Gurung bread, Tibetan breakfast, Malaysian style enjoyment, dunk in coffee. :) We found this good looking dog outside out hotel. Looks like it still had its thick winter coat.
A view of Syangmochen from the slope we start going up pretty much immeadiately. You can see that it is barely a village. The day started off pretty overcast and I expected rain again but fortunately none arrived. The view is spectacular with the darkening clouds and the open vista but unfortunately, my photography was not up to scratch. I put it to the 'too early in the day' problem.
This one reminds of something out of a japanese mange. Rather owlish looking.
It is somewhat enchanting to see green among such arid looking surroundings. Although most of Upper Mustang looks arid and dry, there is actually quite a lot of water flowing. We have seen in villages where the water flow abundantly and freely thoughout the village, creating streams and water obstacles all over the village. We seen people, outside their home, sitting by one of these streams, washing pots, washing clothing and even washing hair.
Lots of these road construction going on. Probably part of the road network they are building up to the border with China. Throughout the entire trek, at some parts we had to walk on these roads as the road construction sometimes takes over the trails. It does not look like they have thought about replacing the trekking trails which is sad.
... and the treks continue... up and up and more Nepali flat. The sun is out and the skyline is spectacular everywhere you look.
We came upon another tiny village with the prayer wheels but also a dog which seems to be guarding piles of shapened rocks and flagstones. It even has its own stone doghouse. :)
There was probably a small trail that went close by this stupa but now they have widen the road where it now runs right beside it. Not sure how much thought they give the surroundings when they are building this road.
We stopped here for a tea break and we all did some posing. :)
What could she be looking at??? Let me go look too. :D It turns out that this is the roof of a barn. It gave some nice views too.
Who would have thought, an indoor garden. :) That is yak cheese and it is so strong that not even flies dare to alight on it!!!! I am not sure why they have a SG flag up since I didn't notice SG in the breakdown list at the checkpoint office in Kagbeni. I was kidding about the yak cheese strength by the way. :D
and we getting ready to go. Peed: check. SPF50 Sunscreen: check. Lipbalm: check. Driver auntie sleeves: check. Sunnies: check :)
hmmm... They have daycare center... Good for trekking parentals with recalcitrant kids. Come back in a few weeks to pick them up... :)
Not too sure why they choose such a boulder strewn, not pebbles or stones but boulders, path to this pass.
YESS, can I HELP you!!! :D
Our porters, Bir and Kumar.
Southhward and northward views from the pass.
Someone is definately less grumpy today. :D
and that is wind sculptured hair spikes, all au naturel of course and vegan approved... :D
We all decided to embark on some monumental building. Wonder if we can get in Malaysian Guinness book of record?? :D
A not so 'fei chai' cloud.
The trail leading down to Ghami. For some reason, this part of Upper Mustang has lots of boulders and large rocks. If you noticed, they are mostly rounded rocks. For the geologist buff, you would know that it is because of glacial or water action. So once upon a time, where we are, over 3700m above sea level today, was under water.
Some local Ghami kids watching us as we entered the village.
The guesthouse we stayed in Ghami turned out to be the best in our entire trek. It is newly build. We could see some painting material outside. I guess they are not quite finished. The rooms were nicely appointed and we got ensuite toilets. One of the best perks if you are trekking in Nepal is getting an ensuite toilet. Not all rooms or even guesthouses have them. When we were doing Annapurna Base Camp trek, all we had was common toilets and bathrooms. Imagine in the middle of the night, freezing cold and raining heavily outside, and you have to crawl out of your warm sleeping bag and go out of your room to walk to the toilet trying not to get rained on.
It turns out we were the only guests in the whole place tonight.
The madam of the house... :D
My room and fellow trekkers room. Very chic, I thought. A real brass knocker on every room door. We found out later that the proprietor was related to the King of Nepal in some way, thus the 'Royal' in the signboard outside.
Someone left their Quidditch equipment outside :)
vroom vroom broom...
We headed across the street for lunch which the proprieter of the guesthouse also owns. I think this is the original guesthouse. As we have seen in all the guesthouse's tea rooms we were in throughout the trek, it was cosy, colorfully painted and as elaborately as the proprieter can afford, decorated. What you see on the wall is hand painted, depicting things important to Buddhism, like infinty knot, rebirth, lotus plant, mandala.
Someone is excited to see copperware. Some people have strange fetish... :D
After lunch, we decided to go for a walk but first, let us compare tan lines. :D
A Tibetan infinity knot craving on the window shutters. On the door knob, that is a Tibetan monk prayer scarf which is braided.
Paraprazzi!!! must be some famous calf actor... :D
We found this local kid(double entendre intended) when we headed back to the guesthouse. We think it overslept this morning and miss the herding to the field. Anyways, we tried enticing it with the a job in Malaysia as gardener but it was not impressed with the job offer. :D
We got caught in village evening traffic. Suddenly, there were animal everywhere!!!! :D
Ghami is a farming village and people were bringing their livestock back to their home, literally. We could see people driving the animals through their doorway.
Busy street traffic. :)
A very vocal horse. It was whinneying loudly during the entire time we had animals everywhere.
NOOOOO, I want to still play!!!! :D A foal making a break for it
Waiting for the Goat King of Nepal and entourage... :D
Here they come... :)
Not sure what we are doing but why not... :D
