She Said He Heard…

A view of Hilsa 

We are into the last leg of our Kailash Yatra. Despite concerns and doubts, and a lot of conflicting information, we manage to start off from Taklakot (Purang, in China). Having reached China-Nepal border at Hilsa, we rest at a small hotel named, Moksha, and await our turn for the chopper. 

Hilsa is a small village and has barely a handful of houses that turn into home stays for the Kailash yatris during the Kailash Yatra season. These village doesn’t even have metalled roads. Hotel Moksha is a new building that has come up recently, and a couple of other hotels too have come up. These are pretty basic in terms of the facilities they offer. Our aim is to have a lunch here and take off to Simikot. From there, the journey would be to Nepalgunj.  

Many other Yatris that were there begin to leave, and some new ones arrive. Most of them are staying put as their choppers aren’t scheduled for another day (at least). 

Some yatris that have arrived at the place we are resting realise Moksha isnt their resting place (yet) and they need to go to another hotel. So, the patriarch shouts orders to one of the younger ones to find out which is their hotel. The girl who runs the establishment finds out and tells this group that it’s ’Snow Line’. 

The man and his fellow travellers collect their small bags to leave. As they’re leaving, the old man wonders aloud. “Why is the hotel named Slow? Do things move at snail’s pace here?”, in Hindi!