Part 5 - Towards Mu La

Yesterday we could see the trail we will start with today. (In part IV, you can see a photo of a hill with a small path all the way up). Before we leave, we visit the village gompa.

Auch this hurts. Because there is no money (or they don't want to spend money on it), the gompa is decaying. It has a hughe hole in the roof and as a result, rain, wind and probably snow can come in. Buddha statues and old books are exposed to the elements. I wish I had a huge backpack to buy and save all this. Old paintings are falling from the walls and an old prayer mill is fallen into pieces. It is awful to see. We noticed already that rows of chortens are facing the same problem.

After a steep descend towards a new bridge crossing the river, we climb up the hill at the other end of the river. Soon we can get a bit of rest at a terrific chorten. Yesterday we saw it as a tiny, tiny dot far away (as you look very carefully, you can see it on the same picture in part IV). Now we are standing underneath it, admiring the fantastic coloured paintings and inscriptions.

We enter a new valley and hope to find a village called Mukutgaon. After de bare landscape of yesterday, we enter a valley with some pine forests on the right hand of the valley and a lot of endless waterfalls. It looks almost a friendly Alpine environment, although we are quite high already (about 4000m). Walking high above the river, it feels so good! Going up and down, up and down, until we see....Mukutgaon. This village is situated on a slope with terraced fields. Wow. Can't wait to get there! On the right hand, after the first mountain range, we see glimps of the Dhaulagiri range.

The camp site is amazing (again). Because we are a bit early, Rick and I start exploring the village. Easier said than done, especially because it is a terraced village (again). We have heared that there is a little gompa, but we cannot find it.

So we ask an old lady with a little boy on her back about the gompa. She indicates to follow her.

Indeed, we enter a small building which we would never had recognized as a gompa.

Again, this gompa is almost fallen into pieces. Through a huge hole in the ceiling, sunlight comes in and we see fantastic paintings and some old buddha statues and piles of the typical rectangular shaped books with piles of dust on it. This hurts (again). A drunk villager is curious about us and is dancing in front of our cameras. We donate some money but we don't think it will be in favor of the gompa.....

Although women don't like to be photographed, we are invited with open arms. Some women are running towards us, smiling and cheering. They are posing in front of the camera and are not offended at all. A women namend Angmo is very friendly and calls all the other ladies working on the fields (harvesting). Indeed, I can take some nice pictures (when they don't notice, because when they pose, the picture looks very artificial).

It is still warm, at 17.00 hrs, it is about 15 degrees Celcius at 4000 mtrs. Tomorrow, we will leave the civilized world. This is the last village for the next week or so. Mu La, here we come!!!