31 July 2011

Kailasa Yatrai 7

Kathmandu to Nepalganj 22 May 2011
 During the first leg of the trip from Kathmandu to Salagramam and Lumbini and back to Kathmandu, it was just the five of us travelling together. For the next leg to Kailash, Samrat Travels had a group of 16 people. Some of them had booked directly with Samrat and others with local travels in Mumbai/ Delhi. These travel agents had sub contracted the tour to Samrat. We got to know that there are only a few India travel agents who take you to Kailash directly. These travel agents travel along with the group. Others have tie ups with Nepal travel agents.


Started our Kailasa Yatrai with the 1 hour flight from Kathmandu to Nepalganj. 30-35 people can travel by the flight. This is a scheduled flight, serves you a cup of soft drink. Nepalganj is the border town between India and Nepal, situated on the plains. We stayed in Siddharth, clean rooms, good service. Better than expected accommodation.


Nepalganj to Simikot 23 May 2011
Then, it is another 1 hour flight to Simikot the next day. About 20 people can travel in the flight. This is similar to Pokhara - Jomsom flight, a primitive aircraft.  The flight is tricky with just visual navigation. Simikot is near Nepal China border at 10,000 feet. Surrounded by snowy mountains.Flight was delayed by 3-4 hours due to rains in Simikot. Simikot's runway is an unpaved  mud track. Rains make the runway muddy, all flights are cancelled. There are no roads anywhere near Simikot, the nearest road head is 7 days walk. So, everything, including bags of onion and garlic are airlifted.  The place is a one street affair with just one hotel, named Sun Valley Resorts. The hotel is a steep 30 minute walk from airport. Sudden increase in altitude and steep walk in a rocky path makes one short of breath.  Older travellers needed a lot of help, rested every few metres. It is cold, may be 5 degrees C. We started wearing our winter wear. The hotel has good views, about 10 rooms, just a few of them have attached bathroom. We were using common bathrooms. The hotel staff took care of us very well. Sitting in the room, you can see the runway, mountains all around.  


Simikot to Taklakot to Burang 24 May 2011
Morning, we took the 20 minute helicopter ride to Taklakot, at Nepal China border. The helicopter ride a exciting, with vertical take off and swerving in multiple axis. The pilot was highly experienced, you can see him skillfully maneuvering through narrow gaps between peaks and gaining height. 


Taklakot is at 12000 ft, no vegetation. Dry barren rocky landscape. Now, we should walk about a   km and cross a river on a rope bridge to enter Tibet. This walk is also tough for older passengers.


Once you enter China, Chinese immigration officials, grim & robotic movements, check your passports and let you in. We had to stay under hot sun at 12,000 feet for nearly 3 hours as our passage into China was not properly coordinated. But then, that is how life is and there will be minor inconveniences.


Once you  enter China, mobiles work very well, emails stream into your blackberry and you can probably run your office from this remote place. Burang is an hour drive on excellent roads. After further checking, screening of baggages, we reach Manasarovar Guest house.


Chinese customs officers are very suspicious of anything paper, maps, word Tibet printed anywhere. The office is very good, officers well dressed, walking with a swagger. I could notice an critical difference between Indians and Chinese. Indians use the wet process in Western toilets, rendering it completely soggy and unusable. Chinese use dry process in Indian (Chinese) toilets, blocking the basin leaving dirty smelly toilets with half doors. Toilets are the same for women and men. The beautiful Chinese customs office had completely unusable toilets.

17 July 2011

Kailasa Yatrai 6

Lumbini
Stayed at Jomsom for the night on 19 May 2011.  Next morning, flew the auto rickshaw plane and reached Pokhara. Initial plan was to drive to Lumbini straight. Strike had been announced as a result of constitutional crisis in Nepal. So, spent time boating on the Phewa lake. Started our drive at 7pm and reached Lumbini about 1am. 


Visited Lumbini on 20 May 2011. The place is UNESCO World Heritage Monument. Exact place where Buddha was born is marked by a stone sculpture. The closed box type building is surrounded by 2000 year old ruins, a pond, a banyan tree for Buddha Bikshus to teach Dhamma and an Ashokan pillar marking Ashoka's donations. This building is the centre of a huge campus. Buddha sangams from many countries have built Buddhist temples around the campus. Recommend you to take a cycle rickshaw to commute. The German temple and Chinese temple are the most impressive. Many more are under construction.


Left the place around noon to drive to Kathmandu via Chitwan National Park. We imagined great things about the Elephant Breeding Centre, Jungle Safari on Elephant or by Jeep, single horned rhinos etc. Nothing much to write home about this one.


Reached Kathmandu by 9pm. Next day, we would be starting our Kailasa Yatrai.

02 July 2011

Kailasa Yatrai 5

Trip Diary
17 June 2011 Kathmandu
After all the preparation, five of us started from Chennai on 17 May 2011 by Jet to Delhi. T3 was stunning to those of us who were travelling to Delhi after a long time. Saw big installations of Mudras along with explanations. With all the facilities, T3 is confusing for those moving from domestic arrivals to international departures.


Moved to International departures. Though regulations state you do not need passport to go to Nepal, pl have your passports as some travellers had trouble boarding the flight. Landed in Kathmandu around 2pm.


Kathmandu looks like an Indian city  of '80s. No high rises, old model vehicles, poor quality roads, etc. Reached Hotel Manang in Thamel area. The area is full of shops selling handicrafts, antiques. Buy here if you want to. Price and variety are better than other places.


After lunch, started at 4pm to Sri Pasupatinathar. Pasupatinathar is the family deity of the royal family of. You could see their statues, with spectacles, in front of the Lord. The temple is on the banks of Bagmati, which is more a stagnant canal. Like Varanasi, the dead get cremated here. Apparently, there is hierarchy here. The royals are cremated close to the temple. The lower the departed soul is in the social ladder, the farther he moves away from the temple, nevertheless on the banks of Bagmati. This area want to be like Varanasi. Harathis, like the Ganga Harathis, are performed in the evenings to the accompaniment of music. But, long way to go before it can compete with Varanasi.


Pasupainathar is a lingam, with four heads carved, unlike plain lingams you see in Siva temples in India. The poojas are performed by priests from Karnataka, dressed in ochre robes, and covered head, not unlike a sanyasi. Adi Sankarar established the pooja practices and appointed the priests. Political wranglings over how India priests are officiating and not locals. Heard that Maoists are turning the country up side down, moving away from India towards China.


18 June 2011 Pokhra
Started after breakfast in a Toyota Fortuner. Relieved to find that we can play MP3 in the car. Till the end of the trip, thevaram was playing. Even Purna, our Nepalese driver, began to enjoy it.  


Reached Manakamana by 1130. This temple is Mariamman of Nepal. Goats and cocks sacrificed everyday. You have to go in a cable car to reach the temple. It took 7 days to trek to that place, now a 10 minute cable car ride. The ride is very beautiful - silence envelops you and the sight of a river 1000 feet below. There are special rates for goats, we saw a goat travelling alone in a cable car.


Started from here by 1230 towards Pokhara. Reached Pokhara around 4pm. Sudden burst of rain, thunder and winds. So, could not go sightseeing. Checked in Landmark, next to Phewa lake.


19 June 2011 Muktinath
Early morning, took off in a small plane to Jomsom. Pokhara airport smells of puliyodarai and thayir sadam. 90% of visitors to Muktinath are Tamils. The only advertisements the airport has are by Chennai tourist operators.


Fifteen people can travel by this plane, no doors between the pilot and passengers, you can see the instrument panel, what lever he pushes to take off and what button he presses to land etc. The whole trip is like a drive in an auto in a narrow lane. There are high mountain peaks on both sides, wings very close to them. Even if it move slightly to one side or the other, it will brush against the peaks and you can all reach Kailsam instantly. Or Acharyan Thiruvadi, as most passengers would like to.  The landing strip at Jomsom is short and surrounded by mountains on all sides. The aircraft takes a sharp U turn, not unlike an auto does in a signal, a few hearts jump to mouths and nothing short of miracle, the flight lands. This flight lasts for an hour and we are in Jomsom by noon.


Jomsom looks like the one street towns in cowboy movies, transplanted. Even the people here look like red Indians. The place is a desert at 10,000 feet, no vegetation. 


Muktinath is 2 hours drive from here. We are a group of five. But the jeeps here have 12 person capacity. They will not start until 12 people arrive or you pay for 12 people.  We paid 3500Rs extra and started towards Muktinath. We came by the last flight and are the last batch of people to Muktinath. There is no road here. You are travelling on rocks and streams, like Ahobilam. After two hours of climbing, the jeep stops. Next, walking for 45 minutes to reach the temple. You are short of breath every few minutes, rest, recuperate and do the next 10-20 metres. It is much colder than Jomsom with threatening clouds to boot. We were rushed as we were late.


Muktinath temple is a sarva dharma temple. This is also a Buddhist pilgrimage place. The place is teeming with barebodied, crossbelted Iyengars taking bath in streams flowing from 108 cow statues at 0 degree, and doing sandhya vandanams. We did not attempt the bathing  - sandhyavandanam routine. This batch of pilgrims are staying in Muktinath for the day. We have to go back quickly to Jomsom for the night. We stopped with pradakshinam and namaskaram. Read the relevant pasurams from the print outs. Reached Jomsom by another jeep by 5pm. This driver took a different route, excepting doing somersaults, he did everything else before we reached Jomsom.



Kailasa Yatrai 4

More Yatrai Prep
Before the yatrai, we took print outs of thevarams on Kailasam. All the three - Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar have sung padhigams. Sundarar calls it Thirunodithan Malai, other two call it Kailasam. Available here

We took print outs of Divya Prabhandam on Salagramam.

We also took print outs of Dikshitar kritis on Kailasam and Pasupatinathar. Available here.

We took a tranche of thevara mp3 files downloaded from web. The site has a lot of Tirumurai for downloads. Fantastic quality of music - matches the best on concert platform. Mridangam quality is especially superb. You can download more than 30 hours of quality music here. Some of the Kambodhis are outstanding. Strongly recommend, if you are a Tirumurai lover, Music lover, or  Sivanadiyar.

We also downloaded Rudram etc here.  This has music accompaniment for some versions. Chanted by a priest from Andhra. Tamil purists may have cognitive dissonance with the diction, intonation etc. Could not find a Tamil site.

We could not find audio downloads for Dikshitar kritis.