Day 22 - More Rain

Tukuche

It is pouring in the morning when I wake up and so I stay in bed reading about Pi's hardships on the lifeboat.
When I finally get up I find a happy Pipi. Yesterday evening a couple coming from Pokhara stopped at the lodge. Their guide is a friend of his and so he had somebody to chat and play cards with all evening and he can continue this morning.
My plan is to go out for a walk but the rain only picks up more. The clouds are like a blanket over the valley and neverending. I don't really want to go out in the downpour so I get back into my sleeping bag where I read and write.
At some point I can watch from my wndow a mule caravan arriving and the bargaining between caravan drivers and lodge/shop owners nearby.
The couple who has arrived last night from Pokhara has not seen anything for the past week on their trek. Just rain. That must be terrible! No enjoying the landscape, the peaks and ridges, the clouds and butterflies. I am lucky!

As soon as the rain stops I leave for Kobang. It's the next village on the trek, some 1.5 hours away. I can't just sit around, even if the trail is muddy, wet and slippery. I reach Kobang in 45 minutes and do a tour of it and the sister village Larjung. They're both right on the river bank but don't look as pretty as Tukche for example. After a short debate with myself whether to go up to Naurikot and visit the old Bon monastery (some old form of Buddhism) I decide not to. Nonetheless, in spite of the drizzle I take my time.
Here too some gardens are overflowing with flowers and the houses are flat-roofed and made of stone. I also notice a few walnut trees, something very uncommon so far.
In Kobang I stop to visit the Ma Ki La Khang Gompa said to be established in the 15th century and displaying an image of Guru Rimpoche. The beautiful wall paintings are unfortunately in very bad shape, damaged by time and water infiltration and mildew. The paint is simply falling or peeling off.

I take a few pictures and show them to the old nun who has unlocked the gompa for me and is curious to see the pictures. How excited she is to see the bright colourful images on the LCD display when she normally sees the originals dark in the dim faint light conditions.

I return to Tukche all the way behind a mule caravan. I'm startin gto dread this weather not because it's humid, cold or wet, but because it's so dull, grey and I can't seem to filter out the beautiful, special and unique. This is supposed to be the deepest gorge in the world. However, as far as I can tell it is an extremely wide, flat and grey riverbed.

On the way back to the lodge I find Rani Gompa locked again. Once at the lodge I wash my dirty feet and order something to eat for a late lunch.

In the meantime a couple of trekkers has arrived from the North. They had 1 meter of snow on the Thorong pass and snow for several days in a row.

So I should be grateful for the weather conditions we had so far.