During the night, we were woken by an uproar, it seemed that everyone in the village was shouting and calling everyone to arms. A guide and some trekkers had been discovered climbing to the Gompa in the middle of the night, a really big no no. The villagers thought they were intent on robbing the monestery and took vengeance on the guide, beating him and tearing up the trekking permits.
I forgot to mention that the day before a porter staying at our teahouse came down with a very bad case of acute altitude sickness. He lay in the dinning room, shivering, coughing and in and out of consciousness. A doctor from a nearby French mountaineering expedition came and did what he could. That afternoon, a local shaman sat beside the man, spinning a prayer wheel and mumbling chants, eventually it was decided to take him back down the valley and out to safety. We later learned that he was OK.
We left early, planing to make Meta in one day, a two day hike on the way up! It's amazing the difference it makes going down the valley, and getting a higher concentration of oxygen with every step. We almost skipped down the path, but it was just as dangerous as the way up, so caution was still of utmost importance.
Goodbye Phu
One last look
Kyang here we come
Within a couple of hours, we were back at Kyang, but found the little teahouse closed ( our pack inside). We waited for an hour, and then Lille found the key and retrieved my pack. Shortly afterwards, the teahouse guy showed up, not fussed at our "break in", a cup of tea later and we were off again.
On the ridge above Kyang we bumped in our old acquaintance, the Belgium guidebook writer and his partner. We were chatting about our experiences, but were interrupted and forced to scatter when a heard of yaks came up the ridge, it was chaos, the shepherds screaming at us to get out of the way, yaks bellowing, long horns everywhere. They had barely gone and another pony team forced us of the path again. Every step got us closer to Chyako, our lunch stop and after a few hours, we were back in one of our favourite villages, this time the sun was shining and the place was considerably warmer. Lunch done (I'm still not eating more than eggs and Tibetan bread) we continued down the valley, reaching Meta by late afternoon. Perfect spot to spend the night. A nice new teahouse, best bed in a long time and a was with a bucket of hot water. It felt like luxury.
Yaks on the move
Glacier below Kanga Guru
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