After attempting to go to Lingshi for the past few months, my mom finally agreed to take me and my friend along. But she warned me that it would be a tough walk.
For me waking up at 5 in the morning was tough. But call it excitement because I didn’t have problem waking up. At around 8:00 am we reached Mesizampa the base in Paro behind Drugyel, from where we were suppose to start walking. Ap Wangdue, the school cook of Lingshi, was there with three of his horses to carry our loads.
At first excitement took over us and we walked energetically but later we were slogging. After much hardship and cursing we finally reached Shingrab where we were suppose to halt. Was such a relief to be there that right after reaching took some snacks and rested my head. When I woke up I saw there were many other people seeking shelter for the night there. A man was on his way to reach two of his kids to school and he was talking about bridges being washed away. My mom asked me and my friend if we wanted to return from there. But I was persistent to go to Lingshi. After sharing dinner with nine others we headed to bed because we had a long day to take.
That night, the cat of the woman who gave us shelter jumped from the ceiling to the floor so many times that for once i though i was having nightmares.
With packed lunches and wished we continued our walk. Jumping from one stone to the other the sole of my foot hurt so bad that I though it was going to bleed. One energy drink after another, coffee, juice, I took all of them but still the speed of my walk did not increase but decrease.
I wished I had not come, I wished my mom never got posted there and I wished a lot of other things too. Finally it was time to eat, my favourite activity on the trip. We decided to eat at the Indian Army base camp but there was no one around so decided to go a little further up where our own army base camp was located. We ate there at Soe and continued our walk.
That night we made up to Soe School where our host were Tshering Dorji a teacher and his five year old son. Had some fruits in my bag which I gave him. I also had a mango in my bag and gave that to Ap Wangdue. Ap Wangdue looked at the fruit and asked me what that was. To my amazement, he had never even seen a mango in his life forget eating one. After I explained what it was the 55-year-old ate like a small kid.
After a delicious dinner we conversed for some time and then went to sleep.
That night the rats were running from one end to the other and disturbing my sleep.
The next morning, I was more excited and even though my leg hurt walked fast. Was so happy that we were nearing Lingshi but the walk uphill on the stone mountain Nelala killed all my excitement. It just drained all the energy I had and was making it impossible for me to walk. My mom encouraged me giving me lots of energy drinks and finally made it. We had lunch at the base of the mountain and that was when I got to pluck a cordycep.
After re-energising ourselves with lunch we started our walk. After a few hours of walk I could see the Lingshi Dzong in the mist, looked so beautiful. Seeing the dzong made us believe that we were nearing Lingshi but how much ever we walked the dzong remained in the same distance.
After slogging for a few more hours we finally reached near the dzong and from there we could see the whole of Lingshi, which just consisted of the school, dungpa office, post office, telecom office and a few houses. The view was just so amazing and the happiness of reaching the place cannot be expressed here. I that I forgot everything including the pain and the tough walks. That night I had a peaceful sleep.
