Day 94_to_96

As we need some permits to continue the route that we want to do, this morning we need to prepare some paperwork here in Kaza. It’s fine because today we’ll visit places near here and we have plenty of time. Again, Tià feels the altitude sickness. It seems that his body is not reacting well sleeping at more than 3500 m above the sea level.

After the breakfast and the paperwork we drive to Langza, which is situated at an altitude of 4400 m and is divided into two sections, Langza Yongma (lower) and Langza Gongma (upper). It houses a population of approximately 137 people and an around 1000 years old golden Budha statue.

Next stop is Komik, the highest village in the world connected with a motorable road (at 4587 m )

An then, Hikkim, with its highest post office in the world (yess we send a postcard!)

On our way back to Kaza we are really lucky and we see these blue sheep or bharal. They are so beautiful!

Kaza on our feet:

With our guide/driver Chaman:

We have a nice dinner at a restaurant in Kaza, and we rest at the hotel until bed time. Then we spend the worst night of all the journey. It seems Tià ate something that was not ok, add to the altitude sickness that he has this days… I will just leave the rest for your imagination. We don’t sleep in the whole night.

The next morning we are desperate to go to lower levels because this starts being dangerous for Tià. He really needs to be below 2500 m and soon. Thinking about it we didn’t check the altitudes where we were going to sleep, we just trusted Chaman with the route and the rise was way too fast. From 0m to around 2500m in Manali, and then, we sleep at 4000m! From 0 to 4000 in just 2 days! It is supposed that you should go 300m higher per day to be safe and avoid the altitude sickness…

Some views from Kaza:

Today we’ll drive around 100km to Nako, a little village with Reo Purgyal on the back (it’s the highest mountain in Himachal Pradesh with its 6816 m). The village is now on a more stable location near the Nako Lake (formed by the slopes of the mountains of Reo Purgyal). In the past was situated on the opposite bank across the Nako river, but it needed to be shifted because of tectonic uplifting of the site.

On the way we’ll stop to see Dhankhar, Tabo monastery and the Gue’s Monastery with its 500-year-old mummy.

Dhankhar:

The landscape starts to change with the apple trees on the valley:

Next stop will be the Tabo Monastery, it was built in 996 A.D. It is completely forbidden to take photos on the inside to preserve the frescoes. We enter with a young monk, who explains as good as he can what we barely see (it is really dark, there are no lights or windows in the inside). I am amazed to be in an ancient Buddhist temple, you can feel the history and the quietness in this place.

New and old stuppas (edification that contain relics and are used for meditation in Buddhism) outside the Tabo monastery:

Tià is feeling a bit better, so we have some light lunch here in Tabo before we continue our trip. Our next visit will be to see someone very special… the remains of a 15th-century Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin. He was discovered in 1975 when the stupa that was housing him collapsed during an earthquake. Since then, the body has shown little deterioration, despite being exposed to the elements and having no artificial preservation.

Now it is situated in a poor construction, but in the next years it will be resituated in a proper monument, this temple:

By the way, do you see the mountain behind the lion? That’s Tibet!!! We are in a sensitive/restricted zone along the border Indo-China border, which requires an Inner Line Permit to travel through (those are the papers that we needed to do yesterday). From here it is obvious the presence of military and police everywhere; this border is completely closed, and if someone tries to cross the border… well they will not ask about your passport, probably you’ll just be shoot. As usual this days there is any phone net available. But here, it is also completely forbidden to use a satellite phone.

Finally, we reach safely Nako. I love this place… no tourists here, no souvenirs… just people living on their traditional way.

Finally we spend a quiet and well-deserved resting night, Tià’s altitude sickness is gone!!! Today we’ll ride from Nako to Kalpa, again around 100km, so let’s go!

Views from Nako (I’m in love with this village and its people!)

The views from the road are breathtaking:

And the road itself it is also breathtaking:

The maintenance of this roads is a huge and though work. It’s done for poor people from other parts of India by hand. They have almost any machinery or protection (just sunglasses and a mask, not even gloves); They live literally in shacks on the roads where they work. We can see the whole family working together, (even kids and mothers carrying little babies on the back) transporting stones or chipping rocks to produce gravel… That’s really a hard work, they are the whole day under the sun surrounded by dust. Believe me, it hard to breathe here. This works are continue needed due to the land-slides and the inclemencies of the weather, so they come to make some money during the good season (in winter this roads are closed). Here the nature is the boss, definitely you cannot control it.

Due to this works we have to stop often on the road. They are blowing some walls to do the road wider and it’s impossible to pass until they are done with the rubble.

It is heardbreaking to see this people working like this, but Chaman explains us that this is the only way that they have to survive during the rest of the year back at home.

Finally we reach Kalpa at around 2900 m, this city is famous due to the apple orchards and apple juice. We stay in a supernice hotel with hot water, electricity and even wifi!!!! That’s luxury!

The views from the window:

With the help of two little kids we find the temples.

Here we spend some time with three old ladies, they are so nice even they don’t speak a word of English! Even one of them manages to make me learn a mantra!

A little silly anecdote… All the way in India, I was wondering why the hell the trucks were advising to use diapers at night. Why would be not possible to use a toilet?!?!?! Until I could not keep it more just for me and I asked Tià. It is written DIPPERS, and not DIAPERS. So they are just saying to the other drivers to use the dipper lights before overtaking during night!!!