Tibet July 2018

Day 1, 2^nd July 2018 – We arrive into Lhasa (by Saurabh Mishra)

We are a travelling party of 7 from Melbourne, Australia - My wife Shibani (44 yo and a medical doctor), son Rishabh (18yo, currently a gap-year faculty at the Timbertop program), daughters – Aadya (17 yo and in Year 11 at high school) & Aarushi (12 yo and in Year 7 at middle school), and me – Saurabh Mishra (also 44yo, a serial entrepreneur), plus 2 friends of mine - Rod Smith (71yo, Management Consultant and coach, and a long-standing fellow board member of TiE Melbourne) and Dr. Richard Presser (65yo, also a serial entrepreneur and author, whom I have known for 15+ years).

We have been dreaming, planning and training for this trip for over a year now.

In fact I distinctly remember when I first articulated a desire for this trip – it was during a walk with Shibani in December 2014 after we had just returned from our one-year sabbatical in Haridwar, India. A week in Laddakh had been a highlight of the many travels through that year. An extension of the Tibetan plateau in India, Laddakh is indeed a stunning place, with high snow-clad mountains flanking clear blue skies, gorgeous fast-flowing rivers (Indus and Zanskar), and turquoise lakes (as anyone who has seen the 2009 Hindi film “3 Idiots” would know!). And if all that was but a sample of Tibet, then Tibet was certainly on as a future travel destination. But as I was telling all this to Shibani, it struck me like a flash of lightning that ofcourse, Mansarovar and Kailash were also in Tibet!

Mansarovar and Kailash - two names that will be familiar to anyone of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist or Bon faiths. Mansarovar literally means “Lake of the Mind”, and is a large, picturesque fresh-water lake at the south-western edge of Tibet. It is associated with creation myths across these faiths. Kailash is a 6,500m high mountain in the Himalayas close to Mansarovar, with distinctive snow/rock striations. It is also the mystical abode of Shiv, the “Aadi-yogi” or the first Yogi (a Yogi is one who skillfully conditions the mind and body in an attempt to experience cosmic consciousness); Kailash was where Shiv, a powerful, wild man with unkept matted hair wearing only a tiger-skin for a loincloth and all manner of creepy-crawlies about him, lived in an unlikely but ecstatic union with the beautiful, cultured and wise princess Sati, until the latter gave up her life during a visit to her father in preference to seeing Shiv deliberately humiliated by the latter. Mad with grief, Shiv danced the devastating Taandav that brought so much destruction that it nearly ended all creation. Then exhausted, he locked himself away in seclusion on top of Kailash for aeons, practicing and perfecting meditation to eventually experience cosmic consciousness, and hence become the Aadi-yogi. He re-emerged into life when Sati’s reincarnation Paarvati (the daughter of Himalaya) sought him out and drew him back with her love. He then became the greatest of all teachers, who passed on the practice of meditation to benefit all in posterity, and ascended into the trinity of highly realised beings who regulate our universe - Brahma who creates forms and structures, Vishnu who sustains them through periodic refashioning, and Shiv who destroys them with his Taandav so that there may be new creation again; where Shiv unknowingly beheaded his own son whom he did not recognise after returning from a long sojourn, for the latter’s obstinate refusal to let him pass as Paarvati bathed in the Mansarovar. Once the confusion cleared, he revived him by transplanting the head of an elephant on to his body, creating the much-loved form of Ganesh; where Ganesh famously won the playful race-around-the-world against his precocious brother Kartik by simply circumambulating Kailash - the centre of the world, while Kartik took off on a literal dash around the earth on his divine peacock; where the Sapt-Rishi (the 7 sages) dwelled in ancient times, and taught to a grateful humanity, the great knowledge that they had learnt and discovered – from science to music, dance, art, agriculture, health, medicine, law, astrology and so on; where the Gandharvas (angels of music and dance) come to bathe daily in the early hours before twilight, singing their celestial music; where Rishabh nath (the first of 24 Jain Tirthankars or prophet-teachers) attained self-realisation; where Milarepa valiantly battled with inner and outer demons to bring Buddhism into Tibet; where the founder of the Bon faith “descended from the skies and gave the people all knowledge that was worth knowing”.

Can you start to see the similarity across these stories? Kailash and Mansarovar are mythic places of wisdom and learning where something clearly happened a long time ago, which has been etched into our ancestral memory as folklore. It is a place to which Yogis from time immemorial have made a beeline. Interestingly, both Sadhguru and Sri M, two contemporary self-realised masters, have independently and openly opined that Kailash was where benevolent extra-terrestrial beings had landed in the distant past, and had gone on to teach useful things to our ancestors - from science and technology, to indeed spiritual practices to achieve self-realisation. And that is why the place is so etched in our collective memory. In his book “Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master”, Sri M wrote of a secret cave near Kailash that is guarded by Tibetan Lamas, where remains of two of the extra-terrestrial “Sapt-Rishi” still remain, along with their powerful, still seemingly magical artefacts and devices. Sadhguru has suggested that invisible, benevolent extra-terrestrial life forms still abound in the place, who have been inextricably involved in human evolution, and that their presence can be felt by those with advanced spiritual perception.

Kailash is also inevitably linked with the nameless, living grand spiritual master of our time – the one whom Yogananda ji in his “Autobiography of a Yogi” referred to as Mahavatar Babaji. Others call him Sri Guru. Sri M had a vivid vision while himself at Kailash not so long ago, with the mountain transforming into a shimmering cathedral-like structure, which was the Global HQ of the hierarchy of self-realised masters who are tasked with governing the world. He saw there the Mahavatar as the leader of the group, and that he was indeed Shiv the Aadi-Yogi, along with Jesus Christ, Goutam Buddha/Padmsambhava, Guru Nanak, Sai Baba, and a host of others.

And finally, something not so other-worldly. This region and Manasarovar in particular, is the origin of some of the greatest rivers on the planet (in terms of their length as well as the sheer number of people and animals they sustain) - the Brahmaputra (which is called Yarlung Po), the Indus, Sutlej, and Ghaghara (a major tributary of the Ganga). What’s more, as per some hot-off-the-press speculation, even the mighty Ganga might originate out of Mansarovar itself! 

With the weight of all that behind it, and knowing my inclinations as many of you do, how I could not go?!

Of course the kids and Aarushi in particular, was much too young at that time to contemplate this journey. And so I abided my time. About a year ago Shibani and I felt that the time was now right, and so I started looking up the logistics of the trip. Shibani’s uncle and his family had used Ibex Expeditions for a similar trip into Laddakh some years ago and recommended them highly. Though they were not the cheapest option by any means, the trusted referral and the pedigree of their team got my vote (the founder Mandeep Singh Soin is a renowned Indian mountaineer). The more I read, the more I understood that travelling to Tibet, let alone through Tibet as a group, was not something that was easily arranged. This was as much owing to the high altitude and concomitant challenges, as to the Chinese government’s acute sensitivity around the region, leading to a heavy military and police presence and policies that could change from week to week and indeed place to place. Then there was the language barrier, and the wide variance in hospitality standards across a region that was only just beginning to experience international tourism.

I also started reaching out to those who I thought might be interested in coming along. And soon I had a list of about 25 people besides my family of 5, who had expressed some interest in the trip! But it is truly said that only those who are destined to go and see Kailash get to go. I felt most bad for my cousin Parul and her then boyfriend, now fiancé Wayne, who had not only duly secured leave with their respective workplaces, but also bought their air tickets to Kathmandu as my original plan was for us to congregate there on 1^st July 2018. However owing to complexities with the applications for permits to travel through Tibet, we had to abandon Kathmandu altogether and switch to meeting in Lhasa on 2^nd July. Unfortunately Parul and Wayne couldn’t get their tickets changed nor refunded, and so couldn't join us at all (but they seem to have had a great holiday in and around Kathmandu last week, including a spectacular flight around Mt Everest, so that counts for something. And of course Wayne proposed and Parul accepted, so that counts for everything. Congratulations again guys!). And so only 2 were left standing in the end apart from us 5 – Rod and Richard.

After much planning, re-planning, chopping and changing, the itinerary we finalized with Ibex is as follows:

·     July 02, Arrive in Lhasa (3,650m) from Chengdu/Chongqing. Airport to Lhasa 67km, 1 hour drive. Overnight at the 4-start Four Point Sheraton Hotel.

·     July 03, Visit Potala Palace, Jokhang and Sera Monasteries. Overnight at the 4-start Four Point Sheraton Hotel.

·     July 04, Drive to Shigatse (3,800m) via Gyangtse.  Lhasa-Shigatse 350km (8-9 hours drive). Overnight at 4-star Tashi Chuda Hotel.

·     July 05, Visit Tashi Lumpo Monastery and the drive to New Tingri (4,100m). Shigatse to New Tingri 240km, 5-6 hours drive. Overnight at 3-star Chomolingma Hotel.

·     July 06, Drive to Everest Base camp (5,220m), and then to Old Tingri. Old Tingri-EBC 100km (3 hours drive), EBC- Old Tingri 160km, 4-5 hours drive. Overnight at 3-star hotel.

·     July 07, Drive to Saga (4,487m). Old Tingri to Saga 240km (4-5 hours drive). Overnight at 3-star Norbulingka hotel.

·     July 08, Drive to Darchen (4,500m). Saga to Darchen 540km, (8-9 hours drive). Overnight at guest house.

·     July 09, Kailash Kora. 15km trek, 4-5 hours. Overnight at guest house.

·     July 10, Kailash Kora. 20km trek climbing over the 5,600 Dom La pass, 8-9 hours. Overnight at guest house.

·     July 11, Kailash Kora (6km trek, 2-3 hours), then 33km, 1-hour drive to Manasarovar (4,507m). Overnight at guest house at Mansarovar.

·     July 12, Visit Chiu monastery and drive back to Saga. Mansarovar-Saga 511km (8-9 hours drive). Overnight at 3-star Norbulingka hotel.

·     July 13, Drive from Saga to Jilong Shen (2,600m). Saga to Jilong Shen 220km (4-5 hours drive). Overnight at 3-star hotel.

·     July 14, Drive to Rasuwa and cross border into Nepal (25km, 1-hour drive). Then drive 140km from border to Kathmandu (5-6 hours drive). Overnight at 4-star Manaslu Hotel, Kathmandu. 

·     July 15, Departure from Kathmandu (Shibani, the kids and I have an overnight flight to Hong Kong where I am staying back for business for a few days while the rest fly back to Melbourne the next day, arriving back home on 17^th July).

Aadya, Rishabh and Aarushi at Hong Kong airport

So here we are on 2^nd July, Day 1 of this blog series, though our collective travels had begun earlier. Rishabh had already left for Hong Kong 3 days earlier to explore around by himself, and had a great time doing so. Shibani, Aadya, Aarushi and I joined him in Hong Kong on 30^th June. We all then flew to Chengdu the following night, and then on to Lhasa on an early morning flight on 2^nd July. Richard was supposed to arrive into Lhasa the same morning also travelling via Chengdu, while Rod was coming into Lhasa via Chongqing mid-morning (just to be different I guess, Rod?).

But as it happened, Richard just missed his connection to Chengdu from Hong Kong last night, which has then setup an almighty cascade of delayed flights that has had him stranded in Hong Kong airport, with no idea of when he might get to Chengdu, let alone Lhasa. Hopefully tomorrow, but quite a hassle for him. 

Shibani enjoying the van

It was wonderful to see Rod stride out of the airport though. A familiar face in strange surrounds. Our guide Dawa is a large man who speaks very good English. He made us feel welcome, and also that we were in good hands. We had a comfortable 10-seater van to take us around Tibet, with a highly skilful driver as we were to find out over that time.

So first impressions of Lhasa – spectacular mountains, gorgeous Brahmaputra and Lhasa rivers flowing in a wide, verdant, lush green valley, and an imposing Potala palace that can be seen from just about everywhere. 

But boy, breathing is hard! Walking around is hard! The head spins. I am out of breath in just a few steps. The hotel is nice, though a bit basic for its 4-star billing. As for the day itself, the reality is that we staggered up the road for quite a decent Nepalese lunch and then spent the entire afternoon in bed, giving the body time to adjust to the altitude and low oxygen. Dinner at the hotel was a very confusing DIY hot pot and BBQ. I just didn’t have the energy to figure it all out, so kept myself to the limited pre-cooked items in the buffet.

Day 2, 3rd July 2018 - Around Lhasa (by Rod Smith)

The imposing, iconic Potala Palace

The first part of our day was a standout highlight.

It started just after breakfast with a visit to the Potala, the most famous building in Tibet. This palace was the home of the Dalai Lama until he was forced to flee the country in 1959. From the outside the palace is spectacular, perched on the side of a hill overlooking the city. A part of the building was destroyed during the cultural revolution, but it has been restored. Inside the palace was a huge and mystifying labyrinth of rooms. We were all struck by the sheer elaboration of the displayed worship idols, and the quantity of precious metals in the burial tombs of the earlier Dalai Lamas.

We followed this with a visit to Lhasa old town for lunch and then, before we went to Sera monastery, Saurabh had a lengthy and frustrating time trying to draw cash, first from the ATM and then from the teller. The entire banking process was over an hour involving a lengthy wait first to see the teller and then to wait for her to sort it out. In the end after about an hour Saurabh was still unable to get the cash!

At Sera Monastery

At the Sera monastery we walked up the hill to the area where the monks were in a discussion session. I have no idea what the process involved other than the fact that one person seemed to be asking a lot of questions with much smashing of his arm by fist. There were a huge number of people observing and after a few minutes we all decided we were all confused and had had enough.

We then headed back to the hotel to find Richard suffering after a horrendous trip from Melbourne and multiple delayed flights. He was really suffering from a combination of the stress of the journey and the effects of the altitude. He was to make a recovery, but at the time we were all concerned about him.

Day 3, 4th July 2018 - On the Road - Lhasa to Shigatse (by Shibani Mishra)

Brahmaputra

Our first road trip in Tibet! This was from Lhasa, the capital and the largest city which is situated at 3,500m above sea level to Shigatse (sometimes also spelt as Xigase), the second largest city in Tibetan an altitude of 3,900m . It was a long day, we left our comfortable Sheraton Four Points hotel at 8am and arrived into our hotel at Shigatse at 6:30pm. All this to cover 240kms. About two hour into our 10.5 hour day our lovely guide, Dawa informed us that it would take us this long as we were taking the scenic route. There were indeed two other faster ways of getting to Shigatse he told us, a rail link that would take 3 hours & the other a highway through tunnels that too would take only about 4 hours! But aren’t we glad he took us via the scenic route! We got a true taste of Tibet. I found Mandeep’s (from IBEX expeditions the tour company who made this dream come true for us) words ringing true every step of the way. He had said to us if you liked Ladakh (he knew that we had visited Ladakh in India in 2014), then Tibet will blow your mind”. And blow our minds it did. The scenery is mind-blowingly SPECTACULAR! 

The colours of the barley fields

For starters there was the mighty and already quite wide Brahmaputra river. Originating in Lake Mansarovar and making its way to meet a branch of the Ganga in Bangladesh, it is the ninth longest river in the world. It becomes monstrously wide by the time it gets to India and Bangladesh. We drove through 3 very high passes, one of which was at @5,000m above sea level! From this pass we saw a lake with a turquoise blue colour to it, which itself was at @4,500 m! We even saw a lake formed behind a dam from 4,353 m the colour of which was a sea green! The colours of the vista on that road trip were beautiful and no photograph (of which I took waaaay too many!) do them ANY justice. Just imagine a vibrant green of barley fields alternating with the bright yellow flowers of mustard fields with the browns and slate greys or reds of the earth of the mountains and the bright blue sky with a few white clouds about.....aaaahhhhh beautiful!

At the 7,200m glacier

Also from another lookout at 5,020m we saw a glacier over a mountain which was at 7,200m. There we met a father-son duo from San Francisco who were riding their bikes from Lhasa to Kathmandu via Everest base camp. Not only were they riding their bikes at such high altitude they were living in houses of the local villagers, (many of which did not have toilets inside the homes!) along the way! I was in COMPLETE awe of these two gentlemen!

But another strange phenomenon we witnessed here, which was a first for all of us was at one of the scenic look outs alongside a few stalls selling the standard Tibetian jewellery, and art and craft were vendors touting for us to have photographs taken with their baby goats and very large dogs (these looked more like lions with the mane like hair they had around their face). In order to make this happen they had chained these animals to rocks! Each of us were horrified at the treatment of these gorgeous animals.

When we got to Shigatse, we had to present ourselves at the local police station. There Saurabh and Rishabh got a first hand experience of Chinese bureaucracy. Almost 30 minutes later, we were allowed to make our way to our hotel. 




The town of Shigatse like many others in Tibet had an extraordinary amount of construction taking place. The main town centre area in which our hotel was located seemed to be very new, and Dawa our guide confirmed that most of this was only 10-15 years old! However on this road trip there were 2 things that struck me:

The new sprawling part of Lhasa

1. The degree of urbanisation between Lhasa and Shigatse, which I found mind boggling. The roads were lovely (though I can’t say that of the public toilets), internet and wifi access and power lines supplying power even to the most remotest of villages! Most of these villages looked like fairly recent constructions. There were solar panels on many of the roofs of houses and we even saw a few “solar farms” - large areas with rows and rows of solar panels!

2. Dry river beds!!! I was astonished to see that even though were were travelling through in early July, and assuming that the snow/ice in this region (being at such high altitude) would have only melted in late April/May, that the mountain streams were COMPLETELY dry! There were only a handful of streams in thin channels that we saw. Our guide assured us that it would fill up again in the monsoon months of August & September, but I was astonished to see them so dry so quickly. Must be the effect of global warming?

Day 4, 5th July 2018 - Shigatse to New Tingri (by Rishabh Mishra)

After our first of what we knew would be many days of driving, we all slept well in the comfortable beds of what we would later realise was the last decent hotel on the long road to Kailash. Despite having some fairly long haul drives ahead of us, today’s was only going to take us 5-6 hours, and so we had a little bit of wiggle time in the morning before we had to get back into the bus and on our way. Given the choice, I’m sure a few of us would have opted for a bit more of a sleep in, but our guide Dawa insisted that we must see this one particular monastery. By this point the group’s general consensus on monasteries was that they were all the same, and ‘if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all’. We drove out to the Tashi Lhunpo monastery, and with all of our heads spinning a little bit and fingers tingling we embarked on another one of Dawa’s iconic historical landmark tours. 

Shigatse Monastery - Seat of the (now controversial) Panchen Lama

Walking through the impressive gates, there was a marked difference between the decrepit edifices of the numerous monasteries we’d already visited and this one. With the floors in their courtyards so well swept that you’d get a headache if you looked too hard and long at them, and a large LED display showing almost what looked like a Xi Jinping tribute video in the corner, something felt a little bit off about this one.

Dawa soldiered on with his tour as per usual, rattling off names of years and leaders of Tibet one after the other, and listing their numerous contributions to the people of Tibet as we half interestedly indulged him in his historical recounts. This continued for about 10 minutes until something perked Dad’s interest. By this point we had meandered our way into a monk’s living quarters, and two monks were standing in the courtyard engaged in some of their menial daily routines. Dad had been unsuccessfully pressing Dawa over the past few days about why Tibetan Buddhism with its excessive iconography and worship of idols, was so different to the simple teachings of Gautam the Buddha. Always keen to stir the pot, Dad asked Dawa to act as translator to the monks. Dad's question was simple but Dawa rattled on for a good 2 minutes in his translation, with the monks listening intently and sagely nodding. Their reply was concise and brilliant - "it's all a show to impress future generations so that they may reach out to the real teachings".

Rock, river, sky

Towards the end of this especially long tour of Tashi Lhunpo we came across a mural, much like many of the others we had seen- this one was 600 years old and depicted a utopian Buddhist image of ‘heaven’. Lost among the intricate details of the artwork I almost completely missed the big red scrawl in mandarin over the top of it. The graffiti translated read- “Long live Chairman Mao” and was written during the Cultural Revolution in a bid to destroy any culture that wasn’t homogenous with the desires of the Chinese central government.


The rest of the day played out more or less without incidence, we had lunch at a Nepali restaurant, where Dawa ordered far too much food for 7 not-very-hungry people, leaving me with the familiar job of having all the food end up in front of me because I’m apparently the family’s food dust bin.

We drove into New Tingri, a town where we could allegedly see Everest if it was clear enough, but unfortunately it was dark by the time we got there, and the closest we got to seeing Everest was Aarushi being convinced that an oddly shaped cloud was the world’s tallest mountain.

Day 5, 6th July 2018  - At Mt Everest Base Camp (by Aarushi Mishra)

We had a very early start this morning to see Mt. Everest at Sunrise and make our way to the base camp. It was very cloudy when we began our drive to Everest base camp. We were really hoping it would clear up soon. Despite not being able to see Everest at sunrise, we saw some other peaks, and the colours in the sky were beautiful. 

But after driving another couple of hours, there it was - the tallest mountain in the world with no clouds blocking it! I can’t believe how lucky we were to see it. After driving a little bit further to get to the base camp. The altitude there was 5,200m and the height of Everest is 8,848m. We stayed at base camp for a while to admire Mt. Everest! It was an incredible sight and I was so grateful that we saw it from close up!

Mt Everest summit on an amazingly clear day

There was a fast flowing stream formed from Everest’s glaciers. Aadya decided to be adventurous and drink the water from it! It was ice-cold, as you would imagine, and it was already quite cold at base camp itself, but she went ahead and drank it!

After looking in awe at the 8,848m high mountain, we went and had lunch. The food was amazing as always, but what made it even better was that it looked out to Everest!

A little while later we began our drive to Old Tingri. The road wasn’t so good, but the scenery was spectacular. We also saw some wild donkeys of which Rishabh got some good photos.

We arrived at the guesthouse a few hours later and it didn't look in such good shape since it was built in the 80s. We were hoping that looks would be deceiving in this case, but the rooms weren’t so great either. However the two cooks, truck driver and second guide joined our support crew today. The main chef is famous in Tibet and it is very obvious why, the food was fantastic! We now have six crewmembers for the seven of us!

Despite the accommodation, we had a tremendous day and seeing Everest was absolutely fantastic and an experience we are extremely grateful for and will never forget!

Day 6, 7^th July 2018 – The drive from Tingri to Saga (by Dr. Richard Presser)

Good bye Mt Everest

We awoke to perfect sunshine and our last view of a cloudless Everest and Cho Oyu to its right, as we looked straight out the front of our hotel compound. Exhilarating. Indescribable.

After a magnificent breakfast from our renowned Tibetan chef (reportedly the highest rated chef in Tibet) who had just joined us the previous evening with the support truck crew, we began our trek to Saga.

The first part was along a long valley, which was largely dry, fed here or there with a spring. Just add water and life emerges; the natural grasses producing a self-sustaining peat, which feeds animals and birds, and through them, man. The Tibetan desert plateau becomes an oasis. We stopped and photographed some horses grazing on the grass, appearing seemingly out of nowhere in the pebbly desert terrain.

That lake..

A little further on, we came to extraordinary vista of a lake to our left and with mountains surrounding us on all other sides. A spectacular vista. After taking a break to enjoy the lake and its surrounds and stretch our legs, we continued on. 

A little further along, after moving from barren valley to fertile valley to barren as we progressed, observing the peasant and in some cases nomadic life of rural Tibetans, we came to a road we were meant to take to the right. Except the road was closed. Now, alternative routes are not easy to come by in Tibet. However, for vehicles up to the task, there was a temporary track in the dirt beside what turned out to be a huge road reconstruction that reached all the way to Saga.

One of history's best picnics

A few minutes of driving and we came upon our truck crew, who had set up a table and chairs for lunch, replete with shade umbrella. We all fell about laughing at the incongruity of it all. And so, we were treated to our first magnificent lunch from the hands of our magnificent chef. We were doing it tough!!!

After lunch, we resumed our trek alongside, then on the new road, with departures off the road for missing drains and bridges, then alongside again as we re-entered the mountains, heading over a pass of about 4,800m before descending once more, weaving around this massive road construction project that’s probably 100km long. Not the most comfortable drive, but interesting, nevertheless.

This brought us to our hotel in Saga. It was one of the hotels I would like to forget and avoid on the way back as we have to return along that section of our trek. It is the hardest bed I have EVER slept on, and I like a firm bed. The electricity did not come on until 7pm and was turned off later in the night, to be turned on again at 7am. The hotel is only 1 year old!!! Very Chinese.

But we did not let the hotel spoil what was a magnificent day of travel in the sights and scenes of Tibet.

Day 7, 8th July 2018  (by Aadya Mishra)

Today was the day when our 5 days of travel would finally result in a glimpse of Mt Kailash and Mansarovar.

Our first glimpse of Kailash

After a good 7-8 hours drive with the mandatory 6-7 police and army checkpoints and "not for the faint hearted" public toilets, we rounded the corner and saw for the first time the rock that had drawn us 10,103km from home.

Ignoring the power lines and government propaganda billboard partially obscuring the vista, it was quite a spectacular sight. As we came to discuss later, Mt Kailash really "sticks out like a sore thumb." It diverges from any discernible pattern of the landscape and is vastly different in shape and size to anything else we saw there. 

We continued to drive towards the base of the mountain to where we would be staying the night in Darchen, stopping periodically to really take in all the angles that we could observe of this BIG rock.

On the way up Darchen's main street we were amused by the various marketing strategies of the restaurants there. One of which was named "Old Chengdu Sichuan Restaurant Mushroom Chicken Pickled Duck"; another more concisely "Simple Restaurant"; and another, bearing images of farm animal abuse on its banner: "Farmers' Association Restaurant".

Arriving at the guesthouse we were enthralled to realise that we were staying at one of the world's premier 'staff-less hotels'! What we first thought was merely neglectful on their part we soon understood was actually a business strategy. In the full 18 hours that we spent there, I did not see a single individual employed by the establishment: a true feat of entrepreneurship!

Jokes aside, I am still amazed at the infrastructure that has been built in Tibet, considering it is really one of the most remote corners of the earth.

We were made to feel very comfortable thanks to the wonderful tour staff- enjoying a delicious three course meal complete with the now much anticipated hot-towels. Rish, Aarushi and I managed to lock ourselves out of our room for the 3rd time in as many nights, much to the delight of Dawa who was again quite pleased with our relentless inability to communicate on such a simple matter.

We spent the evening packing for the walk ahead (each of us prepared a bag to put inside a larger back-pack to place in the yak sack. A yak sack backpack) of us and working our way down the hallway of open guest room doors as each toilet stopped working in turn.

Day 8, 9th July 2018 – The Kora Begins (by Saurabh Mishra)

Ah, we’re finally on to Day 1 of the Kailash Kora – a circumambulation of the majestic, holy mountain.

We weren’t without nerves over the challenge that lay ahead of us. But as Rishabh kept assuring us, “it’s just another walk. You have to put one foot ahead of the other and keep repeating”. We fished out all our walking gear, which had to straddle everything from tropical hot to high altitude freezing cold! So out came the boots, walking sticks, hats, 2 changes of T-shirts and shorts each, and then beanies, mittens, thermal uppers & lowers, down jackets, fleece jackets and sleeping bags. We had to make 2 large bags for the Yaks to carry (!) so all the sleeping bags went into one and all the aforementioned gear went into the other. Ominously, Dawa then ceremoniously handed out light-weight, portable oxygen cylinders to each of us “just in case”.

We had our customary breakfast of porridge, boiled eggs and toast with tea/coffee, boarded the government vehicle that had to mandatorily take all foreign tourists to the starting point, and bumped along dirt tracks for a good half hour. At the starting point we joined a confusing retinue of Yaks, horses and their respective minders. And so by the time we set off, we were a group of 20 humans (7 of us + 5 of our crew + 5 horse-minders + 3 Yak-minders), 5 horses, and 3 Yaks. The Yaks were loaded with our gear plus all the cooking gear – stove, gas cylinder, crockery, food supplies and crates of water. A note on the horses – they were our insurance policy as we were all firmly intending to walk the circuit.

Loading the Yaks

And so finally, we set off. It was a gorgeous sunny day and felt great to finally start what we had been building up to for so long. There were heaps of other people also doing the Kora - at least 2 large groups of Indian pilgrims and innumerable numbers of locals. Of course the most striking were the few locals who were doing it by prostrating full body-length all the way. Apparently it takes them 15 days to get around. Imagine that!

We ceremoniously passed through the “Yum dwar”. Yum is the angel of death in Hindu custom and “dwar” means “door” – so depending on your outlook, you could take it to mean “the door of death”.. very Tolkien-esque! I ofcourse chose to interpret it as “leaving behind our past selves, shedding unwanted emotional baggage, and venturing forth as new selves”. I felt this was congruent with the idea of Shiv as destroyer of that which was no longer useful, so that something more useful could take birth.

The "walk in the meadow"

Soon the down jackets came off, then the fleece jackets.. and eventually the thermals too. Then the beanie gave way to a hat. It was HOT! We then had a good 15 minute argument with one of the horse-minders, who took exception to the size of Richard’s backpack (it was just a normal backpack!). It was all a ruse to extract more money on the spot of course. So at one point I stepped in, tapped on the guy’s chest, pointed to Mt Kailash and made that 2-finger “He’s watching you” sign. He quickly relented (and was rather nice after that for the next 3 days)! Tibetans really do revere the mountain. They call it Ka Rinpoche – the precious teacher.

I soon realised that what was billed as a “walk in a meadow” was anything but! Sure we were walking in a picturesque valley along a gushing river (glacial melt from Mt Kailash that was making its way to the Mansarovar Lake).  And yes, there was a lovely meadow there too. But I did NOT expect the strain of an unending series of steep uphill climbs (followed by dispiriting downhills, knowing that that next uphill was just ahead). And mind you, this was at 4,700m altitude, climbing to 5,000m. I was also not helped by a blocked nose, which meant breathing was quite difficult and strained. I felt first signs of an oncoming headache about 2.5 hours into the walk. Post lunch I therefore cashed in my insurance policy and got on to the horse.

North face of Mt Kailash after Day 1 of the Kora

We had scintillating views of Mt Kailash at various points through the walk. Each time it appeared, I felt a sense of being watched over. My imagination was also running riot, what with Sadhguru’s assertion of the mountain being a store-house of spiritual wisdom, and equally, Sri M’s description of it as being almost Earth HQ! I also kept a lookout for likely candidates for the high-up-above cave that might contain relics of the crashed UFO and its wise occupants as per Sri M’s book! Tellingly, there were at least two large monasteries along the way, so given that the cave system is guarded by Tibetan Lamas, it could have been near one of them!

After more and more ridiculously steep climbs, we finally arrived at the rather frugal accommodation by about 4pm and each fell into a heap. By this time my headache had taken blinding migraine proportions and despite all the help from Aadya, Shibani, Richard, numerous relaxation exercises, Kriya meditation sessions, medication, the benevolent gaze of Mt Kailash, and even resorting to the bloody oxygen (!), the headache of maybe 8-9/10 intensity wasn't to abate until the following morning – one of the most painful experiences I have ever had.

In fact we were all struggling. Aarushi also started complaining of nausea and I heard Rishabh muttering about a headache. Shibani stayed up most of the night tending to Aarushi and me. I was (yet again), amazed and humbled by her love and mind-over-matter attitude. After all, she was clearly more tired than me, having walked the whole day (whereas I rode on the horse for half the day), and had the tough Day 2 still ahead of her. She told me later how concerned she was as all my symptoms were steadily pointing to one and only one thing – the onset of severe altitude sickness.

Still in a lot of pain at around 3am I mentally beseeched the Mahavatar/Shiv – “Please tell me what’s best for me now - should I continue the Kora, or should I turn back?” Almost immediately an old Hindi movie song burst into my head – “Aa ab laut chalen” (“come, let’s return home”)! I don’t think I’ve heard that song for at least 2 decades. I truly laughed out loud (you can’t fault “him” for a sense of humour), made the decision to turn around in the morning, the headache abated, and and I fell into a deep sleep.

Day 9, 10th July 2018 - The Toughest Day of All (by Rod Smith)

This was a truly amazing day and it evolved into a day of many parts. This was the second day of the Kora.

Richard at the beginning of Day 2

Firstly the party of 7 became a party of 5 as Saurabh and Aarushi were too unwell to face the daunting day of the ascent to Drölma pass and long downhill trek to our accommodation. Saurabh was in 2 minds about doing day 2 of the Kora but sought guidance overnight from his guru and decided to return on horseback to the start of the Kora. Aarushi was also feeling unwell and decided to return with her dad. In addition to this, Dawa our guide for the trip to date pulled out due to his cold and high blood pressure.

Everyone else decided on going horseback to the pass apart from Rishabh and myself, who hadn’t booked horses anyway. After loading up for the trek and a few emotional farewells we made our way up to the pass. The guide for Rishabh and me was Tensing, who previously had made 44 Kora trips. After an hour or so we began to realise why this is described as the toughest part of the journey. It took us about 3 hours to reach the Drölma pass. Rishabh was out ahead – his young body and lots of Timbertop training stood out. I was struggling at times but determined to make it. I was ably supported by Tensing who stayed with me offering words of encouragement such as “it’s not far now!” This would get me to the top of the next rise only to be met with more rises. In my head at the time were the words of my personal trainer, “Stay strong, keep going” during a 2.5 minute plank exercise.

The view from the top of the pass

At the top the view was unspectacular but the feeling of having made it to the top was more than enough to keep us going. The next part of the day was downhill to the tea house. The first part of the downhill was relatively easy and Tensing stopped at one point with me to fill our water bottle with holy water from one of the holy mountains. The final part of the morning was much more difficult with a very steep descent over rocky terrain. The teahouse was finally a welcome sight after about 5 hours of really tough walking.

After lunch, which went far too quickly for some people, we started the next part of the journey to the accommodation. This was not overly difficult but when combined with the tiredness from the morning ascent it was still extremely taxing. The scenery was not spectacular but very pleasant as we followed the river down the valley. At one point I stopped, utterly exhausted, as Rishabh and Aadya waited patiently for me with our cook and driver. The cook was waving for me to come on but I had hit a mental and physical brickwall! I had to go through the physical pain barrier by taking long breaths and drinking lots of water. After a few minutes I came through this mental barrier and continued with Rishabh and Aadya to our accommodation for the night. It wasn’t by any means luxurious but boy was it a welcome sight. We reached it at about 5pm, which made for a very long 9-hour day!

Day 10, 11th July 2018 - The Kora Finishes (by Shibani Mishra)

Words cannot begin to express HOW much I am looking forward to a hot shower today!

The last two days have been quite gruelling and so had been hoping for an easier day today which we did get rewarded with! Though it had about 3-4 climbs with a couple of them again being quite steep, most of the walk was quite flat and marginally downward sloping : VERY pleasant indeed!

In the morning however before we began the walk, our guide Tensing took us to the monastery near our tin shed accommodation. When he proposed the trip to the monastery, all of us were very unenthused but when he mentioned that it contained the cave where Milarepa (a Buddhist monk) had meditated, it caught our attention. The cave was tiny, barely couching room for one person, but some of the other monasteries we have visited on this trip, as this one didn’t have much foot traffic, I found it to be very peaceful. There was some recorded version of chanting playing in the background which did add to the peaceful ambience.

From our walk we got spectacular views of the Zu Tu river that we walked alongside. This river originates from the glaciers of Mount Kailash and runs all the way to the Mansarovar lake. Also from some of the high points we could see Rakshas Taal the other large lake in the area which is revered in the Tibetan Mythology, but not so in the Indian mythology! How very unusual!

Lake Mansarovar

Along the other bank of the Zu Tu river ran a very new motor able road that had been recently built to be able to service a fairly large high end hotel that we saw being constructed right behind where we had spent the night. A single trip on that road in a government car (the only way to gain access) would cost RMB 500 according to our guide!

Majestic Kailash  as we stood chanting beside Mansarovar

After our hot shower at the “plush” (I use the word plush in inverted commas as on the outside /lobby areas it did look very plush, however on checking into our rooms we found them to have a few issues with drainage in the bathrooms etc.) Himalaya Kailash Hotel, and a delicious lunch, the Mishra clan headed out to Mansarovar lake. What looked like a gorgeous blue colour lake from afar (as we were driving into the valley) turned out in reality to be quite marshy up close! We couldn’t quite pin point what was it that had caused this difference, the water certainly had a lot of physical offerings from prayers that might have been conducted on the lake side. 

However we were determined to enjoy the moment, something that Saurabh had been wanting to do for quite a while. Reciting verses from the Ramcharit Manas that have reference to the mountain and the lake made the moment all the more special!

Tomorrow we start our journey homeward bound. As with every holiday, mind buzzing with art inspiration (I hope however that this time I can get a few projects done inspired by Tibet) but with a heavy heart & a wet eye think back to the highlights thus far. 

It has been a trip of many firsts for me personally. Besides the very obvious ones of a first trip to Kailash-Mansarovar, and Everest base camp, here are a few more:

1. First time up at 5,600m above sea level: the air is VERY thin and icy up there!
2. Using pit toilets :EWWWWWW: not an experience I EVER want to have to repeat
3. Using bush toilets on the other hand, I have to admit have been surprisingly liberating! No odours and sometimes spectacular scenery to look out onto as well!
4. Using a sleeping bag: shock horror that I hadn’t ever used one yet! I have to used one as a doona before, but actually crawling into a cocoon....first time on this trip.
5. Not having a shower 3 days in a row!!!! I don’t think I even went that long without a shower even when I had malaria (many years ago now!)
6. Candlelight breakfasts: this is a thing that we had to resort to on days with early starts in the western (remote) parts of our trip eg the accommodation on the Kora, these places were supplied by generator only. Here it was still dark at @ 6:30 am,  as Tibet has the one time zone across the entire breath !

Day 11, 12th July 2018 The Long Road back - Darchen to Saga (by Rishabh Mishra)

Having completed the hiking component of the trip we today we began our return journey home. This day started in a fairly relaxed fashion, especially given that we had close to 8 hours of driving ahead. We checked out, scoffed some breakfast and set off in the van back to Saga.

Eventually there are no words..

The day was- as per usual- full of stunning vistas of glacial lakes and ancient peaks coupled with raging rivers and jagged 8,000m mountains. We all kept to ourselves throughout the day, most likely lost in the process of unpacking the past few days and what it meant to each of us (and a bit of sleeping).

Upon arrival into Saga, the town which apparently doesn’t have power until 7pm due to the Chinese construction works sucking it all up, we followed the pattern of the rest of the day and had a lie down. This dinner was the last with our alleged celebrity chef, he prepared a delicious Yak sizzler which he conveniently brought out just as we were all singing his praises while digging into the first assortment of chicken curry, daal and stir fried vegetables. All in all it was a fairly uneventful, picturesque day.

Day 12, 13th July 2018 Crossing over the Himalayas (by Aarushi Mishra)

We left Saga nice and early at 6am to avoid the road block due to construction that would otherwise free up only after 1pm. After thanking our crew and saying goodbye to the cooks, Tenzin and the truck driver, we began our drive to Gilong shen.  No, it’s not the one near Melbourne - there’s another Gilong in Tibet!

Hot coffee in the rain

The road was a dirt track for the first part of the drive, but the rest of it was a nice trip and we got down to 2,500m altitude, so the scenery was very different to what we had been seeing for most of the trip. It was more of the green, misty, "Alpine" Himalayas and was absolutely beautiful. We were following the Trishuli River and will do so for most of the drive to Kathmandu tomorrow.  

The hotel that we were staying in Gilong didn’t look so great on the outside, but inside it was really nice and the rooms were good compared to other places we’ve stayed in on this trip. The rooms were on the third floor and there were no elevators in the hotel, but we managed to walk up it without getting as out of breath as we did at higher altitudes!

We encounter trees again

We had lunch at the hotel, but really missed our Tibetan chef because the food here just didn’t meet the standards of the food we had for the past week. That’s clearly why the chef we had is the best chef in Tibet! We decided to go for a bit of a stroll around the town. It was quite small, but there were many shops and we found some very interesting products on sale. But the best part was that some of the signs were in Nepali which is Devanagari script, the same as Hindi, so we could actually read some of the signs! It was a great relief after 12 days of not being able to read most of the signs.

Later that afternoon, Rishabh and I went for a search to find some momos, and ended up eating at this place where it was completely empty apart from the shopkeeper who was sleeping. Although it looked very sad, the momos tasted fantastic!

When we were going to sleep, Aadya found that her bed (the spare one in our room of 3) was even harder than the one in Saga! It was as hard as a rock and she had to make several adjustments to make it comfortable. However, we all had a great day and have had a fantastic stay in Tibet and I’m extremely grateful to be here!

Day 13, 14th July 2018 - Arriving into Kathmandu (by Dr. Richard Presser)

The task for the day was to drive to the Rasuwa China-Nepal border crossing, 25 KM, 1 HOUR DRIVING; then Drive from Rasuwa to Kathmandu, 140KM, APPROX 5-6 HOURS DRIVING. 

Sounds simple enough. Well, read on…

It’s as if Kiyrong/Gilong does not belong in Tibet. Most of Tibet is in the lee of the Himalayas, and is mostly desert, with occasional relief via springs and rivers that are not completely encased in boulders and rocks.

The day before, we had crossed from the leeward side of the Himalayas to the windward, and with it came rain and prolific greenery and even trees!!!

The drive to the border crossing went as planned. If you’ve been into or out of Australia or the US in recent times, the process is fully automated. Yes, you can wonder about how closely you are being tracked, but there are limited things you can do about that. Getting out of China into Nepal is entirely another matter. Firstly, the Chinese are officious and care little about you and your time. The Nepalese, on the other hand, have no automation but are no less officious. We, perhaps, passed through 10 or so checkpoints on our way from the border, most within the first few km.

Dramatic mountains and terraced fields

The contrast between the Tibetan tarred road to the border, albeit with a few inevitable rockfalls to navigate, and the road on the Nepalese side could not be more stark. As is the bridge on the Chinese side and the Nepalese side. The Nepalese road is a single lane road, formed but unmade, mostly mud with rocks embedded in it. To pass, vehicles have to find a slightly wider section and one would get close to the edge to the let the other vehicle inch by. Seldom was our bus out of second gear, and often stationary, negotiating a paper thin passing manoeuvre with the vehicle coming the other way. Certainly, a unique experience.

And then there were, perhaps, the inevitable traffic stoppages. One was for about an hour after a bus coming the other way dropped a wheel in a hole in the area of some roadworks. Saurabh stepped in as the director of operations, ably assisted by Rishabh. If he hadn’t, we could easily have been there for another hour.

The road widens momentarily!

A little further along, we were directed to a detour because of a tree that had fallen across the road. Near the end of the detour, a truck about 5 vehicles in front us got stuck because its gearbox had locked up. In due course, some mechanics turned up and lifted a wheel, releasing the gearbox. Not quite another hour.

We had already heard from our Tibetan guides that the trip from the border to Kathmandu was likely to take 10 hours. We took about 12… To travel 130km.

However, the scenery was spellbinding. Soaring peaks and plunging valleys with the raging Trishuli river at the bottom and with terraced farming of rice and other crops. Truly spectacular scenery, as our bus worked its way along the road threaded up valley and down mountain.

And our hotel (Manaslu) has finished things off on a high note. The best shower, a good bathroom with some third world touches, and a wonderful bed. I had a beautiful sleep.

Day 14, 15th July 2018 – Wrap up (by Aadya Mishra)

Waking up (way too early due to the absolutely absurd phenomena of time-zones) in our lovely Kathmandu hotel we thoroughly enjoyed our buffet breakfast (complete with chole bhature and papaya for the ultimate Indian summertime vibe).

Dad, Aarushi and I decided to go to the Pashupati Nath mandir, which was conveniently on the way to the airport so Rod continued Chennai-bound from there. At the temple we met a man who I maintain is of the best businessmen alive. With no indication on our part as to our desire to consume his service, he started showing us around the temple and explaining each monument's significance and history. Several times I thought we lost him in the throng of people but he was always there to continue his unsolicited guidance. His perseverance and tenacity is truly something I respect and should I be able to implement even a fraction of it in my own life, I know I would be a wholly better person.

Aarushi at the Pashupatinath Temple

Overall, the temple was very temple-y. I noticed that the architecture was very unlike other structures I'd seen and were common to Hindu temples, citing the oriental cultural influence in the area. We headed back to the hotel and then back out with mum in search of lunch. As we approached the shops nearby, it began bucketing down so we sought refuge in the closest establishment, a rather unpleasantly smokey sports bar as it happened to be. Though the food was alright, our hunger for momos (spiced dumplings common to the region) remained unsatisfied. As the deluge had ceased, we found 'Momo Queen' and enjoyed classic vegetarian momos as well as a chocolate momo! We returned to the hotel and had a rest, packed our bags (surprised at how our clothes had expanded over the course of the holiday) and stepped out again to have dinner before heading to the airport along with Richard.

For those with eagle eyes, you may have noticed that tonight was the FIFA World Cup Final, and the airport staff were well aware. After passing through immigration (where Aarushi was asked the security question 'what is your name?' we came across a small lounge area with two televisions broadcasting the match, as at least a hundred people crowded around. Aarushi, Rish and I took seats on the floor, beside various airport staff, including immigration officers and security personnel all of whom had abandoned their posts to watch the 'world game'. Meanwhile, Mum, Dad and Richard went to live it up in the Executive Lounge. 

The Kathmandu airport waiting area in that moment felt like a real community. Though everyone there had somewhere they needed to be or somewhere they were going to be shortly, we all paused there and enjoyed the match together. Eventually, the security personnel were called back to reopen the second lane due to building traffic, shop owners came out to watch, travellers came and went as their flights dictated.

And after the match finished, we too left for the departure gates, we saw Richard off and then among airline delays, had to wait a further hour or so before it was our time to board our flight to Hong Kong. We were shuttled a full 27 seconds from the gate doors to the airplane (Dad counted) and fell asleep almost immediately upon sitting down in our seats.

Technically this now spills over into the next day, so my story ends here. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel through Tibet. It was an incredible, unforgettable trip.