6 June – Wednesday: Saga to Nyalam
Slept a lot better this night that any other night so far. I still have the cold, the headache and my voice is still out. Had bed tea, as usual, and Tibetian bread for breakfast. Swami’s group had already left at 5 am for Kathmandu. We left Saga around 9:30 am.
The drive to Nyalam was uneventful. There was the about 2 hrs of gravel road again. But this time for some reason the scenery was much more beautiful. We stopped at the highest point again and one other place for taking pictures and to go to bathroom. Very soon we were in Nyalam.
Phinsu stopped at a place just before Nyalam to show everyone a meditation place. Bhaiya and I did not go. We reached Nyalam by lunch time. This time we were given a room in the main building. Lunch was beans and rice.
As we were sitting outside, people started trickling in and they were all coming back from parikrama. So now it was revealved to us that Darchen was not closed at all. All groups were going for parikrama. Uncle’s group had also gone for parikrama.
One thing was a common theme amongst all groups: that the touring agencies never true to their word. They all promised one thing but never delivered. Either the groups did not have water or they did were not given proper transportation or their residence was terrible something or the other. Bhaiya was really mad about not being able to do parikrama. He went to hunt for Phinsu but he was nowhere to be found. Ramgopal called him and he said he would come in 1 hr, but did not come until 9 pm.
Now we learnt that our guide in this whole journey was Phinsu. He was the one responsible for not taking us for the parikrama. He was extremely rude to us in explaining what happened. He did not think he did anything wrong. We all kept arguing for about 40 mins. Both he and driver had been drinking but at least Phinsu was sober, the driver could not even speak clearly.
At one point Phinsu threatened us by saying he would take our passport and give to the police and have it stamped so we could never come again. Then he said, why don’t you just come back next year for the parikrama. OMG what does he think of himself!! Bhaiya talked to Doga also on the phone but she could not answer even one question properly. Both of them will never live in peace for what they have done to us.
There was no point arguing. We felt so dejected and disappointed with the whole situation. Worse was this feeling of helplessness. We have never taken a trip anywhere where what was promised was not delivered.
We also found out then that our Nepali guide was TB. He had been with us the whole time but we did not know he was in charge of anything. In fact we never really knew who was in charge of what. He told us that on the first day we reached Mansarover, the next day we could have gone for parikrama but he talked to Swamiji and they decided to cancel it! Wow! He did not bother to ask anyone else. Swamiji decided all by himself for all us 52 people. Unbelievable!
It was all very tiring. Dinner was the same the same….boring. This time we were 6 in a room. I feel like a hearded animal. The sherpas decided that they did not want to bring the bags up! What the heck! Why did they not tell us before, we could have packed accordingly. But I got Ramgopal to bring our bags for us.
Today the feeling of helpless and disappointment was the highest because everyone had done parikrama except for us and all because we had bad guides.
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