Tibet
Kailash Manasarovar Tour 2009
by TomBel on Feb.14, 2009, under Adventure, Asia, Tibet, Tours, unique mountains
Departure: 28 May - 15 Nights / 16 Days
Day 01 : Arrive Kathmandu. Transfer to hotel. Evening Detail briefing on Kailash Manasarovar Yatra tour.
Day 02 : Visit Pashupatinath and Boudhanath. PM Free for Kailash tour preparation. We obtain Tibet visa on this day.
Day 03 : Early morning drive from Kathmandu (4500 ft, 1371 mt) to frontier town of Nepal, Kodari.
Day 04 : Rest day at Nyalamu for acclimatization.
Day 05 : Drive to the first high pass of Lalung La (16665 ft, 5050 mt). Stay at guesthouse.
Day 06 : Drive to Saga. And drive for another 100 Kms, 62.5 miles and arrive Paryang . Stay at guesthouse.
Day 07 : From Paryang drive to Mayum river (15280 ft, 4630 mt). Stay at guesthouse.
Day 08 : Puja, Homa, Tarpan etc. and drive to Darchen (15098 ft, 4575 mt), Stay at guesthouse.
Day 09 : Drive to Tarboche (15200 ft, 4606 mt) Camp at Dirapuk. Overnight in tent.
Day 10 : Climb through Guari Kunda Lake. Stay at tented camp.
Day 11 : A short trek will lead you to the pickup point from where you will continue by vehicle. Stay at tented camp.
Day 12 : Today you will drive from Manasarovar to Paryang. Stay at Guesthouse.
Day 13 : Continue driving through the Tibetan countryside to Saga via Tsongpa. Stay at Guesthouse.
Day 14 : Drive to Nyalamu via Peigutso once again. Stay at Guesthouse.
Day 15 : Drive from Nyalamu to Kathmandu via Zhangmu. Stay at Hotel in Kathmandu .
Day 16 : Transfer to Kathmandu Airport for your departure flight to next destination.
Please email us for costs using the blog Contact form!
A lifetime dissolves on the “kora” around Mount Kailash
by TomBel on Feb.02, 2009, under active vacations, Asia, China, hiking & trekking, Journeys of a Lifetime, temples & monasteries, Tibet, unique mountains
Sacred spaces and stunning landscapes! Magnificent temples, mountain passes, snow-capped peaks, nomad camps, pilgrims – this is truly a journey to stir the senses and nourish the soul – of all the destinations in Asia, the most sacred and sublime. The days of travel are long, the roads are dusty and bumpy – and it is a world that will take your breath away.
Buddhists dream about it, for most it is a must, not all can do it, some die while attempting to circumambulate it, above all from altitude sickness. For any adventurer, a journey to the Holy Mount Kailash is an unforgettable experience, the trek around it, a KORA, the highlight of its own. No matter how one can look at this stunning mountain, it belongs to a list of “must see and do” trips at least once in a lifetime.
Of incredible geomantic power Kailash (Sanskrit) or Kang Rinpoche (Tibetan) marks the center of the Earth for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Bon. To Buddhists it is the abode of Demchok, the wrathful manifestation of Buddha Sakyamuni. To Hindus it is the dwelling of Shiva, the destroyer and according to the Sanskrit tradition of Vishnu Purana it is a representation of Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the center of the universe. It is the place where the founder of Bon descended to Earthand where the founder of the Jain faith was spiritually awakened.
Kailash is also the geographical watershed of South Asia, here its great rivers are born – the Indus, the Sutlej, the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) and the Karnali / Ganges. At its foot lies the most venerated of Tibet’s lakes, Manasarovar, believed by Hindu’s to have been formed in the mind of Brahma.
Trip to Kailash is best combined with a side trip to the region that was once the heartland of Tibet, the ancient kingdom of Guge, flourishing here from the 9th to the 15thcenturies, with strong links to Ladakh and Kashmir, making it an important site in terms of Buddhist art history. The remains of this kingdom stand in a landscape so overwhelming as to defy description.
Much of fine info on Kailash available also at Wikipedia.
Fantastic train journeys across some of the most exciting countries with Kuoni
Kora around the snow-capped peak of Mt. Khawakarpo 6,740m
by TomBel on Jan.02, 2009, under Asia, China, hiking & trekking, Journeys of a Lifetime, mountain getaways, Places to See, Tibet, unique mountains, Yunnan
Few places on the Earth remain truly off the beaten path – a pilgrimage trek into the heart of the Salween and Mekong watershed is one of them. At the center of this journey is a 14-day Kora around the snow-capped peak of Mt. Khawakarpo (6,740m), revered throughout the Tibetan realm as far east as Ladakh, the Little Tibet of India.
Associated with Tibetan Buddhism’s saint-magician Padmasambhava, the mountain stands at the watershed region of the Mekong, Salween and Yangtze rivers in the southern tip of the Tibetan plateau in an area with the highest biodiversity in the world. This trip not only provides a rare insight into the life and culture of the Tibetans in southern Kham but above all inspires one wanting to pursue exploring more of this remote region bordering northern Burma, northwestern Yunnan, southern Kham and western Sichuan, as it were the waterways of these mighty rivers that mankind followed in ancient past downstream, to heart of China and south-east Asia, and from there into the Philippine and Indonesian archipelago and elsewhere from there.
Over the months to come I hope to weave a picture blending the cultural diversity and natural riches of remote and lesser-known places of the world that should be on one’s must see list, certainly before it’s too late and they too may vanish under the cloud of globalization and uniformity. On the one hand I hope to inspire one to travel, on the other by possibly alerting one to opportunities one may find in and about in whatever the part of the world in general, one may get roused to reinvent oneself overseas.
Journey to Zhongdian, the Mythical Shangri La of Yunnan, China
by TomBel on Mar.01, 2008, under China, Journeys of a Lifetime, Places to See, temples & monasteries, Tibet, Yunnan
The beauty of the exotic southern landscape of China is legendary, as is a journey to Zhongdian, the stunningly picturesque setting believed to be the inspiration of the mythical Yunnan Shangri-La described in James Hilton’s novel, the Lost Horizon. Many make the long journey in quest of the promise of paradise, and many leave disappointed because they did not expect to find touristy knickknacks and Western-style cafes in paradise, nor that the nearby Gansu Monastery was not to be anything like the lamasery of the novel. Paradise is not confined to a single place; it moves with us like a rainbow; paradise depends more on our perception than on the location itself, the writer of the article, Paradise Found in Shangri La, wrote. What a wonderful realization - armed with this kind of awareness and attitude, you are guaranteed not be disappointed traveling to Shangril La!
