The Icon photo opportunity in Bhutan. Let me tell you the story of Taktsang. Guru Rinpoche is said to have flown here from Tibet on the back of a Tigress. He landed here and meditated in the caves for a long time and now they have built a Monastery. The monastery was built in the 16th century but burnt down in 1998, I believe watched live on BBC2, and has been completely rebuilt to what you see today. This is the Icon walk and photo opportunity  and everyone who comes to Bhutan comes to see it. Anyone who has not been at least has seen a photo. I did a lot of research before I came and knew it was a difficult climb but the stuff I read did not prepare me for it so let me try to describe it for anyone coming here cos I did the climb today. I would say the climb is in 3 parts not 2 as I have always read. The first part is steep, and rocky and relentless. It keeps going with no let up. This part takes you to the cafe, NOT half way up and they average 45min which is the time I took. (I'll come back to this later) The second third can be broken in half. The first half is more of the same the second half is a fairly easy walk and a few steep steps at the end. This took me about 45min but anyone with resonable fitness should do it in about 30min. This gets you to the "icon photo opportunity". The third part is steep steps down and then up again and they say it should take you about 30min. I did not do this section. In some ways the track down is almost as bad. It is all down hill so you are constantly on the balls of your feet and this gets to you by the end. I suspect, if you have dodgy knees they might be a problem as well. This took me 1hr15min. Now for the kicker. The first third I took a horse. I would not have made it so I took a horse with a little old lady leading it. Had I known I could have taken it further I would have. It cost me 300 nilgrem ( under$10aus) to the cafe. Im not on a religious pilgrimage and Im not one of the lonely planet ******* who think you are not traveling unless you go independant so I wanted to see and I was happy to take a horse. I came to see this icon and was happy to see it any way I could. You also need to remember the altitude is approx 2100 mtr which I believe is about 70% air and if like me you were or are a smoker this is a problem. Everyone walks down. I hope you enjoy the pics when I get a chance to post them. They will be in reverse order ie from the top to the bottom cos the camera was playing up and I had to take them again on the way down.