Paro and bought a bottle at a grocery store. It was truly delicious!
This is THE place to shop for souvenirs! Unmatched prices (believe me, we checked!) and a really lovely hostess!
We had a big day ahead of us the next day..it was the most awaited part of the trip for me, namely the hike to Taktsang Goemba a.k.a Tiger's nest monastery. Early to bed and early to rise had to be the mantra!










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