Tiger's Nest.

In a trip that included many stunning sights and moments, the day trek to Taktshang Goemba, or 'Tiger's Next' monastery, was one of the highlights.

Perched perilously on a sheer cliff-face 3,000 feet above the surrounding valley floor, at around 11,000 feet in altitude, it's really quite some location.

The hike up was steep, spectacular and exhausting (we'd arrived in Bhutan just the day before and not adjusted to the altitude), through pine forests dripping with mosses, past prayer flags on tall poles and chortens (shrines) with chiming prayer wheels turned by mountain streams.

The final precipitous stretch - along winding stone steps, over a small bridge with a drop of several hundred feet on one side and a tumbling waterfall on the other, and past an ancient temple wedged into an overhanging cliff-face - was like some high-altitude fantasy landscape. 

We were fortunate: with numbers of visitors to the country down and our well-timed, post-lunch arrival at Taktshang, our small group made up the only visitors to the ancient monastic complex that afternoon.

I won't forget exploring this peaceful, sacred place. The winding stairs like an Escher drawing; the spectacular, technicolour shrines full of candles, painting and sculpture - vivid with life. And all the time, the wind blowing gently though the old corridors and the jaw-dropping views to the valley far below.

(Photographs were not allowed within the complex itself).