Big day today. We will climb up from a point in the Paro valley at 2700 m to the Tigers Nest Monastery at 3,510 m with 700 steps to negotiate at the end.

We started the walk at 8:30, stopped for morning tea at 10:00 at the teahouse, about half way up. Our lunch stop was to be at a restaurant, near the viewpoint and we decided that we should have lunch before our final climb up to the monastery as our guide had been advised that the monastery would not be closed for lunch today between 1:00 and 2:00 pm.

After lunch we had to descend down to a point to cross the valley and then walk up the steps again to the monastery itself. However, when we arrived we were informed by the monastery security police that it was closed for lunch. After a lot of discussion between guide and police, he decided to let us in to view one of the temples. We had a quick visit and then he shooed us out the main door again and told us we would have to wait until 2:00 pm. We decided to wait after having made all that effort to get there.

At 2:00 we visited the rest of the monastery's temples and were treated to the monks playing their traditional instruments during their chanting at one of the temples. No photos allowed unfortunately.

We then set off on our return walk - up and down the steps and then downhill again all the way to the valley. My knees were killing me by the time I got down and we were all extremely tired. Well worth the effort though.