Saturday, August 27, 2005

 

Mustang Sa




Dead silence, as if you have your ears blocked or the world has been muted. Small being amongst mammoth mountains and gusts of wind pushing you forward. It's not one of those weird dreams but a moment from my experience in Mustang.

It's been couple of years that I visited the beautiful mustang district of Nepal. I still remember the day when I got the offer for a pilgrimage to Muktinath. Although I am a zealot when it comes to traveling to new places, I faltered on that occasion. Dashain had just passed and I was in need of a good rest at home. But finally, I couldn't resist and was ready for the tour. Later I thought, may be it was an invitation from the almighty.

Next day, we were on a flight and within an hour, we stepped on the city, which is celebrated the most for its natural beauty in Nepal. Pokhara is a tranquil city. Not much people, except in some special locations. Not much vehicles. Lots of greenery and a huge pacifying lake with reflection of the most abstract and celestially carved peak. A day in Pokhara was great, as one would expect.

We spent a night in Pokhara and early next day, we caught a flight to Jomsom. The real excitement of the tour began on the half way of the flight. Birds eye view of the wonderful landscape and watching the wings of your plane at a touching distance from the mountains is a mind blowing experience.

Jomson is the district headquarters of Mustang so it's quite populated. We frequently came across long lines of devil-may-care horses. Every time we had to make way for them, after all it was their territory. We then stayed for a while in the police quarters as some prior arrangements had been made and after few hours of rest we continued our journey to the holy place. This time the mode of transportation was a little different. Since we planned to return to Jomson the same day, we decided to hire some horses. Next 5 hours or so were full of adventure. Narrow path on the verge of high hills and you on top of a horse, not completely under your control. Whenever, the horses climbed down to the gorge, I tried to make them gallop faster. But when I saw a companion falling from the horse on the rocky ground, I thought may be it was enough being a Texas Ranger. After we reached Kagbeni, everyone wanted to have a rest for a while but I didn't want to stop so I handed over my horse to a guide and started walking alone towards Muktinath.

Just after an hour, I was in the middle of nowhere. I was singing Third Eye Blind songs as loud as I could because I knew no one was listening. Then suddenly I stopped and turned around, there was no one. Not a single sign of life. Not even a plant. Absolutely no sound except for my breathing. I was alone there and not even sure if I was moving the right way. But it didn't matter to me. I was beyond this world. I was in Mustang.

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