Shriram's space: Day 8 continued :: SATURDAY 22 Aug 2015 post lunch >>> left for Mt Kailash after lunch

From Lake Manasarovar we drove northbound towards a small town called Darchen .

Darchen,Tarchan or Taqin is a small village in Purang County of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China Darchen is situated right in front of the sacred mountain, Mt Kailash. Its altitude is 4,575 metres (15,010 ft) and is the starting point for pilgrimages in the region.

Our stay had been arranged at Peacock Hotel at Darchen. There is a new set of more modern looking hotels called Himalaya Kailash Hotels built by the Chinese Govt right across the hotel that we stayed in. Darchen is a small village serving the pilgrims who trek up to Mt Kailash. You get walking sticks, Tibetan beads/trinkets etc. Once we checked into our rooms, we were raided by around 20 Tibetan women who landed up in the hotel corridor and spread out their wares and started haggling to no end.

Our co yatris also forgot that they were here for a spiritual visit to Mt Kailash and engaged in the merry bargaining for trinkets / beads etc.

The rooms at this hotel are okay, with a common toilet outside. At around 1800 in the evening we were greeted by a heavy rainfall with hailstones raining down. The bargaining with the hawkers, accompanied by hot potato / cauliflower / brinjal bhajjis with tea coffee were thoroughly enjoyed!!

However all of us were looking forward to the next day when we move from Darchen to Dirapuk which is at the foothills of the North face of Mt Kailash.

In the evening of Sat the 22nd we were given our briefings about ponies, porters, walking sticks, 5 layers of clothing etc. Out of the 61 of us, 18 people were selected and three groups of six each were formed as A ( leading group) B (middle group) and C (backup/trailing group) with clear roles for each of us. I was selected to be one amongst the six in group B.

Group A’s role was to walk the fastest and arrive at Dirapuk the earliest. The youngest and fittest amongst the 61 were selected as the six people in A group. Group B’s role was to arrive at the “midpoint” and stay put there for 90 minutes. Objective was to support any of the following people who may be struggling, setting up a health check point midway along with a doctor. Dr Krishnaveni was in our group. After 90 minutes we were to move on to Dirapuk, leaving group C to manage the rest of the yatris. Group C’s role was to ensure that no one gets stuck behind and to ensure that all the yatris were safely across to Dirapuk.

We were told to leave our duffel bags at the Peacock hotel itself and pack only our backpacks for the trek as well as for the one night stay at Dirapuk. After a quick dinner we all crashed for the night.

The toilet at this hotel was very innovatively designed, with a series of squatting positions each separated by a half wall, a running channel under each squatting position which had a flush tank with a predetermined overflow level. So every few minutes all the poo would get flushed away automatically. There was another station at the end next to the flush tank where we could rinse our hands and this section had a wall so that no water would splash onto us as we were rinsing our hands. A big tall barrel of water, with a couple of mugs and also a few tubelights, topped the infrastructure. Also there was another running channel / gutter by the side of the wall to serve as a urinal gutter. Very simple and very innovative toilet !!!

Again thanks to wifi at all these hotels we were able to connect up with folks back home via whatsapp calls. At Dirapuk and Mt Kailash we were not expecting any wifi so we called our folks back home on Sat night itself. Next morning was to be an early start after Guru Puja and breakfast.