yakshaver
25th December 2005, 01:00 PM
Just a quick update...
Finished our trekking are are relaxing in Pokhara. Managed to get as far as Manang, as my son got gastroenteritis, and did not eat anything for about 4 days after Chame. Although we rested three days in Manang, his situation did not improve much, with all the drugs etc. So we returned back and let our other 4 friends to go over Thorung La, which they achieved succesfully, despide falling over repeatedly due to ice after the pass, going down towards Muktinath. But they made it and are elated about it. For me, the consolation is that I managed to do some nice side treks, while my son was trying to recover at hotel Yeti in Manang. The glacier view, as well as catching a very impressive Puja happening at the Braga monastery made up for some of the dissapointment. In fact for a lot of it. I managed to get about 20 minutes worth of video footage inside the Gompa, while the priests who've come over the passes from tibet, and the nuns, were changing, incanting, beating drums and blowing into the huge tibetan horns and other instrumets with gusto - nerally going at it hammmer and tongs. Yes - since I am not a new agey type, I did the touristy thing and filmed the ceremony... Appreciated the spiritual involvement and can totally relate to that.
This people obviously have someting which the west has lost, which comes from the hart and has no ostentation. I wish some of the bloody Hillsong people in Aus, or televangelists in the US will learn a bit about humility and natural spirituality from thesese simple peasants in the high valleys of the Himal. Something has been lost by a great part of Chrisitanity. I should not generalise. Shit and diamonds happen everywhere.
Other than that, I had a lot of time to interact with locals, met some really intersting people, including an irish lass married to a manangi fellow, who owns Hotel Utse in Pisang. Very nice people. The owner of Hotel Yeti in Manang, upon finding out about my son's ailments started treating him with Yarsa Gumba powder (more about this amazing insect/plant later...) disoveld in a generous shot of Rakshi. He started eating boiled rice after that, but was too weak to continue up towards Yak Kharka and High Camp so we truned back.
Santaman, our guide, was a gem as usual, managing very well the split of the group in two, and making the trip memborable for both.
One learning from this trip for me is that there is a lot of stuff to do and see without having to go madly to "do a trek". For example my new Irish friend was telling me about some amazing hidden hanging valleys at around 5000m altitude up from Pisang (saw Upper Pisang by the way, which was gret). And the stuff you can do from Manang is just awesome.
The road building has started in earnest but the money is (thankfully) running out. Everyone hates it, appart from the wealthy Manangis living in Hong Kong and Singapore, who dream abut expensive hotels in Manang. Else all the other villagers and lodge owners along the way abhor the idea as the whole area will be impoverished (foremost on their mind) and poluted.
But they only did the easy areas, and it looks like the next monsoon will destroy a whole lot of it. Unless they get the money and the technology of, say, Switzerland (and even then), this is going to be a white elephant of mamouth proportions (pun intended...). Let's hope so. The sad thing is that they could have used the money to get better infrastructure, power generators, schools etc, in the Manang valley and below.
No Maobadi were encountered, much to my dissapointment. With their declaring ceasefire, and the set of winter they have probably retired somewhere for the time being. The government (the king basically) is trying their best to goad and provoke them. The mood of the country is basically anti king and the puppet government he appointed, and the simpathy is slowly turning towards the idea of a constitutional body to draw up a new constitution (which the King oposes of course). The written understanding between the seven agitating parlamentary parties and the Maoists is generally positivelly regarded, and viewed as a diplomatic postive move by the maobadi. The parlamentary parties are continually varning the government not to provoke the maoists to break their cease-fire. Hower the so called PM Tulsi Giri, and the King, contiue on their merry way, with disregard for any common sense.
We shall see what develops, but basically people at throwing stones whenever prince Paras is driving in KTM, and the king is only popular with very small segments of the population.
Going to Chitwan tomorrow (Machan Wildlife Resort), and will send another update after that.
Happy yakshaving.
Finished our trekking are are relaxing in Pokhara. Managed to get as far as Manang, as my son got gastroenteritis, and did not eat anything for about 4 days after Chame. Although we rested three days in Manang, his situation did not improve much, with all the drugs etc. So we returned back and let our other 4 friends to go over Thorung La, which they achieved succesfully, despide falling over repeatedly due to ice after the pass, going down towards Muktinath. But they made it and are elated about it. For me, the consolation is that I managed to do some nice side treks, while my son was trying to recover at hotel Yeti in Manang. The glacier view, as well as catching a very impressive Puja happening at the Braga monastery made up for some of the dissapointment. In fact for a lot of it. I managed to get about 20 minutes worth of video footage inside the Gompa, while the priests who've come over the passes from tibet, and the nuns, were changing, incanting, beating drums and blowing into the huge tibetan horns and other instrumets with gusto - nerally going at it hammmer and tongs. Yes - since I am not a new agey type, I did the touristy thing and filmed the ceremony... Appreciated the spiritual involvement and can totally relate to that.
This people obviously have someting which the west has lost, which comes from the hart and has no ostentation. I wish some of the bloody Hillsong people in Aus, or televangelists in the US will learn a bit about humility and natural spirituality from thesese simple peasants in the high valleys of the Himal. Something has been lost by a great part of Chrisitanity. I should not generalise. Shit and diamonds happen everywhere.
Other than that, I had a lot of time to interact with locals, met some really intersting people, including an irish lass married to a manangi fellow, who owns Hotel Utse in Pisang. Very nice people. The owner of Hotel Yeti in Manang, upon finding out about my son's ailments started treating him with Yarsa Gumba powder (more about this amazing insect/plant later...) disoveld in a generous shot of Rakshi. He started eating boiled rice after that, but was too weak to continue up towards Yak Kharka and High Camp so we truned back.
Santaman, our guide, was a gem as usual, managing very well the split of the group in two, and making the trip memborable for both.
One learning from this trip for me is that there is a lot of stuff to do and see without having to go madly to "do a trek". For example my new Irish friend was telling me about some amazing hidden hanging valleys at around 5000m altitude up from Pisang (saw Upper Pisang by the way, which was gret). And the stuff you can do from Manang is just awesome.
The road building has started in earnest but the money is (thankfully) running out. Everyone hates it, appart from the wealthy Manangis living in Hong Kong and Singapore, who dream abut expensive hotels in Manang. Else all the other villagers and lodge owners along the way abhor the idea as the whole area will be impoverished (foremost on their mind) and poluted.
But they only did the easy areas, and it looks like the next monsoon will destroy a whole lot of it. Unless they get the money and the technology of, say, Switzerland (and even then), this is going to be a white elephant of mamouth proportions (pun intended...). Let's hope so. The sad thing is that they could have used the money to get better infrastructure, power generators, schools etc, in the Manang valley and below.
No Maobadi were encountered, much to my dissapointment. With their declaring ceasefire, and the set of winter they have probably retired somewhere for the time being. The government (the king basically) is trying their best to goad and provoke them. The mood of the country is basically anti king and the puppet government he appointed, and the simpathy is slowly turning towards the idea of a constitutional body to draw up a new constitution (which the King oposes of course). The written understanding between the seven agitating parlamentary parties and the Maoists is generally positivelly regarded, and viewed as a diplomatic postive move by the maobadi. The parlamentary parties are continually varning the government not to provoke the maoists to break their cease-fire. Hower the so called PM Tulsi Giri, and the King, contiue on their merry way, with disregard for any common sense.
We shall see what develops, but basically people at throwing stones whenever prince Paras is driving in KTM, and the king is only popular with very small segments of the population.
Going to Chitwan tomorrow (Machan Wildlife Resort), and will send another update after that.
Happy yakshaving.