Trotting round Manasarovar and Mt.Kailash: An Intro to Nepali Hospitality
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By Prabalta Rijal
Follow @prayu_lisa |

I had been excited about going there from the time Jyoti Adhikari (dai), the president of the Eco Trek International informed us that I had gotten the required visa for the sacred trip. It was to become a journey of a lifetime.Our drive to the Chinese border was exceptionally interesting because I was bubbling with excitement, and, even after I was seated onto my seat—I could hardly believe it! I could see members of The Eco-Trek International, seated in front of us patiently answering inquisitive queries with a knowing smile and their kind mannerism touched me from the very first day. My expedition troupe consisted of Padam Rana Magar, Deepak Nepal, Kaji Kumal, Dhruva Sapkota, Sahadev Bhujel, Ashok Bhujel, Ram Gopal Adhikari, Rajesh Bhattarai and Indian pilgrims.
Anyways, we had nothing to worry about and we crossed over without witnessing further incidences.It was an over an hour drive to Nyalam, which was cold and uncomfortable, as we had to crouch up in the back of the Land Cruiser, turning us completely off. As we climbed down from the jeep, a burst of freezing cold air greeted us in Nyalam, where we would spend an entire day acclimatizing to the high altitude before heading towards our destination.The freezing cold weather and elegance of the place caught us all by surprise and though we were wearing jackets, we hadn’t expected it to be so nerve-rackingly cold. After a quick change into my thermals, tracks and jackets, I headed towards the kitchen for a chat.

"We are a team, there is no senior and junior. We treat everyone equally here and everyone has to do whatever is required to make our guests comfortable," said Dhruva while puffing a cigarette and stirring the Sambar he was preparing for dinner.
After serving tea, coffee, and soup to other pilgrims in our group, they hurriedly started preparing dinner, and till 12 o’clock (Nepali time in China) they were busy preparing for the next day and cleaning up the dishes.
Kaji, still dressed in his half-pants and t-shirt, told us about Nyalam and its history. "The reason we stay here an extra day is because we want pilgrims to get used to high altitudes and make them realize that the trip ahead will be at higher altitudes and more difficult," he said. As I headed for bed, some of the troupe members headed for the Nyalam disco. I had gotten up very early the next morning only to find our kitchen crew busily preparing breakfast for the rest of us--in fact the entire kitchen team would be up by four in the morning, throughout the trip and Dhruva and Kaji would always be up by three.
Since I really didn’t have much to do the entire day after the little hike up the hill I spent the entire day with our crew, who were always delighted to

On the fourth day, we reached Saga, a small town past the Fitucho lake (Monkey lake), where shrubs of the very popular cooking herb (Jimmu) grow in the wild. The neighborhood, which lies near the banks of the Brahmaputra, is the only place one can sleep at a Three Star hotel with hot water and bathroom facilities.
"One major problem most tourists and pilgrims face during this trip is the inadequate bathroom and toilet facilities," said Padam, who was always a knight in shining armor to many of the devotees. "I have been in this field since 1997 and we have not had any incidences of death on these trips. We all work as a team and our team coordination is next to perfect," he said.
This was very true--since no guest had any room for complaint, they always had the food ready on time, and hot water, medication, and personal attention was always readily available to all the pilgrims even in the harshest circumstances. "The only rest we get here is during the long drives," Deepak said, and adding to this Rajesh remarked, "We sleep in Nepal standard time and get up in the Chinese standard time so we hardly get four hours of sleep a day."
We had reached lake Mansarovar on the fifth day after passing through beautiful snow-capped hills, mountains, sand dunes and lush-green pastures. It was from there that we got our first glimpse of the Kailash-the abode of lord Shiva and we could feel adrenaline rush as we jumped with excitement and carelessly opened the doors of our Land Cruisers racing towards the lake.

We had reached Tarchen, the base camp of Kailash on the sixth day of our departure from Katmandu and the very next day our three-day trek round Kailsah termed as Kora began.
The Kora/ Holy trek around the mountain:
Day 1:
The seven-hour trek past the stone formation of Lord Ganesh up on the hills, with wonderful views of cascading creeks, streaming waterfalls and the

Day 2:
The next day we had a steep climb towards the Dolma Pass (5630m) which was the hardest because of the lack of oxygen and slippery rocky paths during the uphill accent. I enjoyed looking at Mt.Kailash on way up the pass, and the snake like formations on the mountain fascinated me, so instead of focusing on the treacherous trek uphill, I was awed by the mountain and wasted most of my energy clicking photos. Half way up the mountain and my next to empty backpack felt like it was a hundred kilos and my head started spinning and I was at a loss of breath as I know treaded slowly uphill.

This was is a sight for sore eyes and we celebrated our success. This rocky expanses where the bamboo pieces draped with clothes had been erected by pilgrims as homage to the dead is the closest point to Mt.Kailash, which looks like a hand away.
After a short break at the top of the pass, we started our steep descent past Gauri Kunda to our final resting camp. The Gauri Kunda, or the 'Tukje Chenpo Tso'-- the 'Lake of Mercy', like the Tibetans call it is a fresh water pool, which is considered as the of the highest fresh water body found on the planet. Legend has it that this is where Lord Shiva's wife Goddess Parvati would bathe. And therefore it is believed that a dip in this freezing cold emerald water cleanses ones sins.
So most pilgrims visiting Kailash either immerse in its icy cold mostly frozen emerald waters or just sprinkle it on one's head to

As we joined the rest of the troupe, I realized that the already toilsome trek had turned even more difficult for our crew, as they had to carry a lady who had broken both her legs on her way down the rocky trail, this slowed us down significantly, as we now treaded down the slippery stones to the base of the holy mountain in our effort to encircle this mystic manifestation of Mt.Meru. Our walk from then onwards was mostly easy and we hiked happily towards Zutulphuk, where we would spend the evening.
Day 3:

We however, took our time, and trekked for almost three hours which completed our circumambulation around the holy mountain. After three hours of walk through picturesque landscape we found our land rover waiting for us at the end of the Kora to take us to Darchen where Dhurva dai had prepared idli and Sambar for lunch. I savored the South-Indian delicacy before heading to Mansarovar where we spent the night before our long journey back to Kathmandu.
The entire trip was a lifetime experience as it showed us what hospitality really meant and the kind of hard-work, discipline, dedication, and team spirit that go into making such an arduous, equally dangerous and one of the most difficult treks in Asia a huge success!
The Oslo Times