Kinnaur-Kailash - A slice of paradise - A PhotoStory

Day 1: We started for the Kinnaur-Spiti trip from Chandigarh on 22nd October. We were greeted by our driver Ramesh who was waiting for us at the airport with his innova. Our first destination for a overnight stop was Shimla. We reached Shimla by 9:00 pm. We checked in to our hotel. The hills all around was twinkling in night lights. We already started feeling cold in Shimla and had a nice sleep with our blankets on, after our dinner.

Day 2: Today we started from Shimla, after breakfast, at about 9 am for Rakcham via Sangla. It was a sunny beautiful morning. Our first stop was Kufri. Though I was not keen to go to Kufri top but everyone was excited about the horse ride. We stopped at Kufri and sat on our respective horses. We gradually started climbing towards the top. The road was very dusty and I did not enjoy the ride at all. We reached the top, took some pics with the yak and then we went for the zip line adventure after a bumpy 1km ride. We returned back and had some yummy vegetable maggi and started our long journey towards Sangla. We drove through the beautiful pine forests. We stopped for lunch at Narkanda, where we had yummy food with a view of shining snow-capped peaks. After lunch we started our journey again and slowly the landscape started changing. It was a blend of yellow-white rocks and green trees. Near Rampur we stopped for tea. It was amazing to ride through the curvy roads, with rocks popping out of the mountains. Slowly we hardly could see any car on the road, it started growing dark and our driver Ramesh said its 3-4 hours more to reach Rakcham. In the darkness we started romancing with the hilly curves with soft music at background, in the car. Somewhere we got down and looked up above to be mesmerized by a sky full of stars. After that somewhere our car broke down with a Tyre puncture around 8 pm. Luckily it was near a bridge of a dam which had lights. Our driver quickly changed the tyre and then again we stopped at a small village, where I could see noone other than a car repairing shop, who repaired our car. Finally we reached our destination Rakcham  at about 9:30pm, after driving through some very bad narrow hilly roads in complete darkness. We were shivering in cold after getting down. We quickly had our dinner and then more adventure was waiting for us. Since the hotel rooms were fully booked, they requested us to stay at the river side tent, for a night. We agreed, knowing that we might be frozen until next morning. We got into the tent and realized that there was no difference of temperature, outside and inside. Mercury level dropped to around 2-4C. Though there were layers of blanket, but I hardly could sleep that night. Yes, it was an experience one of a kind.

 Making our way through the Pine Trips

Zip Lining at Kufri

Rampur

Day 3: We woke up around 9 am, came outside the tent and the view around mesmerized us. The gushing Rupin river was flowing beside our tent. With warm morning sunrays striking our face, we had breakfast at the cute hotel restaurant overlooking the mountains around. We started towards Chitkul which is the last inhabited village near the Indo-China Border. The Indian road ends here. A drive through the narrow broken roads with the mighty Himalayas all around mesmerized us. We stopped at multiple places to click pics, there was a checkpoint in between before entering Chitkul area. We reached till the end of Chitkul, got down from our car and started walking down the hill, towards the river. The place was beautiful. We spent sometime by the river, hiked around, climbed uphill again before reaching a restaurant for lunch. After lunch we reached back to our Rakcham hotel. There was still daylight. So we went hiking around Rakcham along the Rupin river before calling it a day. And tonight we were staying at a very big room with 4 beds, a corner room having great views all around and yes it was a warmer night for us after last night's tent experience.

Rakcham - our camp site

Chitkul

Way back to Rakcham from Chitkul

Rakcham

Day 4: After our breakfast we started our journey at about 9:30 am towards Kalpa. Our first stop was Kamru Fort. We started climbing up the stairs, towards the Fort. The fort is very beautiful, has a tower like architecture. There is also a shrine to Kamkhya Devi inside the fort area. We were given Himachali hat by a lady caretaker before getting inside. We clicked photos and came back. As we started moving, the beautiful Kinnaur-Kailash range was slowly visible and was growing gradually as we were nearing Kalpa. We reached Reckong Peo, where we had our lunch. Its a beautiful town, lots of shops, people and cute buildings, surrounded by the mighty Himalayan ranges. We then started moving towards Kalpa and after riding through some hairpin bends, gradually climbing up, we reached Kalpa at about 3:30 pm. We checked in to the hotel and then again started towards Roghi village which is around 8 kms from Kalpa. The road was very narrow and the cliff steep down, with almost no visibility downwards, which is also called suicide point. We reached the village and started hiking. There were very few homes with stone tiled roof. Far away we could see blasting for road construction. And at one side we gazed at the spectacular Kinnaur-Kailash range. After sometime we drove back to our hotel at Kalpa.

Kamru Fort

Towards Kalpa from Sangla

Reckong peo

Kalpa - View from my hotel room

Towards Roghi Village

Blasting for road making somewhere far away, during a walk through the village roads

A villager working at Roghi Village

At Roghi Village, mesmerized by the Kailash range

Day 4: Today we woke up early for our next part of our trip to Spiti. We were warned by hotel people that if we are late, blasting for road construction might delay us further at several places. They were kind enough to pack breakfast for us. We started and slowly the landscape started changing from green to brown, tress to rocks. And yes we entered Spiti.

Towards Spiti

Spiti - The land of brown deserted mountains and monasteries - A PhotoStory

Day 5:  We were towards Tabo and the dark roads bending through the contrasting yellow-brown Himalayas mesmerized us. We gradually started gaining height. The temperature started decreasing. We reached Nako by noon. We were at 12000 feet and we were shivering in cold. We got down from our car and started walking towards Nako Lake. We felt the chill in every breath we took, our noses were frozen. The lake was beautiful and we clicked some pics. We came back to the village for food. The village is sparsely populated and there was just another group of travelers. We could find a little restaurant for some much-needed hot yummy aloo paratha. We started towards Tabo, crossed some small villages through the deserted roads to finally reach Tabo at 4 pm. We lost network connectivity with the rest of the world. None of our phones had network. Only BSNL works here. We dumped our bags in the hotel and went to the Tabo Monastery. This monastery is one of the oldest monastery in the Himalayas, of 996 AD. The place was so much peaceful and beautiful. We were the only visitors. We entered the monastery where we met a monk. With a lot of interest, he explained us about life and moksha. Standing at this deserted land of lamas, surrounded by the Himalayas, listening to him about life, was an experience one of a kind. We reached back to our hotel and the temperature was negative. We warmed ourselves up at the bonfire of our hotel and chitchatted with the hotel people. They were so sweet, catering to our every need, without asking for a penny. One of the guys, who is originally from Shimla, said that at the end of October he will reach Goa and will work in a hotel there, as its season time for Goa and Spiti would be completely shutting down, then again he will come back to Spiti in summer.

Towards Spiti

Nako Lake

Nako

Towards Tabo

Tabo Monastery 

Day 6: We woke up lazily, had breakfast and started our journey towards Kaza at about 9:30 am. The barren mighty Himalayas mesmerized us. Our first stop today was Dhankar Monastery situated at a height of 12,774 ft above Dhankar village. There were some monks at the monastery chanting musical hymns at the prayer room. We were greeted by a monk who happily offered us tea and showed us around. Listening to the hymns at the top of the mountain in a place like that, barren all around, with cold wind striking us, was a magical experience. At late noon we reached Kaza, crossed the Kaza Monastery and checked in to our hotel. We were craving for some hot thukpa. We ventured out of our hotel to a little local restaurant serving both mutton and Veg thukpa. The little restaurant was next to the petrolpump which stated that its the highest petrolpump of the world at 12,500 ft. After relishing our dish we started exploring the little town. The houses had Tibetian styled architecture with flat roofs covered with hay and tree trunk, white-painted wall and many windows and golden tress surrounding them. We explored the small market where most of the shops were closed as it was season-end. Since we had no network connectivity with the rest of the world, we went to a phone booth to make calls to our families. Slowly after sunset, it started getting very cold. After having tea we returned back to our hotel.

Towards Kaza

Towards Dhankar Monastery

Through the window of Dhankar Monastery towards Dhankar village

Dhankar Monastery

View from Dhankar Monastery

Towards Kaza

View from my room at Kaza

 Hot mutton thukpa

Kaza Monastery

Kaza

Day 7: Today the plan was to travel around Kaza. We started towards Kee Monastery. Lot of locals requested for lift on the way and we stopped to help a lady. She was a teacher and wanted to go to Rangrik Village, her school where she taught and was posted on deputation. Though we were not going towards Rangrik, but we dropped her to the nearest point. She shared her experience like how in winters she has to walk a stretch of 1.5 km field, covered with snow, to reach her school. We realized, life is so difficult at this remote part of the world. We dropped her and was on our way towards the monastery. I was very much excited to visit this place after seeing the pics of this uniquely styled monastery. We enjoyed our ride through the roads twisting and turning up in the Himalayas towards the monastery. The first view, from far away, amazed us. We reached and met the monks inside the monastery, looked all around. We then started started our journey towards our next stop Kibber Village. Again the Tibetian styled homes looked beautiful in the lap of the Himalayas. We lazily strolled through the village before coming back to Kaza for lunch. We again had hot thukpa at the same restaurant. And now we were about to visit some more villages and the highest village of the world connected through a motor-able road. As we started moving ,we could feel the height that we are gaining, it was like a moon land, mostly plain, fully barren and gradually we felt that we are reaching at the top of the world when we saw some snow-capped peaks below us at a distance. It was a life-time experience, we felt we are at a place, outside this civilization, out of the world, with nothing round, only barren plain-curvy lands as far as we could see. We spotted a herd of snow ibex. First stop was the Langza village at about 14,500 ft. It was damn cold, that too at noon. I was not almost able to breath, every breath chilled my lungs. I could just walk a little in the cold and quickly got back into the car. We then traveled further to reach Komic Village, the highest village connected through a motorable road. with just a dozen of houses There was a monastery monastery where the monks were practicing dance for some festival. I was almost frozen in this negative temperature. I felt that I am at the top of the world lost in the midst of no-man's land. Then we started our journey back to Kaza. We stopped at Hikkim village in between which also just had a dozen of houses. After reaching Kaza, we again explored the market before retiring back to the hotel.

Towards Kee Monastery 

Kee Monastery from a distance

Inside Kee Monastery

Kibber Village

Langza

Langza Village

Snow Ibex

Komic Village - The highest village in the world connected with motorable road

Day 8: We woke up early morning for the last leg of our journey to Manali. We started at 7:30 am after our breakfast and took a left towards Rangrik village. We could not spot any car or people at these roads and started enjoying the mighty landscapes through the empty roads. This was one of the most scenic journeys of my life. We crossed some villages before reaching Losar. We got down for another round of breakfast. Water everywhere on the roads and field was completely frozen and we were shivering in cold. The restaurant guy warned us that we wont get food anywhere for a long time now. So we filled up our tummies and started our journey again. The road was very bumpy, basically no road at all, just a pathway made for movement of cars. We could see frozen glaciers making a white solid line through the mountain to the river flowing down. Mostly the narrow brooks were completely frozen. We reached Kunzum Pass situated at 15,060 ft. As we stepped down the car, the cold breeze chilled our spine. I was not able to stand in that temperature. There was a temple there, I managed to have a walk inside the temple, shivering in cold. Here we spotted the first car untill now, after a long long time, who were also going to Manali. We started our journey again and the road worsened with a lot of pebbles to boulders on our pathway. At a place our car stuck, we got down to remove the rocks to make our way. We had to stop lot of times likewise to help our car make way through the rocky road. It was afternoon and we were hungry. There is no shop or village in between, specially this scarcity of shops was due to season close time. We spotted a little shop and it was fascinating to see lot of people there at this no-man's land. The shopkeeper said that only rajma-rice and maggi is available here and nothing else. We ordered both and I relished my maggi with onions. Again we started our journey through that super-adventurous road and finally reached the point where Spiti ended. At one side its Kashmir leading to Leh and other side Manali. So we took the right turn towards Manali and we were in good pitched proper road after a long time. Soon we reached the Rohtang Pass situated at 13,050 ft. It was almost dark by then and finally we reached Manali in the evening and checked in to our hotel.

Near Rangrik village towards Losar

Towards Losar, there stands our car

Losar, frozen water at road and field

Towards Manali

Frozen brook somewhere in between

Kunzum Pass top

Temple at Kunzum top

Towards Manali

Frozen glacier water towards the river

Lunch stop

Where Spiti ends

A glimpse of Kaza to Manali road

Day 9: So at Manali we were back to the civilization. And yes when we went out of hotel in the morning there were lot of people around, enjoying, shouting, clicking photos. And here hotel staffs kept an account of everything, with lots of dos and donts. But at Spiti the hotel hosts were happy to serve us more than asked for. But this is how we human beings, this civilization works and we were back into the the real world :) . After some shopping and spending sometime near the river we started our journey towards Delhi for home with an experience of a lifetime to be cherished forever.

Manali