The other side

I have often noticed the 2 sides of a mountain pass are different. Sometimes, they are quite different and sometimes, they are just different enough to be different. There are differences in geology, vegetation, geography.
I started from the east of Thurung La Pass and crossed over to the west. It is a different world on the other side. Pardon me, its actually a different planet.

The east is about a deep V shaped river valley, starting with tropical vegetation and then large expanses of blue pine and spruce jungles before it gets too high for any vegetation. There are wheat fields, some flowers and then there is the quintessential mountain river, the Marshyangdi.

 

The western side.....is a cold desert, a la Lahaul and Spiti. A cold desert at above 3000 meters. Do I need to say there is no vegetation? None at all, whatsoever. There are mounds and mounds of brown earth, heaped in various ways. This whole is surrounded by the really high Himalayas. Then there is the river, Kali Gandaki. A look at it and you could believe this is a river in its dying stages, about to estuarize. Its a very very very wide valley, runs for miles together. In a sense, its a high plateau, a very high plateau indeed. The river seems to have forgot that its a mountain river.

The other big difference is the road. The road comes right upto Muktinath. Ok, its not a great road but a road it is. I mentioned in one of the earlier posts about the trek dying. You bet, I was right. People take jeeps from Muktinath, like Peter did. I was wrong however about tourism dying. Road brings different kinds of visitors. Those who cannot cross the pass, those who do not want to cross the pass, those who think they cannot cross the pass and the came saw conquered type. Yes, those who huddle together in a jeep one fine morning, drive 4 hours into the cold desert, get the driver to stop in the middle of a valley, take out point and shoots.

Click left

Click right

Back into the jeep. Oh sorry, I forgot the center. Get back out, click center, get back in and go home. To there people, Shalabh says "Guys, dont waste so much money and time for doing this. Send me an email at shalabh.w@gmail.com, I will send you the photos, all free of cost with all the rights."