We got up early in Ranipauwa to hike the 15 minutes back up to Muktinath, to have a look about. I must say the first thing that hit me about Muktinath... was that it was as littered as everywhere else! I guess I assumed that it being a sacred place to both Hindus and Buddhists that firstly; people wouldn't drop their litter there, and secondly; that somebody would have picked it up if they had. But there were the boxes from incense just dropped after the incense was removed to burn at one of the temples by some devout pilgrim, there were food and candy wrappers, thrown into the bushes, and all the other general rubbish left everywhere else. There is a very different view of rubbish in Nepal than back home!
Anyway, aside from that, Muktinath was fascinating. One location believed sacred for several reasons to both Hindus and Buddhists, and both religions have their temples side by side inside the outer wall. Saw temples to many different gods, and a number of temples to the same gods. The fountains, 108 spouts with water from a spring, pilgrims bathe in each spout or at least splash water over their head from each. Also saw the temple built over a natural gas vent that bubbles up through water. It's a sacred eternal flame over water.
We grabbed breakfast back in Ranipauwa on our way down the valley. As we walked down towards Marpha we saw lots of sheep on the hillsides, they have long spiralling horns. When we turned the corner into the Kali Gandaki valley we encountered an increasingly strong headwind. At times gusts would set me back a step!
We stopped for lunch in Jomsom where it was nice to get out of the wind for a bit. There are loads of pilgrims along the road now, this side of the circuit has a very different feel than the other side before the pass. The villages in the Kali Gandaki are beautiful as they are surrounded by lush orchards. They really stand out on this dry, windswept valley floor! Marpha is especially beautiful as they pride themselves in being a very clean community. It was by far the cleanest village I went through on the circuit. The streets are paved with large flagstones, and each house in the community is required to have new whitewash once a year.
I did some laundry (much needed) and watched the procession of several hundred people accompanying a wedding from the roof of our lodge. There was music following the procession, drums and something that reminded me of bagpipes and then the occasional loud blast of horns that didn't seem to blend or fit with the rest of the music at all. The horns reminded me of being at a hockey game in Canada!
That night in our tea house I met an Irish couple, Paul and Brona. They were great fun and we visited till quite late... almost 9:30pm!!!
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