Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Mt. Kailash - center of the universe in Asia
Quite
sad to realize that the girls are gone when I rush to the restaurant for food
the next morning. No need to stay here anymore and I soon start cycling after
stocking up with supplies from the nearby well-equipped store. A long ride through
a dry landscape brings me to a gigantic riverbed - more than 20 meters deep.
It looks like a demon has used an enormous knife to cut a mortal wound through
the valley But the establishment of new bridges on the southern road in Tibet
has made this and the next similar place unproblematic. Still, things are not
perfect yet and I have to cross the next gushing river with the bike on my neck
while using my ski pole to prevent a dangerous fall in the river. I eat in a
small restaurant with a bunch of staring Tibetan pilgrims while a thundercloud
darkens the light before making my way up to the last pass before Mt. Kailash.
The view of the mountain is staggering here and I try for a long time to catch
a good photograph, but weather is just as bad as it has been the last days.
Still, I am happy as a naive dog - only 21 km to Kailash, but the downhill is
frustratingly stony and another wide river just makes things worse. Darchen
emerges up on the horizon after I turn left and ride fast to avoid the approaching
darkness.
The
city looks like I can reach out for it when I discover a huge wild river just
outside town. Not again - this one looks completely uncrossable, and common
sense would be to camp and cross this glacier river in the morning, when it
will be much lower for sure. Problem is I have put common sense out of order,
and am totally focused on finding Erik and Stephane again because cycling alone
is for sure no fun. Two Tibetans with horses watch the mad cyclist cross the
river three times, almost losing foothold several times in the angry river.
How can such anger come from Kailash? The horsemen leave for Darchen with big
smiles when they realize I won't drown. I lose half an hour here and have to
kick my way through the hordes of barking wild dogs in the darkness. I completely
lose orientation and start walking around in town until a friendly but choked
Tibetan leads me toward a guesthouse after I walked straight into to his living
room, looking like a Yeti. Suddenly a woman yells after me in the darkness -
Oh no - more problems I think, but it turns out to be a very friendly PSB woman
who leads me to the place there the gang of two already are gone to bed.
The
reunion looks like something take out of a movie and we end up talking half
the night about our adventures until now. It is difficult for me to sleep, because
I have to choose among joining up with them now and giving a miss to the Kora
(cicumambulation) or rush around Mt. Kailash and start the sick catch-up game
again. Whatever the disadvantages, I have to choose Kailash and we separate
early in the morning after eating breakfast together. I cannot help thinking
how bumpy we have all turned into, worst of all Erik, who with full beard and
tourist-hat looks like a potential rapist.
I have packed only the
most necessary things including two kg of camera gear in a daypack for the 53
km. Kora, but the start at 10 in the morning means I have to cross the 5600
meters pass half around the mountain today in order to reach some small dinner
and sleeping tents. I overtake three Japanese with camcorder at high speed and
find myself in the company of two Germans on the west side of Kailash, shortly
after crossing a small hill. They are on a commercial tour and turn out to be
mother and son and we chat while walking for one hour. Reality forces me to
leave them and I find a steady pace, but cannot keep up with the incredible
pilgrims who are unbelievable fast. Most of them do the Kora in a single day,
while tour groups (and the gang
of two) use three days. The Lonely Planet guidebook mentions the Mt. Everest
phenomenon, Reinhard Messner's 12 hours kora as an outstanding achievement,
but old pilgrim women do it much faster every day in the high season.
I walk through a grassy
valley with steep mountain walls on both sides and small waterfalls looking
like they are coming from heaven. It is easy to find the way - a well-walked
path is the highway around the mountain. One kora walk eliminates the sins of
a lifetime - 108, the holy Tibetan number is the straight way to nirvana, the
enlightenment. I take a short break at one of the few well supplied dinner and
shop tents and prices are surprisingly low taking the transport up to here into
account. The surroundings open up as I pass a small monastery and the valley
leading up to the source of the Indus river two days away, discovered by Sven
Hedin. I cross a tiny bridge over a small glacier river and begin the exhausting
ascent 
up
the pass. It is becoming late in the day and the altitude begins to take it's
toll on me when I reach a place covered with cloth. This is the symbolic place
where sins are lost by throwing away some of your belongings. I need all I got
because the cold is intense here and I realize it still is a long way to the
actual pass. Keep on going while the day quickly passes away and I become increasingly
aware of the problem of where to sleep. Finally I see the prayer flags, but
cannot enjoy the moment and just walk fast over the Dolma- la pass. I have arrived
far too late for any proper descent from the mighty pass.
One hour of daylight
is all that is left for the now less self-confident cyclist to find shelter
in and I begin to rush down the steep wall of rocks. A white tent appears to
my relief in the fading light just some few 100 meters below. Coming closer,
I am ready to do anything to stay there tonight. An old woman looks anxiously
at the stranger coming to her place while she cooks water for butter tea outside
the tent. Two women in their thirties appear from the small tent. Hopes fading,
will there be any room for me anyway? 
They
invite me inside, but the old woman seems to dislike this hospitality and suddenly
rips her sleeping gear outside while arguing intensely with the others. Honestly,
I don't care, because now I got a shelter against the cold night and there is
room enough for all four of us for sure. The two women give me butter tea and
Tampa and arrange a little bed place for me with some of their clothes. Still,
I have a horrible night without sleeping bag and wake up at least 10 times.
In the end I just wait for light to come and end this. The women become very
active at the first rays of light, and urge me to rush also. They begin to bind
my bed place around their knees and take on heavy aprons. Now I begin to realize
how things are. They are nuns doing the kora by prostrations, throwing themselves
to the ground all the way around this awesome mountain, their center of the
universe.
I
suddenly feel very humble. The old woman obviously feared that there would not
be any nuns left in the tent with the sunrise, if I slept there. Somehow, to
prove my good intentions after all, I pay 100 yuan for staying in the tent.
A lot, but also expression of my admiration of what they are doing and a stay
in one of the commercial sleeping tents would according to the guidebook cost
me 50 yuan anyway. This (bribing) immediately makes the old woman change mood
and they led me down to a chorten, where they start their prostrations, while
I continue my kora.
Of course, only a half
hour later I find a dinner tent with sleeping possibilities. Here I eat together
with a lama who reached here going the opposite way in an impressive three hours
from Darchen. The young Tibetan guy staying here is on drugs, takes it in front
of me and runs around from tent to tent as if the 
devil
himself has taken place in him. I soon got enough of the show and leave the
place. Sleepily I walk fast and steady down the valley,passing bon-pilgrims
on their one-day kora the opposite way. Kailash itself is hidden by mountain
walls here and I just want to get back to Darchen now, also because the straps
on the bag really hurt my shoulders. Distances surprise me and finally at 3pm
Beijing time I arrive in Darchen, eat a quick meal at a good Chinese restaurant
and go directly to bed. Catching up with the gang of two seems now more unrealistic
than ever and it looks like I have to do the rest of the grueling trip alone,
something I don't look forward to. Short meetings with people you are not really
able to communicate with, leaving you to your imagination, daydreams and reflections
on life most of the time.