Bistari, bistari 2.0 - A second trip to Nepal - Ghar Gompa to Zhaite

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Ghar Gompa to Zhaite

I wake up to the prayer flags still fluttering outside my window, it's only 5am and no one else is stirring. I just lie there for another hour taking it in, I am feeling warm, utterly content and happy. My bladder, however, is not content or happy so the long trip to the loo must be undertaken. Pull on some more clothes and tread carefully over the floor boards, opening the big wooden doors I'm trying not to make too much noise. The trip to the loo is interrupted by 2 very big yaks, I take a wide berth and end up being completely distracted by the views- the sun rising over mountains never fails to take my breath away (I hope I never lose that feeling, ever, no matter how many morning I am lucky enough to encounter that sight). Anyway... by the time I get back to the room Mary's up, dressed and packed. As I said yesterday, we are now true masters at the pack up. Wander across to the kitchen, Tashey Dorma (Lama's wife) and Dhana are cooking up a (smoke) storm of tibetan bread. Santos has the kettle boiled, the first hot tea for the day goes down well. Ongshoo (Lama) is out in the central courtyard letting the cows and calves out of the stables. I take the opportunity to get some of my journal written (thanks Linn) sitting inside the central open space of the house. Ongshoo appears with a carpet square for me to sit on. The Nepalese often make these really thoughtful gestures, it is quite humbling. Anyway... we all end up back in the smokey kitchen eating our breakfast of bread and marmalade, it's really good.

Ongshoo is going to show us through the monastery this morning but as we are getting ready to go, he and his wife present us all with a prayer scarf- it's another really nice gesture. Shoes off we enter the monastery. It is called Lo Ghyekar Gompa or Ghar Gompa and was built in the 8th century. It is Tibetan and was built in the site of a guru v demon slaying. I am in awe of the paintings inside, they are done on individual tiles. There is a natural stone Buddha on the back wall at the LHS of the room. This is all pretty stunning but when Ongshoo opens up the doors to the inner sanctum it is almost overwhelming. There are several large Buddha statues, lots of relics, statues, the 7 bowls of water, candles and other assorted offerings. Actually, it was hard to pull myself away to leave. Who knows why? It certainly wasn't a spiritual experience, just a kind of defining experience I guess....

Shoes back on, we say goodbye to the Belgians The walking resumes. We head out of the village past the terracotta chortens and begin the slow ascent up the next hill. It's muddy and snowy but relatively easy. It takes an hour to make it to the Pass. Awesome views of Nilgri and Annapurna II and IV, as well as the snow swirling on top of Annapurna I. Then it's downhill again, easy walking. And then..... yep, up to the next Pass, the one that leads us back into the valley we came through yesterday. Over the next Pass the scenery undergoes another change - high rocky structures, white snowy mountains, huge soaring cliffs and caves. We can also see the Ghami Hospital and long mani wall off in the distance. We walk right through Drakhmar and back into Ghami arriving just after 12. We take a long break for lunch. The Belgians arrive. Mary takes the opportunity to wash her hair in the outside courtyard tap (somewhat chilly) and dry it in the sun. I don't. I just kick back in the sun. It's a bit of a conundrum really- I want to enjoy the warmth of the sun on the few visible bits of my body but I dont want to get burnt (first world problem, i know). Even fully sun screened we are getting quite a bit of windburn, especially the lips. Say goodbye to the Belgians.

We leave at 2pm ,Dhana tells us we have 2 passes with 1 significant uphill to do. Sounds good. The afternoon wind has kicked in. I walk mostly by myself. It is pleasant afternoon, lots of flat. Reach the first Pass in 40 minutes. There are 2 options to reach the second Pass-

1). The steady switchback, or

2). The direct, steep, snowy, muddy, loose stone way.

Option 2 it is. Random bit of info- between the first and second Passes there are 993 steps up (very random I know. This information will not come in handy for anything at all).

Hit the pass at 3:47. It is blowing a gale. Amazing views of the Annapurnas and back into the Mustang Valley. The village of Zhaite is in sight. On the way down we pass 1 Kiwi, 2 Canadians and 4 Nepali- the most people we've seen for days. Arrive at the Hotel Jhaite (where we passed through on Friday) and they go into overdrive to accommodate us. Rooms are vacated, beds pulled apart, floors are swept, rugs are beaten and clean sheets come out. We decide to catch up on the washing- big mistake. Sounded like a great idea but within minutes of immersing our hands in the water at the water source thing out the front our hands are white and painful!!!!! Hang stuff up still dripping in the courtyard and make a beeline for the kitchen stove- the hand defrosting process is pretty damn sore too! Meet another trekker staying there- Yorick from The Black forest, then the Belgians arrive too. After dinner (a pretty good dhal bat) the teahouse lady brings out a brazier and some yak wool shawls for everyone. We indulge in some apple pancakes. The International Yatzee Tournament begins. Santos wins (again). It's good fun. The porters are all getting pretty raucous in the kitchen- rakshi induced.

Another late night (9.30pm).

Sleep is a bit elusive though- there's still a lot of noise in the kitchen and our door won't shut properly. We try to close it with our poles as best we can. At midnight in a kind of twilight/half sleep I fully wake up- there's a big fight going on in the kitchen. What to do? Sink lower into the sleeping bag and hope it all goes away. It does, 15 mins later everything is silent and dark.


Addit- this is quite an interesting article on the caves of the Upper Mustang http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/mustang-caves/finkel-text

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Photos

Lo-Gheykar Monastery
no photos allowed inside