Stay at Qugu

4th July 2018: Today I woke up late approx 9:00am. I wanted to feel the warmth of the blanket. After washing my face I went to the kitchen & took the puri-sabji for breakfast. Then Soma, Enakshi & I decided to take a stroll along the Mansarovar shore.

After crossing the boundary gate, we started to walk opposite side of the road along Mansarovar shore. Opposite of the Mansarovar, it was a barren land and then some hillock not so high. you can called it a cold desert just like the Leh Ladakh area. The cemented smooth road was passing through the barren land. After a few meters, it quite ascended & after climbing the ascend, we reached the Mansarovar shore. This part of the shore was quite muddy. We found Arivind & Smruti just beside the water struggling with the muddy shore. Yesterday we went to the right side of our guesthouse and today we went to the left side of our guesthouse. This right side was made by totally loose pebbles. but this side was quite green also. Some bushes were found on this side. Soma told that these bushes were the temporary shelter of the migratory birds. We found a lot of migratory birds today who was playing inside the lake.

We walked approx 3km & then decided to come back. On our return journey, we found a Tibetian temple aka gompa (Chiu Gompa) with a large prayer bell. There were a large number of small bells on the outer boundary of the temple. We entered the temple.No one was there. The inner wall was a lot of drawing of Lord Buddha or some Buddhist figures. I took some photos. There was a small chorten outside the temple.

After our stroll, we came back to the room. Some of the yatris went to take a bath along whom Soma joined them. She advised to take 2 buckets & filled them. 1st pour the one bucket & then pour another very quickly without wasting any second. The water was cold so leisure bath was not possible. Also, there was no place to change clothes (especially for ladies). So you need to change clothes there openly as it was not possible to wear the wet clothes and come to the room and then change due to the chilly wind. My decision for not taking bath was confirmed. I & Enakshi decided to take water instead of the bath. We took a bucket & 2 liters of 2 bottles that I had already carried from Delhi. As Enakshi decided to buy bottles which asked 20 Yuan I asked her to take one of mine. So we went to the Mansarovar shore & filled the bottle. The water was too cold for the bath (This was totally my feeling. Some yatris took bath both the days even early morning.) We both collected the water and came back to the room.

After lunch, today again, one of Suraj's team member informed me that Suraj was searching for me. This time I was inside the room and some people were near the passage in front of the room. So everyone noticed me that I was following Suraj. But without any hesitation, I followed Suraj.

Today's menu was Momo. The awesome momo...I am still missing them. A large bowl of momo was offered by Shobha. Today the taste was awesome & the size also. It was stuffed by yak's meat. I had already tasted yak in Sikkim. It was awesome. As I had finished my lunch, so not able to eat more, but I ate to my neck.

I Took a little nap today. I woke up at about 4:30pm but the outside it would not give the feeling of time. it felt that it was hardly 2-2:30 pm.

We started to chit-chat. I came to know one of the yatri Mr. Munish spreading the rumor, that yesterday he saw some stars aka God came, took bath inside the lake & went away ('Tin tare aaye, nahaye aur chole gaye). It was the good food for our fun. Also Gopinath Ji told, he spent the whole night beneath our window (as it was the easy shelter from where anyone got the whole clear view of Mansarovar) to view the God/star but not able to view anything different. As he was a guru type person who spent most of his life in a tough situation, it was quite believable for him to spend such a cold night under the sky though he confessed he wore the blanket along with his winter clothes.

After dinner, today I did not feel to go outside though some of the girls along with Sruti & Smiriti went outside to experence the bathing stars.

Day 17 - Qugu

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Day 18 - Taklakot Again