******The Gosaikund Lakes******

With the Situation in Tibet susses out as much as I can from this end of things, I have booked a 4x4 leaving Nepal on the 17th July - the day before my visa runs out. With that done, we decided to get a bus to the Langtang Valley and do a treck from there that would lead us to the Gosainkund lakes. However due to another Moist strike nothing was moving for at least 4 days... so in defiance of this me and Joe decided that the one form of transport that the strikes could not touch were our feet! So we got a taxi out of the main Katmandu area and just walked from there to the Gosainkund lakes instead!

Legend has it that after drinking the poisen from the sea, Lord Shiva the Destroyer pierced a glacier with his trident in order to quench his inconcievable thirst. It was then that the lake was formed.

We walked there in less than a week, and arrived in time for my birthday. The journey took us through cloud forest - which ment walking in a near perpetual mist that dropped visibility at points to 3 metres. This meant we didn't have the views that 'on-season' alows, however this also meant that we were the ONLY people on the trail. With a brief exception we didn't spend time with any English speakers for the entire time - and when the mists finally did clear what a view! The lakes, at 14,250 ft, were quite something. When the altitude sickness had passed from the medically dangerous jump of 3,000 ft in one day necessasry to reach the lakes from our direction, I had my Darshan.
Alone in the morning of the 2nd July - Punum (full moon) - I went to the Shiva Mandir (temple) at the edge of the lake. There with no one to witness but the stillness of the lake itself I offered up the 108 names of Shiva in traditional Sanscrit, took a bath in the high altitude freezing cold waters fully emmersing myself three times, then I changed my Janoi. I emerged from the waters felling both exilarated and calm simultaniously. It really was quite something.
On the last day of the journey I found a beautiful Gompa/Budist Temple. The place just had a good vibe to it, and so after several days of thinking about it but waiting for the correct time and place I also performed a very simple Agni Puja. My Pilgrimage complete, we put some real speed on and made Katmandu by the end of the next day.
People go on Pilgrimages to all sorts of places for all sorts of reasons, some not even religious. Most of these places tend to be high up difficult places to get to. I now believe the reason that they go to these places isn't only for the place itself - for these days modern transport makes it easy, there was even a helicopter pad at the lakes. Instead I think it is not just the place, but the journey there that makes it. It was not just the lakes, but the difficulty and experiences that led us to our goal that makes, for me, the lake experience so special.

Sanjay Shelat, Langtand and Helambu Region, Nepal.

posted by Sanjay Shelat at 5:49 AM -