Kailash 2017 Day 8 : Xigaze - Saga, Monday Aug 21 2017

The best thing that can happen at breakfast is aloo paratha, and it happened today - for the first time, an appetizing breakfast since I left Dallas. Putting all my gluten avoidance aside, I had four quarters of an aloo parantha and two cups of chai. Life is good again. The breakfast place in Xigaze is a large hall, and there are many groups living in the hotel - so the breakfast is mixed up with steamed vegetables, pieces of different types of flesh, eggs and bread and scones.


If the road to Xigaze was long yesterday, the road from Xigaze to Saga today was even longer. My memory of Saga was the first place I could call town in 2010 after crossing over into Tibet. But after seeing Lhasa and Xigaze, not too sure what to expect from Saga. In 2014, it was already so run down that we did not stop at Saga, the milestone Hotel Saga was no longer magnificent like it was supposed to be, and we had rested in a mud house in Paryang.

The one thing I do remember about coming to Saga from Nyalam is the yellow fields of mustard that stretched across the horizon, and that has not changed. Besides mustard, there is the crop of barley and other farms. Saga still holds strong as the agricultural treasureland irrigated by the Brahmaputra.

if this does not put you in the mood of a bus journey, what can?

the Brahmaputra flows below

locals

beauty in every form and shape and color

The early morning departure and the full meal of aloo parantha and chai had put me in a stupor - the bus stopped for bio-breaks and there was the usual flurry of "men on the left of the bus, women on the right" or vice-versa. All delicacy of language lost, all people wanted to know when the bus stopped was which way to go, and then back into the bus drinking more water to stay hydrated. How the panchakshari repeats in the mind and reverberates through the being through such a practical routine is a surprise to me, but I can say from experience that the increasing proximity of a land touched by Shiva can be felt in the bones.


At long last, the bus stopped, and after a while hoping it was another bio-break so people would be returning to the bus soon enough, I suddenly noticed this golden Bhairava. Not just me, the bus driver had noticed him too, and threw him cookies, that my Bhairava behaved with as per his current form, catching them in mid-air.


the bus driver offering cookies to my Bhairava

beauty left to blush unseen and waste its sweetness to the desert air

a comfortable lunch, thanks to the hard-working Sherpa team

the Sherpas eat last after the tourists have had their meal

Swamiji gamely talks to yet another of my Bhairavas

We were to drive 500 kilometers today, and had so far traveled, perhaps 250 kms. Most first-timers were under the impression that Saga would be 2-3 hours away, but for those of us who have traveled this before, Saga before night was difficult to think of. Half an hour later, a traffic signal in the middle of the desert, showing seconds left before the light changes - the Chinese have surely brought infrastructural development to Tibet.

the first sight of snow-capped mountains, my father's land is near


  

fenced farms, calves - this is inhabited land

collective gasp as the bus in front appears to get stuck, thank goodness it got unstuck right after

 The buses traveled through unbuilt or broken patches of road, and proper roads. As the bus lurches through broken pieces, one can literally feel the abdominal organs traverse through the body and float in fluids, and then back on the main road for a smooth nap. More than the lurches of our own bus, the bus in front is a bigger issue as it appears every now and then, we may have to get down and push - reminiscent of the daily incidents in 2010 when we would get out and push the food truck so many times each day - but though it looked like this bus will need help, it pulled through each time.

the bus screeched to a halt as a yak walked onto the highway

One agonizing shriek of the brakes, and the bus came to a halt, and I realized a yak had appeared on the road. Traveling to India so often has made us so used to stopping for cows and buffalo and sheep and goats and camels and even yelping dogs, it is not a surprise that we stop for a yak. But I do wonder how wonderstruck the driver in Tibet would be to find out that in Dallas, we stop for a duck or a goose with a row of bird-lings trotting on a backroad, for turtles and even stop for squirrels who stop mid-road, wondering if they should cross or go back where they came from. 

yaks and cows grazing in the grasslands

this is what Saga used to look like, actual houses not in geometric patterns

 In the old days, Saga was a T-junction, with the military band playing 24x7 behind Hotel Saga, the  only hotel in town, and we were not allowed to open the windows towards the military barracks. Recent construction in the area appears to be houses upon houses in rows, built like Tibetan structures, waiting for new residents to come populate the town. It was a refreshing sight to get a view of a naturally inhabited town.

After a lot of "are we there yet?"s from a bunch of adults in the bus, and Rajendraji from Karnali telling us - a couple of hours, an hour, etc - we finally reached Saga at 8pm. It was rice and kadi for dinner, and looking at my swollen up face and limbs, finally the Karnali team has decided I should have a full Diamox morning and evening.


While with our previous travel agents, the pony and porter is not our issue - it was taken care of by the travel agent - Karnali introduced me to the Chinese guide and asked me to work with him. I had to insist that Karnali be in the discussion - I have not paid to come to Tibet to fend for myself. Anyways, assigned names to people in the three buses who would collect the money - 3650 Yuan for pony and ponyman and porter. It was 2 in the morning by the time I went to bed, and the barking of the dogs at night brought back an undocumented memory - this is how 2010 was, we had heard the dogs barking all night along with the military band. It was a different group of people I had traveled with, their fervor for Shiva and their fervent spiritual search had guided me as well - somehow, this time around does not feel like a yatra - not sure if I am missing the presence of Swami Shivayoganandaji whose aura corrects the vibrations around him.  


AUM Namaha Shivaaya