Travelogues Mount Kailash and
Lake Manasarovar Yatra
Trip advice & Travelogue
by Unnimaya (Page 3)
Eventually when everyone else had crossed over, the 11 of us – an NRI
group of 7, Mr.Ajay –again an NRI, 2 of us, one Andhra passenger of
Shrestha- and Mr.Haresh Trivedi and his wife (who could not cross over
–to our immense satisfaction- due to some visa problems) was shifted
back to Hotel Kailas where we had earlier taken our lunch. The issue
that was bugging me was that although Mr.Pradhan was aware of the visa
issues of others, our case was not in his antennae. Eventually after
shifting the time of arrival of our passports from afternoon to evening
to night, we were given dinner and accommodated in Hotel Kailas itself.
It was raining heavily that night and there was no sign of the bike
which had left Kathmandu with the passports. Mr.Pradhan and his gang of
sherpas were having beers while we were stewing and worrying about our
passports and later in the night search parties were sent out to look
for the bike since they had lost all communication with them. The
luggages of others also had gone over, and all retired in the same
clothes they were wearing –except for us and Mr. Haresh (who had managed
to get his bag back- VIPs get different treatment!).
In the meanwhile there was a sub drama- one of the members of the NRI
group had gone over since he had an Indian passport. The others were
supposed to follow him in 2 hours time initially. Since the passports
were not appearing even after 5-6 hours another issue developed – the
medicines of the passenger who crossed over was with his wife and
although they requested Mr.Haresh to contact the group leader on the
other side he was not taking any initiative since he had no mobile with
either Nepal or Chinese SIM Card!!!!After loosing their cool with
Mr.Haresh , the drama ended with another twist- the NRI with the Indian
passport returned back to Kodari from Zhangmu because of visa problems.
Lesson 2- Make sure your group leader and the operator representative
has at least a mobile with Chinese SIM card and Nepalese SIM card and
confirm he has the numbers of the Chinese guides and drivers once you
cross over.
Eventually the passports and visas arrived at 0200hrs next day morning –
I had not slept and confirmed this in the night. So next day we all
crossed over and joined the group in Nyalam. Meanwhile the people who
had crossed over were having their own problems. Because none of the
sherpas had crossed over with them, there was nobody to cook or take
care of them. The Chinese guides arranged their accommodation in Nyalam
and did not take any initiative to feed them. So after arriving at
0400hrs in the morning they had to get up the next day and manage the
whole day without their luggage and without food because the Sherpas
went over with us the next day. That really was the height of Shrestha
and Travelorg inefficiency. Lesson 3- Do not go unless you are
accompanied by the Sherpas- let me stress this –come whatever may and
whatever your operator tells you. Also beware of the problems that
schedule changes can cause.
The problem with our passports had occurred because, unlike the
travellers who joined the tour from India, we had joined in Kathmandu
from Abudhabi directly and so the visa for us had to be issued by
Chinese embassy in Nepal. Travelorg had forgotten to inform that there
are 2 cases of “Visa issued in Nepal” cases. Normally this would not
have created a problem, but since Mr.Pradhan took the decision to
pre-pone the schedule by one day we were stuck in Kodari for the visa.
Since he knew that the visas for 11 of us were getting only processed
that day, the decent thing would have been to keep us back in Kathmandu
in the better hotel and taken us together once the visas got ready.
Instead he made us stand in Friendship Bridge, made us go through all
the tension and put us up in the much inferior accommodation in Kodari.
Lesson 4- If you are joining the tour in Kathmandu, make sure that
you are matching your itinerary to the Chinese embassy opening days
(Monday, Wednesday and Friday), your operator is aware is that you are a
“Visa issued in Nepal” case and you do not leave Kathmandu until you see
your passport and visa (or at least make sure that your visa is
processed).
At least 4-5 people got sick in Nyalam in our group and Mr.Pradhan had
to get his operations organised –so we stayed in Nyalam an extra day
(which fortunately resulted in us matching the original schedule to
reach Mansarovar on full moon night). Although this allowed the group to
rest and recuperate after the foodless 1st day, nobody from Travelorg or
Shrestha remembered to shift the booking in Saga –our next stop- with
the result that instead of staying in Saga Hotel with clean toilets we
ended up in a place with really dirty toilets. Lesson 5- If your
schedule slips due to any reason remind the operator to reconfirm
accommodation or make alternate arrangements. If your operator is as
inefficient as Travelorg or Shrestha you will regret if you do not take
this initiative.
Hotels such as Saga International requires some money to be advanced to
confirm reservation. We had to force Mr.Haresh Trivedi to shell out the
advance money for the reservations on our way back or we would have had
to stay again in the shit hole where we were put up on our way up.
Lesson 6- Check with your hotel or hostel or lodge about your
reservations on the way back. If you smell any trouble, confirm with
your operator and make necessary arrangements.
Couple of times on the way, some cars in the group dropped back due to
breakdowns (one time one car got stuck in the river and almost got
washed away). While these incidents are unavoidable, what really was
frightening none of the group leaders (from Shrestha, Travelorg or
Chinese guides) had any clue about who was in which car and had no idea
of the car drivers’ telephone number. Lesson 7- Insist that a master
list with the Car nos , distinguishing marks, Driver name and telephone
number and the occupants is prepared once the passengers are distributed
in Nyalam (if the operator is not doing this basic thing take the
initiative and get this done)
This same inefficiency was evident during Parikrama – no one had any
idea about how many passengers had started, had returned midway etc. So
if one had not got to the camp at the end of the day, it was only his
friends/ families who would have been aware of their plight. See
lesson 6 and make sure a similar list gets prepared during parkrama
also.
Also during parikrama, we could see that other operators had
arrangements for one of the sherpas to go early and book accommodation
in the rooms for people who wanted to avoid staying in tents (the
younger and faster members of our group took this initiative- our
sherpas were short in number and they were doubling as porters). There
were also Sherpas bringing up the rear with oxygen cylinders, helping
and herding the slow movers. Lesson 8- Both these (sherpas going in
the front and bringing up the rear) are essential and insist on this if
your operator is not already doing so.
In our group of 122, only 22 could do parikrama. Primarily it was due to
the sheer large size of the group and due to inefficiency of Shrestha.
On the day we landed in Darchen, the person who was supposed to have
organised the porters and yaks/ponies announced that he could not manage
anything and so we could not do parikrama as scheduled. That was the
last straw- all hell broke loose. The money collected for the ponies was
returned back and it was left to our initiative to force the Shrestha
guy to organise at least porters. After confirming the number of porters
and consulting Sherpas how many Kilos they could carry, we finally
decided around 35 could do the parikrama by walking. The Sherpas would
double as personal porters and carry our back packs. So porters took our
tents and eatables and Sherpas doubled as porters and around 45 people
started the parikrama (although no one had a clear idea about the
numbers). The result was that the elderly people who were planning to do
the parikrama by pony did not go. If some of the people in our group
(including me) had not taken the initiative of starting out with the
porters to carry the tents and eats, none of us would have done the
parikrama. Lesson 9- If you are an elderly person planning to do
Parikrama on a pony, avoid rush days following new moon nights in
Mansarovar and stick to small size groups.
Throughout our trip, we had to force our way into rooms. Because we were
with a large group with a sub group of 55 and there was some one to take
care of this 55, we –being only 2-always had to fight our way into
rooms. Also since we were in the group that got delayed in border,
unfortunately we got grouped in the car with Mr.Haresh Trivedi and his
wife. While we did not get any special privileges for being with the
Travelorg Representative (although others in the group thought so) the
downside was that our peace was disturbed almost every night when the
group members came and had show downs and shouting matches with
Mr.Haresh. Lesson 10- Avoid travelling with groups having more
than 40 members.
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