Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Mt. Kailash - Manasarovar Sojourn - 4

Each day we would breakfast quite early in the mornings by about 7:00 a.m. and only after a diligently performed Guru pooja and Guru vandana that would take about 15 minutes would we board our cars headed for the next destination. As a sequel to the Guru pooja we were taught a shloka that was to strengthen us and steel our resolves towards our goal. The shloka went thus:

                                        Brahmaananda Swaroopa, Isha Jagadisha
                                        Akhilananda Swaroopa, Isha Mahesha.

It would be difficult to convince the sceptics, but it is really amazing that on religiously  following the spiritual guidance and various other instructions provided by our mentors none in the group faced any major problems of altitude sickness or other kinds of disorders. Besides this, we were advised the chant of the mantra 'Om namah Shivaya' and repeatedly utterring 'Shambho'. All these procedure had the significant effect of protecting us and even I, who had minor problems of wheezing even down in the plains of Peninsular India, felt no traces of exhaustion or tiredness. In fact I could keep equal pace with men who were ten to twelve years younger than me.


So it was that on the 25th of August 2010, after all the religious and spiritual observances we left Zhangmu for Nyalam at a distance of only 35 km but at a much greater altitude - a small town at an altitude of 3750 m or 12,375 ft.  The drive from Zhangmu to Nyalam is stupendously picturesque and one sees sheer vertical valley walls rising up from the river to touch the sky. The whole drive has many, many water falls and one is simply taken in by the magnificent scenery.


L to R: Author, Ramesh, Mahesh, Balamurugan (Jeep mates)

One of the many waterfalls on road to Nyalam

The initial parts of the drive has green, verdant valley walls covered mainly with grass and a few trees. Some
portions do indeed have many pine trees, but as one heads upwards, the trees significantly decline in numbers. For a short space along the drive, one notices a thick foliage of flowering plants and bushes that make for a pretty picture. But as one nears Nyalam, the terrain becomes essentially barren and rocky.

We reached Nyalam around 11:30 a.m. and after a brief spell of rest and savoring a few cups of masala tea and biscuits in the common hall, we shifted our luggages to our rooms. We were allotted four persons to a room. The accommodation is rather threadbare with rudimentary but adequate toilet facility.


Later in the day, we were taken on a short trek up a hill which is roughly 200-300 m high as an exercise in acclimatisation. I have to add that at Nyalam (12,375 ft) one does feel a shortness of breath as he or she undertakes any physical activity. Even ascending a flight of stairs to the first floor can leave one gasping mildly. The trek up the hill was quite invigorating.




(Right: Trek up a hill for acclimatization at Nyalam. The rocky barrenness of the surroundings is clearly seen.)





The town is a rather small one and has a series of condominiums each one looking like the other. The main street has a series of shops and a few restaurants lining it on either side. The merchandise that the shops offered was what one gets in any other town and consists of daily usage items like shoes, umbrellas, soaps, toothpastes, raincoats, gloves and so on.  We tried to spot a store that would be selling ethnic Tibetan stuff and local handicraft but we couldn't find any. The barren rocky landscape around the town is seen in the photos below.




Right: Nyalam at dawn.






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