himalayan journey

Khalji, July 25 Part 2

My Great Himalaya Trail x RANDY SUN 


Closer to Khalji, a piece of the unfinished road to Hilsu appears again. About 5 km can be walked comfortably. Khalji is an ancient Tibetan town that looks like a fortress. The center of city life is the monastery, there are always a lot of people here. And in the evenings in the monastery they also distribute Wi-Fi. This Wi-Fi, in fact, is the only means of operational communication with the outside world, since there is no mobile communication here. Wi-Fi is very weak.


In principle, there are no hotels in the city. You can stay either in the house of local residents (according to them, it is unrealistic to find a separate room), or in tents. They say that a kind of tourist accommodation system operates in Khalji. I would say that it is impossible to find housing here bypassing some "apartment mafia". Especially if you do not know the Tibetan language. All negotiations about rooms are conducted on the site in front of the entrance to the monastery, and after a while the owner of the room, chosen by the "mafia", appears. If you decide to stay in a local house, you need to be prepared for the fact that all the "amenities" are on the street. And not in the figurative sense that we are used to, but in the most direct way - convenience in any place you like on the street.


The menu is not very varied: tsampa, dalbat and various tortillas. It turned out that if you mix tsampa with Tibetan tea and add a little honey there, you get quite a decent meal.

Just in case, I will explain what Tibetan tea is: it is a mixture of tea, butter and sometimes milk with the addition of salt. All this is whipped into a homogeneous liquid in a special device. The taste is not very good. But on the other hand, it is a really satisfying thing.

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