this is the last post of the tibet trip and covers our trip from darchen to saga.. and onwards from there to dzangmu (khasa) via nyalam.
the weather that cleared up to a spotless sky in kailash, gets more and more overcast as we head eastwards. our hopes of viewing mt. shishapangma (at 8013m, the 14th highest mountain in the world) at close quarters thus dashed.. but viewing little bits of himal in between clouds here and there, was in fact quite exciting.
the journey along the bhotey koshi, witnessing its ferocious wrath, tumbling and hurtling down the narrow gorges was awe-inspiring.. and the final stretch of highway as we descended to dzangmu, is an engineering marvel ...
this was quite a long journey.. which we had broken into two days on the way up...
as we set off from darchen, we bid goodbye to the far off manasarovar
.. and to my favourite peak, mt. gurla...
a few hours later we reach the check post.. this mountain was a reminder for us to stop taking pictures...
... while we were headed towards manasarovar 2 days earlier, we were just a few hours in the queue.. and yet it had taken us more than half an hour to cross the security checkpoint. while returning we were surprised to see the number of vehicles queued up.. would take a couple of hours of wait, at least! there were pilgrims headed that way to catch the full moon the next day.
even though we were just a few cars coming back, we waited an hour for the formalities to be over.. the final check being a physical count and verification of the passengers inside the bus itself! below is the shot looking back at the security point...
high swept clouds in an azure sky
coming closer towards paryang.. the himals in view again
.. this seemed like a pretty wide glacier.. but not sure whether it is one...
.. lots of nomads' tents here...
in paryang, a roadside toilet for "man"
at the chinese restaurant again i discover a wonderful drink a tea with a piece of misri (crystallised sugar lumps), dried licchis, raisins, dates etc in which you pour hot water and just sip as the all the tastes start to blend...
no one singing us nepali dohori here.. but the kids nevertheless asking for tika and choora (glass bangles)
no one singing us nepali dohori here.. but the kids nevertheless asking for tika and choora (glass bangles)
storm clouds seem to be gathering..
having just being updated in the havoc created on the other side of the himalaya by the cloudburst in uttarakhand. i was a bit alarmed for people living in north west regions of nepal.
i even texted daji to check the weather forecast, and he assured me satellite pictures did not show anything alarming
it starts getting dark...
.. and darker...
.. winds pick up kicking up the dust and sand...
.. it looks like a scene from the hurricane chaser movies!
..as we near saga. it begins to rain.. thunder and lightning.. and in the higher passes even sleet...
.. finally ensconced in the warm rooms of the guest house.. who cared about shared open slatted toilets , as long as we were warm and snuggly??!!!
this restaurant in saga had this strange concoction in a jar, that had amongst other things, yarsa gumba too !
our trip the next day took us on a short cut to nyalam. we had to take a dirt road.. if we'd known /realised earlier, we could have added two days to you trip and made a small dash to everest base camp.. we were so close to it!
...the very first obstacle was this water body next to the brahmaputra that we had to negotiate.. notice the water level in the truck??
...the very first obstacle was this water body next to the brahmaputra that we had to negotiate.. notice the water level in the truck??
.. even the dirt road here was in such a good condition.. lack of rain probably is what helps to preserve the quality of the road!
the further south east we headed it became more and more cloudy.. our hopes of seeing shishapangma (gosainthan) up close and personal went out of the window
drolung tso, a salt water lake.. it seems all the lakes in the tibetan plateau have been shrinking
the clouds cling to the hillsides...
we near the crossroads.. where we meet the road going towards kerung pass. that's the other entry point in the past, and very soon in the future too into china from nepal...
at that point we leave the dirt road behind
.. the landscape starts getting very rugged...
eroded hillsides
the waters of the lake peiku reflects the grey cloudy skies
.. roadside beauty...
.. we should have seen the majestic gosainthan from here.. ah well.. we took solace at to be able to see at least a bit of snow!
dozens of land cruisers whizz by.. (prabhadi, were you in one of these? :) )
a clustered up village 'neath a hill
ruins of a monastery?
climbing up towards thong la pass along the 'friendship highway'
looking westwards in the direction we had just traveled through
... we arrive at the pass.. and to a welcome gate...
.. prayer flags all over...
curio seller.. i nearly fell for what look like a great flat fossil of some creature.. until i saw the exact same thing, the same design, on the same kind of stone, in three different stalls!!!
if the weather had cleared up we'd probably have seen mt. gauri shankar in the left side.. and dorje lakpa and phurbi ghyachu and shisapangma to the right....
peek a boo to the left
in ecstasy!
.. mountains up front...
.. and to the right...
from brown to grey to blue and white...
.. this is all we saw of shishapangma... and all that those yaks saw that day!
.. a bit more of a mountain as the clouds shift...
coming down from the pass. we begin to see habitation and greenery...
a truck headed upwards.. must be bringing stuff from nepal.. but what ? rakta chandan ; ) ??
.. lovely formations in the mountains... almost looks like a dinosaur's back
two bands of different coloured rocks
.. this one too...
.. up close...
again a flag formation.. green, grey and blue!
details of some other rock formation in a mountain...
... we get closer to the himalayan divide...
... near this village, more greenhouses...
our happy jham jham group! (only nanu was ill, and feeling a bit under the weather)
.. we meet the bhotey koshi (or rongshar tsangpo on this side of the border) .. we will be following the river all the way into nepal where it merges its identity with other rivers... most fascinating bits when it tumbles down and goes way below the highway...
as we come to nyalam (while coming from kathmandu, this is the place for a stopover for acclimatisation) we drove under this huge rock...
.. this must be a remnant for a massive flood, (glacial lake outburst???) at some point in history...
.. taming of the river
everybody was craving for nepali masu bhaat.. so this is where we went...
.. familiar ambience...
...we let this sleeping dog lie...
... nyalam bazar.. there were many nepali traders (with tibetan partners) with shops there..
post lunch we follow the bhotey koshi's course southwards... the terrain gets greener and greener as we go down...
water cascades in a white torrent all the way down a hillside...
our guide said that this was the new road that the chinese built, leaving the old one on the other side.. many tunnels on this new highway...
.. this was the closest we got to bhotey koshi.. after that the river falls down at a very fast pace.. leaving us and going down and down and down...
the whitish waters get even whiter in the rapids
crashing through gorges
this spot reminded me of the place in myagdi near rupse chhahara where the river takes a huge dip in a rush of water, thundering noise and spraying a mist of water..
the river is already way down, notice the small buildings on the other bank
forced through narrow gorge it rushes down
.. and down... this is a place of a recent landslide.. the vehicle having to go pretty close to the edge...
it gets greener still.. and the white waterfall speeds its way down the cliff
the road now starts winding down... all along the steep gorge...
the road and the river...
the road and the river...
the highway cuts through the steep gorge...
rock faces have been sliced away to make way for the road...
.. this bit was the most intriguing.... not only has the rock been carved out to make way for the road.. the waterfall is deflected by a concrete structure!
more stream rush down towards bhotey koshi
we know we're approaching our destination by seeing a row of cargo trucks parked along one side of the highway.. all loaded with stuff for nepali market...
finally we're in dzangmu, and can see nepali hillsides to the south
the 'happiest' part of the hotel ...
view of dzangmu from our hotel window...
we went for a walk... it was mainly uphill.. but what a relief.. no panting!!!
saw this cutest lhasa apso pup...
it rained.. no it poured all of a sudden...
that evening we had a 'yay!' dinner to commemorate a succesful trip
.a sizzling success...
.. next morning we were all set to go across the border, which was 8 km drive down south to the river. and miteri pool (friendship bridge)..
a proud bhotey kukur looks on
a waterfall way up on the mountain..
the vista of dzangmu...
.. houses stacked one on top of the other along the cliffs
.. the row of trucks continues.. just showing our lopsided balance of trade...
we get closer to the river
miteri pool
.. and raging bhotey koshi below it...
rapids in the river
hear the monsoony river roar.. i pan up to show kodari bazar on the other side...
so that was our pilgrimage/tourism trip to tibet...
:)
iti
:)
iti
No comments:
Post a Comment