But before leaving Tsaile, let us look at a small architectural detail from this village. Those of you familiar with Tibet and its culture will instantly recognise the shapes and colours of this.Throughout the trip, we were constantly reminded that we had left the Hindu-majority far behind us, and we were in an almost purely Buddhist part of Nepal. And in this part, Tibetan culture reigns supreme. In many villages, we found the Tibetan vibration to be much stronger than anything we ever felt in Tibet proper when we spent 2 weeks there a few years back.
In any case, the window is a fresh and attractive example of what the application of a little Tibetan architecture can achieve. For those of you not used to cold winters, I point out that the use of black as a base will help retain solar heat when it gets cold. And now back to the trek.
As soon as we step out of the tea house, the climb begins. The surface is loose and round rocks and pebbles, so traction is not the best. We climb steeply westwards alongside a deep and narrow canyon. The road is, again, washed out in some places, and it at times seems to be held together by little else than a few twigs and a lot of hope.
We ascend onto a plateau, and make our way towards this stretch of road. It is difficult to see, but there is a straight plunge on either side - the road is in effect a land-bridge between two plateaus. A small section is pure rock-climbing, before we arrive on the path you can see winding from right to left in the upper part of the picture. It soon crosses the ridge and starts following the canyon we first encountered when leaving the tea house this morning. The path is little more than tunnel missing the left wall, and it is easily a hundred meters down. We can't even see the bottom of it, as it gets very narrow and dark down there. Perfect Smeagol territory, in other words! Once that thought settles, it is hard not to draw comparisons between these barren hills and the grey, dusty forlornness of Mordor. A steady climb at this altitude soon enough snaps the mind back to the path and the need to secure good footing. A plunge is the last thing we need right now.
We walk pass a suspension-bridge on the way up, and after walking for a while longer we get a good view of it and the canyon it crosses. Just look into that gorge. As I said, perfect Smeagol ground.You can also see that if we misstep here, there is nothing to stop us before we literally reach rock-bottom. So we step gingerly, and the wind is yet again no aid. To boot, the path is in many places covered with fine dust. The wind picks this up and glazes our eyes with it.
We soon complete this treacherous stretch, and enter into a broad valley where we keep climbing to the ridge. It is not particularly steep, but the altitude makes our chests heave. We press on.
In the middle of it all we stumble upon an oasis: Samar. The tea house is by a grove of trees, with a small creek running happily just outside. A friendly dog snuggles up to us while we sit by the tumbling water. We drink tea, enjoy the shade and soon are hungry enough to step into the tea house. The lady of the house is in charge of the kitched, and soon lunch is served. Our guide informs us that marriage-customs here are a little different. When a woman marries a man, she also marries his brothers. So the woman in this house has two husbands. Our minds start pondering this: How to keep the kids apart, does jealousy enter the picture, how does the more carnal part of marriage really work in such a setting? But apparently it works, and works well. Later on the trip we hear of a woman who married into a family of 5 brothers...
After lunch, the little blue lines we saw crossing out path on the map soon materialise as little creeks having dug deep crevasses. Many times we face a steep descent, with an equally steep ascent on the other side. It is incredibly tiring. After a few hours of this, we descend into "Windy Valley" as we dub it. The wind is being channelled in here and is ferocious. I have so far not been unduly disturbed by the wind, but here walking forwards is a challenge. Joe is right behind me, and together we exit the narrow gap of this place, turn around a left bend and are greeted by the sight of 3 houses in a clutch. Our guide and porter are outside already, and this is Syangmochen.
Our tea house is simple, yet clean, neat and tidy. There is a small girl running around, of maybe 2 years. She is still breast-feeding, but elsewhere on the trip we see kids up to 4 years of age being breastfed. Healthy, but unusual for those of us coming from more "civilized" parts of the world. We are tired after a rough day's walking, and we make it an early night.
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