Hike to the Habsburg Castle

On the Swiss National Day, August 1st, I had planned to go on the famous 4-lake trek in the Alps region of Mt. Titlis. Considering the morning's heavy rains and unfavorable forecast for the rest of the day, I had to change plans and randomly picked a hike that was within an hour's travel from Basel. The first option that came up was the scenic hike along the Aare river in the Aargau canton area. 

This is a nice, enjoyable 25 km hike with a well planned trail right by the river-side, letting one enjoy the deep-green waters and the beautiful swans and ducks that lounge about in them. The waters are so clear that one can see the river bed, colored pebbles and a variety of fish life. Along the hiking trail, one encounters a variety of plants and trees - wild black berries, blue berries, red berries and a variety of apples and pears. There are hundreds of acres of corn fields along the way, apart from industrial corridors that have sprung up. From the signposts in the trail, the painstaking efforts by the Swiss government to maintain course of the river and preserve its flora and fauna is evident.

The hike from the Schinzach-bad station to the castle takes a detour from the river, and moves deeper inland through the dense woods up a hill. Coming onto the clearing from the woods, one gets the clear imposing view of the Habsburg castle, or what remains of the original castle built in the 12th Century. This was once the seat of the powerful Habsburg dynasty that ruled over most of Europe, in its heyday. The fortress is now converted into a restaurant, and not much of medieval artefacts are maintained now. However, the story of the castle is illustrated through audio-narratives and pictures at various points in the castle.

Here is the Picture story (please click below) created from the hike, thanks to Google, and with minimal edits and comments added.

BPD: Scaling the famed Tiger's Nest

(BPD: Scaling the Tiger's Nest, 30th Apr '15)

With rains lashing out the city until early afternoon on 29th April, I had walked around Paro visiting the local places that day and had planned to visit the famed 'Taktsang' monastery the next day, a Thursday. On a clear day its better to start early for the monastery, since it involves a strenuous uphill 4 hours walk and it could get either very hot midday or end up with some early showers, with the weather being unpredictable in the mountains.

Starting at 8 am, I took a shared taxi until the junction where the main road splits towards the base point of the monastery. From there, it was about 4 km to the base, which was a nice scenic, morning walk on a gradual uphill road, meandering across the river and through a small hamlet with completely timber-built houses. Considering the views along the path, I decided to not cover this bit by taxi. After an hour of walking and sneak previews of the Taktsang monastery from afar, I reached the base until which point all taxis ferry the tourists. And there were a decent number them at that hour of the morning.

The village en route to Tiger's Nest Monastery (partially visible on the cliff behind clouds)

Timber-built houses in the village	Interesting sign at a monastery, on the way

The base point has some makeshift tourist shops selling knick-knacks, apart from other minor refreshments. There are no elaborate arrangements at this place for meals or any additional facilities, hence its better to come prepared to directly start hiking from this point. Considering that the route turns out to be a tough hike for first-timers and old aged people, they have an option to use mules. However this option is only until a midpoint during the journey, and from there one must hike through some narrow pathways, that are best covered only on foot.

The route up the mountain has a well paved, wide dirt track for the horses and those preferring a gradual incline, while there is also a steep trail that saves some distance but involves steep, tiring climb. The total distance up to the monastery is about 5km or 3 hours from the base point, and at various points we saw small sets of tourists turning back as they couldn't make it up further. The heavy rains from the earlier day were partly playing spoilsport, with the path becoming wet & slippery.

Model of the water-bell setup
& actual one (Botanical garden)

While I started the climb up, I was surprised to hear some voices in Tamil, not a usual occurrence in such a faraway place. This was a businessman from Chennai who was travelling with his family on their annual vacation to this mountain Kingdom and had covered Thimphu and Punakha valley, which is rated as the next most scenic place in Bhutan, after Paro. Chatting and walking together, we crossed a place where the waterfall flowing from the top of the mountain turned into a small stream at the base. As with the standard Bhutanese architecture, they had built three domes on the stream's path, each housing a large prayer bell that gets operated and pushed around by the water flowing around a paddle that's fit at the bottom of the bell. With the continuous flow of water, the bells perpetually chime away to glory, and the simple but ingenious mechanism with the chiming sound is a sight to behold. Such water operated bells can be found throughout the country and many of these are of considerable antiquity.

Prayer bell domes at Taktsang base	..and the stream water exiting the bells

Flowering Rhododendrons

Right at the midpoint where the horses halt and bid goodbye, there is the 'Taktsang' cafe that serves tea and coffee with sugar-coated biscuits, to give a small break from the walk. The views of the monastery from this point are click-worthy. At this point, the family from Tamil Nadu decided to stay back, not wanting to risk the climb with kids and the middle-aged lady. While I moved ahead, the driver who was accompanying the family joined me, for the last leg of the journey. The final leg of the hike up from there is at almost the same altitude as that of monastery but goes around the mountains. The walk is on rock-cut steps over a series of zig-zag paths going up-down, amidst rhododendrons in full bloom and offering stunning views of the monastery, of the high waterfall and also of the steep drop down into the rolling valleys beneath. The view at several places got so beautiful that I stopped taking pictures, since I realized it was impossible for the pictures to do justice to the views unfolding! I just stood by and tried to internalize the beauty.

View at the midpoint, near Taktsang Cafe	View of Taktsang from Cafe

The more one looks at the monastery it makes one wonder how monks could have made it up here in the earlier ages, let alone complete a full-fledged construction at such an elevation, against the sheer drop of the cliff. The path to the monastery, across the mountains has been developed well for tourists and made safe with solid iron and concrete railings added. Construction of this path would have also been a tough, expensive and time-consuming affair.

Yet another shot of the cliff..	..and the stone-cut steps in the path

Reaching the monastery at 12.30 PM, we just had 30 minutes to complete the prayers before the temple closed for the hour-long lunch break. The monastery has large and majestic statues of Guru Rinpoche, also called Guru Padmasambhava in the main and assumed forms. Legend has it that the Guru flew onto this cliff on top of a winged tigress, meditated and took a ferocious form to tame the local evil spirit and turn it into a protective deity.

The Tiger's Nest Monastery, finally from up-close

Amongst the temples and butter lamp hall, we were surprised to see a small opening in the cliff labeled the 'tiger nest'. Not finding any tourists going in and unaware of the significance, we ventured into the completely dark cave that was damp and slippery with water continuously trickling into the rocks. The opening led into a cave with a steep drop of almost 2 floors inside that had to be covered by crawling down a slanted wooden panel, then on a make-shift ladder, and finally squeezing oneself to get past a huge boulder in the way. This path finally culminates in a small dark corner in the cave, that had the Guru's picture and a small lighted lamp. We learnt later that this was the place where the Guru had meditated for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days & 3 hours in the 8th century! Before climbing out, we tried coming out on the opposite end of a rock crevice that showed some light streaking into the otherwise dark cave. This brought us onto the edge of the cliff that was a vertical drop, and gave a clear, unobstructed view of the valley and snow-covered mountains on the other edge of the Paro city, bordering Haa.

Lunch at Champaca cafe, Paro city

After scrambling out of the 'real' tiger nest cave, we made it out of the monastery, just in time for the monastery's lunch break. After a short pause to meditate in the serene and heavenly surrounding, we were on our way back. This time, the way down was covered mostly on the steep walking path that needed a little, careful maneuvering to avoid twisted ankles. The journey down was covered in 1 hour flat, to get us back to the base point, completely exhausted but fully invigorated. Once back in Paro city, I headed straight to the Champaca cafe for a sumptuous lunch of rice with kidney beans dal and vegetable salad.

BPD: Thimphu, the Capital city

(BPD: Thimphu, the Capital city, 27 Apr '15)

The concept of home-stay is not prevalent in Bhutan and one must plan accommodation in hotels. However, while talking to people, I've heard about and also met enterprising people who are venturing into this area, though the places are not yet advertised online, and are let out only to acquaintances. I stayed in a hotel in the main city in Thimphu, wherein I ran into a couple visiting the country from Meghalaya, Assam. The husband had setup his own business in the area of enterprise software security, while his wife was with the Indian Railways.

Kid at the monastery

Joining them, I went around Thimphu visiting the places of interest. The most noteworthy one is the Changangkha Lhakhang, a 900-year old monastery, that is right in the heart of Thimphu. This is a very popular monastery with the locals and acts as the virtual birth registry, as all newborns are mandatorily brought here first, to be named and blessed. The place has ancient paintings on temple walls, and small carvings of religious figures on stone slates, that are placed behind the prayer wheels, all around the temple.

The Changangkha Lhakhang monastery	..birds at the Memorial Chorten

'Buddha point' is an under-construction, mammoth statue of Buddha measuring over 50 meters and slated to be the tallest Buddha statue in the world. The statue has a majestic presence over the city and at the angle its been built, is clearly visible from all parts of the city. The only attraction (and feature) in the Thimphu zoo is Bhutan's national animal, the Takin. I ended up visiting the botanical garden at the insistence of the couple, but it turned out to be a good find, with its collection of ornamental plants and some very exotic flowers. The garden has a very aesthetic architecture, with several click-worthy spots and is very well maintained. We were taken an order of Maggi Noodles in the garden canteen, and ended up being served the Koka thukpa, a soupy noodle prepared using the Koka ready-to-cook noodle, which is the staple and most famous noodle from Singapore, that is consumed in all of Bhutan!

The majestic Buddha point

Takin, Bhutan's national animal	Royal Botannical Garden

There are only a limited number of tourist spots in Thimphu, and these can be easily covered in under 4 hours, leaving one with enough time to explore the city, that is sparsely populated and spread-out length-wise from north to south. The twin monasteries of Tango and Cherri are in the city outskirts, worth visiting and are important religious places of worship with a long history. After exploring Thimphu on foot on the first day, I was contemplating on doing a solo hike in one of the many mountains around the city. Looking up for inspirations, I came across this book compiled by Rogier Gruys, which seemed quite detailed with a combination of short and long hikes, apty titled 'Mild and Mad Day Hikes around Thimphu'. After much deliberation, I was more inclined to hike up to the twin monasteries, a route also mentioned in the book, with an option to extend the trek higher into the mountain ranges for few more hours, beyond the Tango monastery. 

A view of one of the districts of Thimphu City

BPD: Hiking a leech-infested mountain!

(BPD: Hiking a leech-infested mountain!, 21 Apr '15)

While in the tribal village at Darap, I found out about the Rani Donga mountain, which was an overall trek of 10km to the top and has a good view of the Pelling area. This peak is also a prominent place of religious importance for the local Nepali Hindu tribe who worship Lord Ram in the big monolithic rock. The local folktale goes that the monolithic rock atop this mountain was converted into a place of worship by one of the ancient Sikkim Kings, as requested by his 2 Queens; hence the name, Rani Donga which literally translates into 'Queen's rock'.

Kid in a tribal home

Santhosh, a bright 10th standard student awaiting his results acted as my local guide, to venture into the forests, that is said to inhabit bears and wild boars apart from wild dogs! Armed with a traditional Nepali Gorkha knife, the 'Kukri' and demonstrating some basic moves with it, he guided me through the tribal village. With a largely agricultural sustenance, the tribals had large paddy fields, apart from small cardamom & green pea plantations and a variety of fruit trees like apples, pears and cherries. The forest also had a rich variety of medicinal plants that the tribals use for most basic remedies, like healing cuts, quickening blood clots, stopping bleeding nose etc. To an untrained eye, all these plants looked the same!

Ascending the mountain, we crossed the last few tribal huts amidst curious eyes, to get into the thick of forest. The forest was moist owing to the sporadic rains over the previous days. At one point in the hike, I noticed the signature presence of leeches, one attached to a stone, standing upright, slightly wiggling and patiently waiting for an object to latch on to! Having trekked amidst a thriving leech population in the Kumaraparvata mountains a year back, I could identify the signs. However, little did I know that this entire forest was infested with leeches. Soon, we encountered hundreds of leeches along the way and I quickly tucked in the trousers into the socks, and started keeping an eye on the shoes to remove leeches as they climbed on.

A Leech ready to latch on..	Trees on the way

The overall hike was very scenic and midway we crossed the point where the clouds drifted across the mountain, just around a clearing in the pine forests. Throughout the way, we found wild strawberries which were blooming in the season and provided us with a steady supply of small, bright red and tasty berries to snack. After about 3 hours, we reached the Rani Donga mountain amidst fresh showers and feasted on our packed lunch of parathas, with a great view of flowering rhododendron plants around. By then, the showers had become intense and we quickly paid obeisance to the deities who were worshiped in the form of small pellets placed under the face of the monolithic rock. At one end of the rock, there is a small cave which leads someway inside and then ascends vertically upwards, opening up at the top of the rock. Local belief goes that any person caving through this enclosure and climbing up through the narrow crevice without difficulty possessed a clean, blessed soul and the locals routinely used this as a test on people, during times of need!

Wild strawberries found along the way	A Mid-point halt on the hike

Rain drops-laden fir trees	Some clouds passing by...

During the way down, the leeches had become super-active thanks to the fresh showers, and we had to keep checking our shoes and clothes every hundred meters, to knock off the villainous creatures hitch-hiking onto the shoes, and then slowly descending into the inner side of the socks for a shot at some fresh blood! The hike down was rapid and in less than an hour, we reached the base and then frantically removed the socks and dresses to pull out the last set of leeches from within. A hike to this mountain is well worth the effort, just that to take care of the leeches problem during monsoons, one needs to plan proper clothing and remedies like salt-water solution, that acts as a leech deterrent.

Getting closer to the home-stay, we passed some football crazy kids practicing and stopped for a penalty kick! After I badly missed the goal post by quite some margin, the kids obliged for a photograph and chatted excitedly about their favorite European football clubs. This was a standard feature all over Darjeeling & Sikkim where football is clearly THE favorite sport, and Chelsea THE club of choice!

Peculiar looking, but edible plants	Monolithic rock temple, atop Rani Donga

Clouds-covered mountain-top	Phot-op after my failed penalty kick!