KAILASH - MANASAROVAR TRIP/.YATRA - July 2006

Some Facts

- Kailash/Manasarovar around 900 KM drive from Kathmandu.
- 4 days to cover the trip
- Number of times jeep got broke down - average one in a two hour
- Total number of people in the trip - 46
- Number of people felt sick - 45 ( all except me ;)- )
- Youngest Participant Age - 7 year old boy
- Oldest Participant Age - 79
- Average Age - above 60.
- Number of people completed the parikrama - 25
- Number of people completed the parikrama by walking - 6
- Number of days without taking proper bath - 13
- Highest Altitude Reached 19,500 ft.

Intersting things

- Fellow participants commitment & will power
It was amazing to see such old people, suffering lot of difficulties but not much complaning in pursuit of there goal of seeing the lord.

- Luxury reducing day by day as we progressed to the mountain.
Very interesting to notice that the things that we take for granted become luxuries & it keep decreasing day by day. For eg in kathmandu there was attached bathroom with running shower & lights available throughout the day. As we progress towards the kailash in tibet, first day it became a common bathrooms for everybody, second day no bathroom but a common toilet , third day no bathroom, no toilet just a pit and lights available only for 2 hours , and then from next day toilets in the open .
And then as we returned back to kathmandu, all these luxuries came one by one.

- Crossing into china , and a complete change in the world.
Just a bridge separating the two different worlds. Once you cross the bridge language, people faces , signs in the board , food everything got totally changed. Just one river separating the two different cultures & countries.

- Hard life condition of the tibetians
Tibets were very poor people , living in very harsh terrain , not much cultivation, mainly surviving on the animal stock & tourists. Some of the yatra participants had taken lots of snacks, food to be distributed to these Hungry tibetians

Daily Notes

July 14 2006 - Day 1

- Before departure packed everything all the items in the list given into two bags. Carried all the precautionary items & everything extra

- Started from house early morning 4AM , after a tearful farewell from gayathri. Needed to carry a bag as a cabin lugguage as it exceeded the alowed 15 kgs. Air deccan flight was OK, but bit cramped. Slept well. Bought a sandwich for 40Rs in the plane.
Reached delhi called up baby & went to tilak nagar. Went on delhi metro. Clean & fast . Saw delhi subrubs a bit.

- Reached kathmandu & got transferred to the hotel ( Kathmandu Prince )

July 15 2006 - Day 2

- Went to "Manakammana Temple" 180Km away from Kathmandu. full day trip . Most of the route was along a major river in full flow because of summer. Many Class-2/3 white water rapids. Manakamma Temple is about 2000ft higher than the road. A cable car connected the road to the temple. Stood a long line for the cable car.
There was lots of crowd, as it was Sunday. A very big queue , with many people having goats, hen to be sacrified. People just cutting and taking the meat back home ;(-
After the long trip back to kathmandu, booked for mountain flight next day morning. Most of the people had come from india in train.

July 16 2006 - Day 3

- Left early for mountain flight by 5:30 am. Went bit late as i did'nt notice the 15 minutes diference between india & nepal time.
- Flight started right on time, total 15 passengars all foreigners . Take off from kathmandu was very good , lush green valley dotted with red-stones building
sorrounded by green mountains and occasional river streams. Then the flight disappared into the clouds. Next almost one hour went toward Mt.Everest but could'nt see anything. Only white clouds surrounding us. So the flight returned. to kathmandu
- Best part was they returned the full ticket back to be refunded & and also the airport tax. ;)-

Came back to the hotel , where a meeting was organized . Met all the people. Very surprised to see the crowd. Most of them were above 60. Retired , had done all there duties in there life. Visited all the shrines Kasi, Badrinath, Amarnath,.... and coming here for the greatest adventure of there life. There were only 7-8 people below 50-55 years of age. 3 Kovil Kurukkal still roaming in there panchakaccha attires , one Kovil Odduvar never bothered to wear slippers from tamil nadu.
One old couple ( Ganasan ) coming for the third time. One young boy 7 years of age accompanied by his parents. Oldest couple is 79-74 . Mostly people were from tamil nadu, 8 persons from hyderabad/andhra.
Also surprised to see the total lack of preparation these people had. Many of them has not weared shoes in there life , yet to buy many things like shoes, down jacket, gloves ,....
But all of them had a great expectation & great will power to overcome any obstacles to see their lord in the form of the mountain.


During the meeting propreitor of "Sree travels" Mr. Elantheriyan ( a.k.a Mr . Ryan for nepalse ) told about all the difficulties, and stressed on the point that this is "The Most adventorous Yatra in the world".

After the meeting left for temple sight seeing in Kathmandu.
-Pashupathi Shiva Temple . Bought some rudraksh . Avery famous temple. It has 108 lingas arranged in a type of maze , everybody has to go through it, to remove all the papa of this birth.
- Swayamhu Nath Buddha Temple - A very beautiful buddhist monastery . Took a photo with the buddhist monks

July 17 2006 - Day 4

The travels gave a extra bag for packing things . Left some civilised clothes & other purchased items in kathmandu hotel. Packed the other things in 2 bags & boarded the bus towards Kodari ( border connecting to tibet )

Took a good more than an hour to leave the kathmandu traffic. Then drove towards the mountain. It was 3 hour trip to kodari.

At Kodari exchanged money to "Yuan" . A very nice business these people are doing, just keep on exchaning money in various rates & earning a lot. Then crossed the Friendship Bridge. Once you cross over to china , everything changes. People , language, everything is written only in chinese. Then have to depend on the chinese guide to translate. Our driver is a very simple tibetian, doing this driving for a long long time.
Everybody got into the jeeps. Each jeep is a old , toyota 4500CC land cruiser . Each has a driver & four members + one sherpa/cook at the back and personnal luggages. Just after it started one of the jeep stopped, some problem in the engine. So our jeep also stopped to help them, and it took about an hour for them to realize that the jeep needs some major repair. So people were moved to another jeep, and we went to "Zanghmu" to get the customs clearance.

Since we got late, got caught up in a lorry traffic jam, so needed to walk in the rain for 2 km & reached the china customs office. It got closed, so they collected our passport & allowing us to enter tibet.
Hotel had a beautiful view overlooking a deep valley with rapid river running , and waterfalls cascading in the middle.
Everybody bag was in 2 trucks, it also got caught in the traffic jam and could'nt enter tibet. So everybody slept in there wet clothes ,without any personnal belongings.

In china many items were cheap ( boots , jacket , all trekking materials, electornics ). So helped others to purchase the trekking items ( shoes , woollens, jackets,... ) All barganing were using sign language & calculator.

July 18th-21st 2006 - Day 5,6,7,8 ( Drive to Kailash )

From Zanghmu started the trip to Nyalam. A long day trip almost 180-200 KM . The scenary for the next 3 days would be a almost a flat terrain, till the eyes could see, sorrounded by mountains. At around 15,000 ft there was such a beautiful plains for 400-500 km at a stretch. Only thing that grows in these plains are grass. In the winter time, everything would be covered by thick sheet of snow. Once in a while there would be a small group of huts/tents of nomads. These nomads have vast herds of cows, sheep and just survive with them. There huts were decorated with horns of bison.

Everyday routine would be leaving in the morning around 9 am. Drive for 3-4 hours. Stop for lunch for about an hour, and then again drive was next 4-5 hours. In between the jeeps would break down, won't start, get stuck in water,mud. So need to stop in between for them. In between started reading the books in the jeep drive. The jeep drive was far far away from luxirous. Every minute or two it would a bump, and everything would shake including the jeep.

In Nyalam, most of the people got sick. Everybody got headache, some had vomitted in between, and some had fever. The second day after nyalam, as the body gets used to that height, started feeling better. But some of the old people were still suffering from headache, loss of apetite, vomitting.

After 4 days of bone rattling driving experience, reached the highest , biggest natural fresh water lake "Manasarovar". From there about 50km away had the first view of Kailash Nath. Immeditely after we had darshan, Kailash got covered in the clouds.

After seeing the lake, drove around it, and halted in the banks of the manasarovar lake.

July 22 2006 - Day 9

In the early morning around 2 am got up , and went to the lake, to have a glimpse of the supposedly a great phenomenon of stars coming down to have a dip in the manasarovar lake. could'nt see anything like that, but it was a very nice with a cold dark night, with no lights , a great view of the lake, visible with little moonlight, and lots of stars above us.

Morning went on a trek to a nearby hill temple & had a full panaroma view of mansa sarovar. Then came the one of the high ligth of the trip, Taking bath in the manasa sarovar.
It was very cold, some people did'nt have much problem. For many people the organisers made hot water in the lake of manasarovar. But I directly went into the lake, and stayed there for a full 60 seconds, and then shivered for about next 30 minutes. ;)-
-After the bath, everybody settled down in traditional clothes, and the priests who had come with performed Homa. It was very pleasant and powerful to listen to there chanting
After the homa, drove to Rakshastal. This a huge lake almost the size of manasarovar. This is the lake where Ravanna was doing penance and wanted to lift Kailash and move it to Kailash and move it to Srilanka. Since this lake was used by ravanna , with bad intentions against shiva, nobody touches this lake water. From rakshastal drove to Darchen. Darchen is at the base of Mt Kailash, were there is a small village , and lots of goverment constructed rooms for the tourists.

At darchen, the condition of four very old people, became very worse. They could'nt even stand properly. So a jeep was used to carry these four people to lower heights. Then about 15 people was not allowed to start the parikrama, as the organizers & sherpas felt that they could'nt make it. Some people were not happy with the decision, but many of them agreed accepting the fact that they could'nt walk or stay on top of the pony for three days.

July 23 2006 - Day 10

Started the much awaited trek, after long days of jeep travel. Left Darchen in the morning to a place called Yama Dhwar by jeep. Yama Dhwar is just a small structure. It is believed that if you go through it, you come out from the fear of death.

From Yama Dhwar to Dirapuk is just about 8 KM trek. The trekkers five of us, went ahead, the others on top of the ponies started a bit later. This is simple trek, with not much ups & downs. Could see the kailash parvath clearly. It was a stunning view of kailash. All around the mountain there were only small hills made of mud, but kailash is a huge monolith mountain made of granite. A deep scar running down vertically representing the shiva's third eye. Many other scars horizontally representing the Vibhuthi.

Reached the dirpuk around 4 pm with some little difficulty. Had'nt trekked for a long time. There was an option of staying in mud houses ( by paying 40 Yuans extra ) or in tents ( for free ). I liked to stay in the tent, so put up a tent with the back side view of the kailash mountain. Was looking at it for a long time, alone in my tent, singing some songs.

July 24 2006 - Day 11

The biggest day of the entire trip, which everybody is afraid of. The trep from Dirapuk to Zuthulpuk, it's around 20/22 KM. From around 17000 ft we need to climb to a height of 19,500ft to cross the Dhola Pass, and then come down . The people who were travelling by ponies , also need to walk on the downward trip, as it's dangerous sitting on a pony when it's climbing down.
We started early around 7:30 am, with a sherpa guiding us. Took brief , frequent intervals. It was getting tough walking at this height with a backpack weighing atleast 6-7 kgs. Reached the base of the dhola pass, when the ponies caught us, and with sheer force & will power I climbed up along with the horses, stopping very little. Soon reached the top of dhola pass. Other fellow trekkers were left behind, and I continued along the downward journey . Needed to cross a small glacier along the way.
Then rested and slept for about 30 minutes. Then kept on walkiiiiiiiiing . It went on & on, got tired. But can't stop anywhere, as it was beginning to get dark and started drizzling. Atlast saw themuch awaited sight of some tents and house by 6:15 pm. Other people who walked came behind , last guy was very tired and reached three hours later. A very long day, but not very tied, felt very elated & proud of completing the day & slept .

July 25 2006 - Day 12

From Zuthulpuk trekked about 8 km to a place , where the jeeps were waiting for us. This was very simple straight forward walk, with not much ups & downs. With the river stream following us, we can see the tibetian plateau till the horizon.

Reached darchen. Those people who had stayed at darchen were eagerly waiting for us. Some of them even fell at my feet to get blessings , as I had the privelege of circumventing the kailash nath.
After reaching Darchen ,had lunch and immediately started. to tirthapuri . Thiraapuri was the place were vishnu came as mohini and killed "Padmasuran" . Story goes that, he got burned to ashes. This hill is just a hill of ashes, and still like that. As we progressed to thirtapuri, we needed to cross over one of the rivers, and the jeep repeatedly getting stuck in river waters. So needed to cancel the trip to thirtapuri. Instead went to "Asthapath" were you can see Kailash & Nadi Parvath together.

Drove from Darchan to Mansa sarovar banks, where the local tibetians live in tents, and have erected tents for the tourists. As we reached there, there were very strong winds. Could hardly stand and walk. It was very cold also, because of the winds. First time needed to put all the gortex & down jacket. The wind settled after some time, so slowly came out. In the banks of the manasarovar collected lots of small stones. (Murtham ) . These stones were considered as shiva idols, and should be treated with respect. Should'nt evern call them as stones . Collected about 50 of them to distribute to others.

July 26-29 2006 - Day 13-16

Next day Collected manasa sarovar water , in an 5 litre can. The environment was so plesant, huge vast lake , very calm no ripples & very cold also, the full with clouds reflecting on the lake.
After everybody collected the water, we all started the ardous journey back to the civilization. The route was the same. But this time it started raining on the first day, and the so called roads become like exploded mine fields. It was very slow going around each potholes. And then the frequently small to medium size streams would run across the roads. The sand also became very slippery, our jeep almost lost control and skidded. But the driver was very skilfull and balanced the jeep.
Another jeep people were'nt so lucky, the jeep skidded and entered into a ditch on the left side of the road. Luckily it did'nt steer to the right side, as it was a 1000ft drop to the valley !!! This jeep was pulled up by the accompanying truck, and within minutes into the road it skidded again. So again it was pulled up. These people reached 3 hours behind us.

The next two days, all are bit frightened as we need to come down through the hills, and with these rains it would be dangerous. But luckily the rains stopped and nothing hapenned. It was a pleasant , bit boring trip back to the china border & to kathmandu. Finished two books of totally different kind. "Rich Dad & Poor Dad " ( about money making,.), " At the feet of the master" ( about guru, devotion,... )

After 4 days trip, reached the chinese border. Had a chance to have "Vegetable Momo" twice in between. Need to order specially anything vegeterian in these regions. Crossed the border without any issues. I was eagerly waiting to have a chinese visa/immigration clearance in my passport, to add to my collection of foriegn trips. Since this was a group visa, they did'nt do anything ;)- So need to go again individaully to get chinese visa into my passport.

Crossed over to Nepal , a big relief so that we can speak the local language. After 10 days had a proper bath in the kathmandu hotel. Went out to change my tickets as we reached one day earlier. Since that was a Sunday the tickets were too costly.
Then one by one people started to leave according to there own itenaries. A group of people went to Mukthinath ( another shiva shrine ), were you need to go in a helicopter. I did'nt take the trip, as it's very costly ( 15,000 Rs extra ). Slept nicely on the kathmandu three star hotel that day, and next day left for Delhi.

July 30,31 2006 - Day 17,18

Reached delhi , & needed to spend a day in delhi. Went to visit a friend in Noida & relative in Delhi. Gave the manasarovar water ( thirtha ) to the people. From now for the next few months that is the custom to give thirtha to whoever asks and tell about the manasarovar story.


Overall an great experience. It's good to take this kind of trip in early stages of life than like most of the people who accompanied me. Many people suffered , but all are greatly satisfied & happy to have the darshan of the Kailash Nath.


KAILASH NATH KI JAI.