from shigatse onwards all the way to manasarovar our trip was basically driving and driving and driving.. stopping over for 'happy happy' breaks, stopovers for lunches, and photo-op breaks at scenic spots (and that , you must be convinced by now, was a temptation round every bend)...
we stopped for the night at saga and then drove half a day to paryang, slept over.. and then drove another half day to manasarovar...
this is the first part of the trip.. from saga to paryang.. with a high pass and an expanded lake-like brahmaputra on the way
we woke up to overcast skies in saga and were disappointed that the weather would not clear up for us in kailash... we realised in the morning that saga had hotels too (see below), not just dormitories and guest houses.. but they were all filled up with indian pilgrims.. booked way in advance, it seems...
pool to the tibetan males seems to be what carrom is for nepali youths...
our road hugs the brahmaputra part of the way.. our mood lifting as we begin to see more blue patches of sky
.. wonder why purple seems to be a most popular colour for flowers in these dry climates
our baahan
.. again fascinating colours in these hills...
the hills in this portion had patches of white and grey.. bands of grey and white.. as if they had snow in them...
.. and then the blue and white skies...
to the south we seemed to be driving the closest yet to the nepali border.. and we could see peaks peeking from behind clouds...
sand dunes and hills (and power lines!)
.. then we came to the point where brahmaputra widens up looking like a huge lake... this for us was one of the most enchanting scene in the drive.. sand dunes in the front, jade coloured water after that and then distant blue hills and the snowy himalaya rising behind them....
some of our friends took pictures in the sand dunes.. pretending that they were in dubai!
... a tapestry of pastel colours...
and a panning video
.. sand dune encroaches on the highway...
.. yak herding in the plains...
a bit of snow... sand, grass and water...
we reached paryang for lunch. at theis restaurant run my chinese muslims, we nepalis were novelty. when the guy sitting next to the one in the hat heard we were from nepal, he played a nepali dohori geet on his mobile phone for us!!
the kitchen was spotlessly clean.. and everything, including the noodles were made from scratch.. fresh and yummy. here is the cook, holding a giant potato...
the clouds look menacing and dark towards sunset.. paryang seems to lie just above mustang.. so across the himalaya this light would mean time to be 6-6:30 p.m. , here it was chinese time...past 8 in the evening...
looking eastwards himals in the border rise above the paryang skyline...
and southwards... it is the green pastures... that rise into gentle hills and then the himal again... notice the tents of the nomad herders...
,,, the tibetans seem to decorate their bikes .. music system...finery...
after the quiet streets of lhasa.. and the silent 2 and 3 wheelers.. this one in the main street (highway) in paryang was quite a noisy surprise...
.. the yummiest potatoes i'd had in a long time... at the same chinese restaurant...
we had dorm style rooms at the guest house. 4 beds to a room.. there was a host of indian pilgrims at the guest house.. whose food was being cooked in a special tent by nepalis. they did us an immense favour and gave us a thermos full of nepali chiya! what a treat...
and the "happy-happy" toilet was outside. aside from the 2-slatted lockable ones there were these semi-partitioned ones outside as well..
we were actually higher in paryang than in saga...150m higher! the reminder that we were in thin air was the panting after any movement worth a reckon.. every thing seemed to take an effort !
.. next morning.. the skies had cleared quite a bit, and we could see much more of the himals to the south
.. interesting pointy mountains...
... more himals... no idea, which though....
an indian pilgrim returning from a long trip to the maidaan... none of them wanted to use the toilets...
.. the essence of tibet.. prayers flags, pastures, mountains, himals...
pink stone/soil near a lake... notice the clouds getting thinner...
.. and thinner still... and disappearing... this was a wonderful stretch of flat land...
.. 180 degree pan ...
.. a wild horse?
artistic movement of sand and soil...
.. our first glimpse of the 7694m high gurla mandhata himal... i don't know why, but his mountain held me in awe.. it's so spread out and huge...
.. clearer as we come closer...
.. animal crossing once more... and notice the cloudless skies!
and peaks to the north seemed to have an unusual amount of snow.. it must have been the storm that created such havoc and destruction south of the himalaya a few days earlier, that must dumped the snow here too...
all along the highway there were many many points where there were people building the concrete support 'sides' to the highway...
.. the road starts climbing up towards a high pass once again.. meanwhile we have passed a security point where all aliens' passports and details are checked.. long wait (but strictly no photos allowed!)
notice the land cruisers on the road.. we would meet many more on on our way back.. carrying indian pilgrims mainly, as the full moon approached...
we reach the mayum la pass (5211 m).. we had to wait quite a while here.. as it seems the security guys had forgotten to give us (tashi) back one passport.. so we had to wait a it was being delivered by a vehicle carrying indian pilgrims... so we spent time taking pictures of people...
.. birds..
.. piles of khada and plastic bottles in the gutter...
.. and wondering that it would not be hard to climb this peak!
finally we left tashi at the pass.. and went to lower ground.. near this wonderful pasture with a rocky outcrop
some of the boys thought they had found what could be passed off as yarsa gumba :)
tashi finally arrived and it seems the missing passport was prabhubabu's.. prabhubabu joked that he'd otherwise would have had to lead life as a nomad.. eating, rearing, milking, shearing yaks!!!
.. a little bit further.. and we caught our first glimpse of lake manasarovar..
i took this video from a vantage point. panning from one end of manasarovar to the other.. with mt kailash thrown in between...
mt. kailash.. "jai shambo' shouted everyone when they first caught a glimpse of this holy mountain... mt kailash.. looking like it had applied 'fair and lovely', with all that snow.. it is usually a dark rugged mountain... but again.. it must have been the same uttarakhand storm that did the trick...
there were so many prayer flags...
tej bhai adds one more khada on the fence...
.. and a photo op for the group...
mt kailash on one side, and mt gurla on the other.. brilliant!
mt. kailash' view kept changing as we drove closer... it seems people see mahadev (lord shiva)'s face on the mountain.. the horizontal stripes on the mountain make it easier for people to delineate faces, i think...
a changed view again...
... and closer still....
there seemed to be plenty of what look like sea gulls in an around the manasarovar area.. many of them nesting
.. we left the main highway and took the dirt road up and down the hills towards the village by the lake side called jiu khar (sparrow monastery)
.. more prayer flags by the beach...
and mt. kailash still visible...
the lake is serene.. beautiful... huge.. reflecting the blue skies... as tashi told us, the speciality of manasarovar is that it does not have waves like other lakes...
situated 4590m above sea level, the lake is 320 sq.km, and has a circumference of nearly 90 km.
and obviously as a sweet water lake, favoured by these migratory birds nesting.. the next day we went to rakshas tal, and there was not a single bird there...
.. we started looking for a place to dip ourselves.. but the shore on this side was not pebbly as in some parts.. and had very fine muddy sand...
i managed to sit on the shallow waters and splash myself in the holy waters.. hopefully also absolved all my sins!! :) the others decided to wait until next morning to go further south and get holy manasarovar ko jal
.. after the bath...
.. and the group...
.. this was a tented camp set up by nepalis for a team of russians that had come by helicopter from simikot to the border.. and had then driven up...
.. even this kukur found solace in the rocks on the lake ...
this bird has an egg in it reed nest
these sea-gull like birds were aplenty in the lakeside.. also feeding on all the food thrown away by the guest houses...
.. a yellow-beaked raven like bird..
.. our team returns from the lake...
.. next stop is the hot spring. this is the the hot water source..
.. we had a great tub bath in the glass topped bath house by the hot springs... wonderful experience...
.. back at the lake again.. a chakheba chakhebi (ruddy shelduck) couple... seem to be enjoying the lake as much as shiva and parbati are said to have enjoyed dipping into the lake!
sparrows seems a plenty in the area too.. although they seem like bigger cousins than our bhangera!!
caching the rays of the sun going down...
.. on the lake and mountains too...
back in the guest house, the bhandary brother and their spouses take advantage of the plentiful pebbles in the yard to play dunk (in a paper cup)
as the shadows grow longer it is clear that the bhai beat the dai...
sun goes behind the jiu khar monastery hill
and no, i am not going to talk about the 4-slatted common toilet for many guest houses in the area that we had to use (or not use!) : )
next.. on to mt. kailash...
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