[Photo Credits: Dustynep]
We had a long descend from Shey la pass and finally, we glimpsed the mystic valley from the edge of the hill. We had heard about the Shey and its myth. We knew about its religious significance and the feeling was different when we witnessed “Shey Gumba” and the Crystal Mountain. People from Dolpo and other parts circumambulate(kora) Crystal mountain generally in July/August before harvest action. On top of that, everyone awaits Dragon Year to celebrate its religious practice. On the other side, after we reached the valley, we saw many tents. Local tents run as the hotel was few of them whereas tents of the expedition group were many. The first person we saw was the girl, face partially covered with the orange scarf but it was enough to anticipate her beauty. @dustynep and I, looked at each other, and the thing that resonated between us was, we saw another beauty of nature(girl). Without any comments, we decided to enter her local hotel(tent ) because we could not find others in the range. She gave us a smile and we were too shy to react. As soon as we entered the tent, we could see at least 25 people all males from tourists to guides to porters. We felt like every outsider were in that tent. Some were having a beer, some were tea and numerous food order was on the way and the girl with the orange scarf was having a hard time managing alone. One of the foreigners greeted us as Snowmen because we brought some initial snow on our hair but we were not interested to respond. We were heartbroken with the scenario and had to find another tent but the girl with the orange scarf directed us toward her mother’s hotel nearby. We were happy to get lodging and food that night but a bit disappointed if you know what I mean. The next day was going to be a hard day for us. We had to cross Nangdala pass also called Kangla pass of 5300m, get downhill all the way to the base of Mt Kanjirowa, and long plain walk to the first end of the mighty Phoksundo lake. We decided to sleep early and planned to wake up at 4 am. The funny thing was when we woke up at 4 we saw the same girl in our hotel. She had concluded her service of food to the people out there and had come back to sleep with her mother. It was some feeling that we had won the war. She prepared us Tea and hot water and in between, we exchanged good conversation, laugh and good greetings. At least, I was blessed to see her beauty and with a positive gesture, we started our journey again.
– Sanjay Bahadur Singh Thakuri, 2017 Fellow
The Mystic Valley of Shey