THE FIRST VIEW OF SACRED KAILAS .

6th to 9th sep.On 6th from kalapani we trekked ten kilometers to Navidang at an altitude of13157' and halted for the night.on 7th we left Navidang by 5am to trek 7 km to Lipulekh pass at 17600'.It was very cold in spite of several layers of wollens and an overcoat; the ITBP advised us to reach the pass very early as strong winds will develop in the pass as the day advances; we reached the pass by 7 am.but had to wait there for two hours for the return of yatris of 14th batch;we can enter Tibet only after that batch returns to India; though the night was extremely cold, it became very hot by 9 am;we trekked from the pass for 5 km,when the chinese buses picked us up and took us to Takalakot at 13200'. We halted here on 7th. and 8th. attended to immigration check,converted dollars to yuans.[8yuans for one dollar]
9th morning we were ready to leave by 7.30 am but were delayed as one of the yatris fell ill and had to be admitted to hospital; finally we left at 11.30 am chinese standarad time; we were divided into two groups of 17 each;I was in B group heading to Kailas first,then to manasarovar,viceversa for A group;Dolma a Tibetan girl was our local guide; we drove for two hours when we had the first darshan of Kailas [seen in the photo here].we alighted from the bus and saluted the mount by performing shastangadandapranam.