Sunday, November 9, 2014

The Upper Mustang Trek - I


The problem with being called a veteran at anything is that it automatically creates the pressure to live up to the tag. I mean, just imagine someone calling you a veteran cook with eight years of experience in the kitchen. Even as you are scraping the half-burnt pieces of carbon on to your plate and hypnotizing yourself into thinking of it as dinner, you simultaneously swell up in pride and set your mind scurrying to find explanations for why exactly burning food is a sign of extraordinary culinary expertise.


This, in short, is the position I found myself in on this Upper Mustang Trek. With five first-time trekkers in the group of twelve and my own self clubbed under the veterans, I found myself in the invidious position of having to live up to the name. Rather put the kibosh on any thoughts of squatting down on the trail midway, and kicking and screaming for someone to tote me up those steep trails. Add  to the mix the fact that Ramesh had squeezed a 14-18 day trek into 11 days AND that he thought it would be a good work-out for HIM, you can well imagine that any fond thoughts  - that any given day’s trekking would end well before the time when wailing would seem the only way to go forward - died stillborn. (For those who have not read “Trekking in Kothagiri”, Ramesh is the chap I suspect of being an android, considering the fact that his speed of travel seems to take no cognizance of minor considerations like a 30 degree slope heading up to infinity.) It was, therefore, with much trepidation that I landed in Kathmandu on 19th October.

Such is human nature that the problems of the trek itself paled to insignificance compared to the immediate problem that faced me. Two days of road journey preceded the start of the trek and, as has been cited in these annals before - notably in 'Sick of Motion', the contents of my stomach reacted with motion of their own - upwards and outwards - whenever I hit the roads. What with food refusing to taste as good coming out as when going in, I was understandably averse to the idea. Having been remiss in not perfecting teleportation, however, I had little choice in the matter but to grin and (literally) swallow my bile for the ensuing two days.

The next day, the trip started with a visit to the auspicious Pasupathinath temple. The day's journey was to Pokhara, where we would halt for the night. The journey would have been almost uneventful but for the fact that Sampath gave the first intimation of his uncanny specialty. He had bought a camera at the Delhi Airport, and had left it behind in the vehicle that ferried us from the Airport to our hotel at Kathmandu, along with a bottle of duty-free rum. What was special about the incident was that both were safely recovered and delivered back while we were en route Pokhara. Just to prove that this was no fluke, he repeated the feat with other goods all through the trip - misplacing and, invariably, retrieving his goods!

The subsequent day, we traveled from Pokhara to Kagbeni, from where we were to start our trek. If ever there was a journey where we traveled in every possible dimension all at once, it was this one. So smooth was the road that we were traveling from one side to another, jouncing up and down as well as inching ahead - all at once. It is a tribute to the inherent good nature of my fellow-trekkers that I was not bounced off the seat adjacent to the driver since that would have been the most comfortable seat of all - not that THAT was saying much. After a hair-rising crossing of the Kali-Gandhaki river - not on a bridge or trail but by driving across the river-bed - we reached Kagbeni and, after a gingerly assessment, came to the surprising conclusion that our bodies were still in one piece. (One piece each, I mean, NOT welded to each other.)

The next day would see us start the real business - of trekking up the Mustang trail.

Photo Credits : Co-trekkers! Not a single one by me!

20 comments:

  1. Hmm :) Good to have the veteran trekker back to Bangalore. And the tale of the trek is very interesting so far.

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  2. Haha, loved the first para. Why do you all do it, o veteran trekker? What drives you?

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  3. Sampath sounds cute, but it's criminal to forget a bottle of duty-free run behind. :D
    Laughed at - "with food refusing to taste as good coming out as when going in" and opened the dictionary for 'kibosh', yes sir, I did!
    Nice picture up there, Suresh!

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    1. Sampath was a charmer - he had a lovely smile that served for an answer to all inconvenient questions, including those about how ANYONE could forget liquor :)

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  4. Oh Gosh! The thought of driving on those mountain roads gives me the heebie jeebies. Yes, I can imagine your fright in crossing that river. Kudos to you, seriously, for the treks every year.

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    1. The part I least look forward to while on my treks - the drives to and fro.

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  5. You really must be passionate about trekking to brave the churning of the stomache every time.

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    1. I suppose - since I resent that part of the trekking experience every time :)

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  6. Oh I know why you do it ! Its the thrill of the mountains isn't it ! Looking forward to reading the rest of the series !

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    1. THAT it is, Ruchira! As an inveterate traveler, you would know how it is

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  7. Wow ! Sounds like the start to a great trek ! Barring your poor stomach of course. In such circumstances, one feels rather uncharitable towards the Almighty for not making our body detachable. We could have just kept our stomachs out during this whole business of travel :)

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    1. Well - my problem was to keep the contents of my stomach IN, if you know what I mean :) Nice idea that - trekking as a sort of out-of-body experience :)

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  8. So, finally a picture ..thanks for that...a great one.. :-) As always, enjoyed your style of writing and it's evident from your earlier posts how passionate you're about trekking.. :-)

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    1. Still not a pic BY me and there never will be :)

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    2. Suresh,

      Suggest you proceed to give the readers a thumbnail sketch of the key characters before the story unfolds.. How you can actually manage a thumbnail sketch of someone like Key-tha or a Karthik is beyond me (they will probably take up an entire post --- each). This way the readers will have an idea of the company you keep on the mountains..

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    3. I am trying to keep them deliberately in the dark, Chandru :) Do not want to drive them off :)

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  9. HILARIOUS FALLS TOO SHORT OF THIS POST,I was missing my dose of humor.

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