Day Eight: Manang-Khangsar
Two routes, two rivers. Both routes led westwards to Khangsar (3730m), but the landslide-prone lower trail was best avoided in summer. Below us, Marshyangdi’s delta split into two: the left, fed by Tilicho, the right, fed by Thorong Phedi Khola.
The journey so far has been filled with sheer beauty. I tried desperately to document this God-made landscape, and realized how flawed my endeavour was. The only real way to experience this grandeur is to be here, right here, right now. What we see, hear and feel during the journey is really an experience, and photographs at most showed what I wanted to show you. I was determined to take my wife on the next trek.
As we journeyed westwards, Tilicho Peak peeped out from behind the clouds, as if eyeing us new arrivals with a sentinel curiosity. Somehow the sporadic cloud cover added to the pleasure of peak-spotting – clear skies all the way would have taken the fun out of it all.
The Porter, The Trekker and The Guide
We arrived in Khangsar in two hours flat, since we took only one 10-minute break in between. The rest day at Manang helped relieve some of the muscle fatigue. Our guide put us up in a small creaky guesthouse called Himali Chuli Laxmi - the only one that was open. To our pleasant surprise, Joo Ho and Jung Ah were standing at the balcony of the second floor, waving at us.
We learnt that the Korean duo had planned to do a Tilicho roundtrip before heading down to Thorong-La (high pass at 5416m). At Manang, they had met a man (the father of this lodge’s owner) who told them that Tilicho Base Camp Lodge was open. But our guide and porter were dead sure the lodge was closed. Without a lodge to stay the night at the base camp, the roundtrip was almost impossible – unless you carried your own food and tents. The Koreans had neither. The trek was simply too long to be attempted directly from Khangsar, or even Tare Gompa, an hour west of here.
After contemplating their situation for an hour, the Koreans decided to head towards Tare Gompa enroute Tilicho. They hoped to find news of a German duo who headed to Tilicho yesterday, and find out if indeed, the Tilicho Base Camp Lodge was open. It was a hard gamble, but I guess we all didn’t come that far to be prudes.
After a small meal of boiled aloo (potatoes), Joo Ho and Jung Ah set off for Tare Gompa. We wished them good luck, and said perhaps, we would see them tonight (though I really hoped they could make it to Tilicho).
Way to Tilicho
After seeing the Koreans off, I managed to take a closer look at our last bastion of civilzation. The mud walls of this lodge was scrawled with contact details of this so-and-so guide, who promised to be an expert for Tilicho. Room numbers were painted on with over-diluted emulsion – the paint-drip trails reminded me of a horror movie.
Soon, we would learn that there was to be no water for shower. Laxmi, the lodge owner, told us that the water in the tank had lay stagnant for too long and it wasn’t the kind of water we would like to bathe in. We would also learn that the Koreans had eaten the last potatoes in the restaurant – her foray in her garden yielded nothing. Cai na (don’t have). I told Desmond we were officially in Cai-na Town this off-peak season. Everything cai na.
Old Khangsar ruins
Stone Monsters, Old Khangsar
After lunch, we took another acclimatizing day trip – this time, to Old Khangsar, some 300m above the new village. The mud and stone houses lay empty except for a odd goat or cow. The doors to these once-inhabited abodes lay ajar like gaping black maws of stony monsters, with only darkness and dung inside. Some of the houses had juniper leaves laid out like a carpet, so that cattle can take shelter in foul weather. I saw three people in all – an old lady collecting juniper, a young shepherd in a Maoist t-shirt and his one-year old son peeing inside his house. Perhaps, Old Khangsar is a gaze into the crystal ball for Upper Pisang. People simply no longer lived that high up, especially when the tourists are flocking to a village 300m below.
Tilicho Peak-a-boo
>> Day Nine: Khangsar-Tilicho Base Camp
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