145) SATURDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 1977 : 0KMS. - SARANKOT
It was full moon last night, the moon shone dimly light though. Something very exciting happened about 8.00 p.m.
when we came back after having dinner (noodles) from a Tibetan restaurant.
I was sitting
on the driver seat in front and noticed a man walking around the area. Suddenly he took something from a tent (of a British
tourist), which was not far from where we parked our campervan, without the
owner knowing it as he was too busy with the repair and replacement of tires of
his motorbike. Later on, I heard that his carnet de passage, a film camera
and other valuables were stolen ……
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| http://munichtomadras1977.blogspot.com |
So this was how it happened ..….
Because of my curiosity, I sat on the driver seat in
the front and looked at the tent of the British tourist not far from where we
parked our campervan for a while. Then I saw a man wearing dark clothes came to
the tent. He suddenly ducked into the tent and walked back toward the back of our
campervan, which was a fence next to a village. After a long while, the man walked
back and went inside the tent again.
When he came out of the tent, he bent to look
under the parking motorbike and walked around like wanting to find something. Then
he walked back behind our van again. I suspected that something might be
stolen. But at first I thought he was the owners of the motorbike. As I was
thinking about what had happened, I turned my head to look backward of our campervan. Unexpectedly,
the man came up very close to the side of our campervan where I was sitting and
looked through the window of the driver
seat. His eyes met mine, and he realized then that I had been watching him. He broke
away and ran very quickly to the back side of our van.
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| Fishtail under moonlight - Photo : aramcoexpats.com / Google images search |
I was shocked and called Tilo to take out two flashlights to look for him and
the area. From the moonlight with average cloudy sky, I believed that the man was a European with light-colored
hair, unshaven beard (like for a week
long). I was confident that the man was the thief. We still sat in the front inside the van. A short while afterwards, we saw the torch
light aiming at the tent and people
walked to the tent. We understood that he
was the British owner of the tent. Few minutes later a British (European) and a
Nepalese went to find something near the fence on the back side. The British wore a light colored jacket and he
rode his motorbike away from the lake. He might go to report the case to the
police.
In the front inside of our van, we sat still for about half an hour and
continued to gaze up at tents and the fence. Immediately a man in black ran to the tent to place
something in front of the tent and rushed back. We could realize immediately that
the thief came back to return the stolen articles. Until I asked Tilo to take out
flashlights to have a clearer look again, the thief already disappeared. I was
so excited and a bit frightened having witnessed everything.
We learned in
the morning that everything in the bag was returned except the camera. But in the late morning a Nepalese
boy came with the camera, telling that it
was found in the bushes at the fence behind. He claimed that it was stolen by a Nepalese.
But it was contrary to what we saw last night.
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| Fishtail (Machapuchare) - Photo : mountainkingdoms.com / Google images search |
In the morning at about 11:15 a.m., we went out on trekking to the hill of
Sarankot to walk up to the top to view the Machapuchare peak of the Annapurna
range of the Himalayas, which are always covered with white snow. We walked
through villages and into the fields, the forests, following up existing trails still in used. I had to stop periodically as I was so tired
due to not having much exercise enough. I felt lack of breath just like the first day in the hospital after the late operation of
my left lung in Germany before our long
journey took place that I had to rely on
oxygen bottles to help with my breathing.
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| http://munichtomadras1977.blogspot.com |
On the way, I saw cobwebs stretched between branches and
many on very large trees. Those spiders were also big with many different
colors including black and green. On the trees, we saw growing wild orchids as
well as sticking up parasitic plants. Before we reached the top, it was 2.30 p.m. in
the afternoon but we could not see the peak as the sky was very cloudy. We
waited for the peak to reveal but it did not show up. It was getting late in
the evening and the temperature became lower so we thought to stay overnight at
a simple tavern on the mountain top. It was a clay house offering a comfortable
bed to sleep in. We paid at NRS. 5.00 for each. The food was more expensive than
the price down below.
At dawn it was
very cold, I felt that the blanket was not thick enough to keep me warm…..
