we started the mansarovar parikrama by land.
the initial portion had no proper road 
the first stop was a spot to fill water from the lake. this spot had more pebbles and stones – and the usual Tibetan stacks of stones.
some persons also picked up some of the pebbles.
next stop : Tru Gompa
and onwards to Rakshas Tal.
and reached Darchen.
and the first close view of the south face of Kailas.
thanks to Anand-ji, we had an option of an upgrade to a room with attached toilet, for an additional fee. it had a flush with an Indian style WC. a tap with a removable plastic bowl / basin kept on a steel rack.
this bowl is a common way of using / conserving water in that region. we could not figure out the best way of using that. a notice put up on the bathroom door reminded us of how precious water is.
the room also had a heater, powered by steam / hot water that was centrally connected and controlled – and the room felt warm at night. but anyway, the outside temperature was also not as cold as at mansarovar.
later in the evening, we drove up to a place called ashtapad on non-existent roads.
across a river and some ice..
we got a very good view of the south face – dakshinamurthy, Nandi and Ashtapad hills.
some of us went for a small hike on a nearby hill, while some others were performing the same puja [as @ mansarovar the previous day].
we also saw some prairie dogs, which were not afraid of humans being so close by..
in the evening, we knew of one more change in our schedule – the planned departure for the parikrama the next morning would have to wait for one more day – as we could not get sufficient number of yaks to carry our stuff to the overnight camps.
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