In the far southeastern Himalayas, tucked away in an inaccessible valley surrounded by Meili Snow Mountains, there lies a mysterious village so isolated that it takes five arduous hours to get there from the nearest inhabited place, which itself is a remote settlement that marks the far end of a nameless dirt road. There is no vehicle that can take you to Yubeng village. The only way in or out is via a scarcely marked path that crosses impossibly steep mountains, dangerous ravines, and deep precipices. This trail is a part of the legendary “Kora”, the sacred circular journey around Kawa Karpo peak that Tibetans believe if completed, will cleanse you of all sins. We set off at dawn in a prearranged minivan to the village of Ninong, where the dirt road ends. In Ninong I employed a Tibetan villager to be our guide and also his mule to carry Vanessa. We started the hike in a good mood, but the path soon narrowed to less than one meter wide, squeezing itself between a wall of rock on the right and a deep abyss on the left. It was just as crossing the Moria Mountains from the Lord of the Rings. Take one wrong step or slip and no one will hear of you again… Four hours into the hike Vanessa got seriously sick and feverish. I was worried she might fall from the mule into the abyss. She needed a doctor, urgently. So for the second time in our trip we had to turn around and head back to civilization just before reaching our destination. Since it was way too dangerous to sit on the mule on the way down, the guide helped me to strap weak Vanessa to my back in the same style Tibetan mothers carry their babies, and I painstakingly carried her back to Ninong, where we managed to hire a driver to get us to nearest town with a hospital. The service at the Deqin district hospital’s emergency was surprisingly good. We were seen right away in this cozy place, and Vanessa felt better instantly after receiving an anti fever shot, antibiotics, antivirals and oxygen (we were still at 3500m).
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 08:04:29 +0000
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