Spiti, the cold mountain desert, is the lesser known neighbour of Ladakh. People who are tired of reading “Getting Leh’d” status updates and want to try out for an alternative, we’ve got a new place for you to try in the Himalayas, “Lahaul Spiti”. Spiti's postcard villages remain remotely tucked away in the lap of the mighty, barren Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh and it is here that you can hike along, visit monasteries dating back over a 1000 years, sample a fascinating culture and cuisine different from the rest of India, and meet the kindest of people who live the harshest of lives.
We started planning for the tour in mid-April. Unlike our trip to Ladakh couple of years back, which was an all-boys trip, we had two ladies this time for our trip to Lahaul Spiti. The final count was 8 people. The plan was to reach Kaza, (the capital of Spiti valley), hire the bikes and go for a road trip of entire Spiti valley in 5 days.
The Journey
There are two routes that goes to Spiti Valley, one via Manali as Manali – Rohtang Pass – Gramphu – Chattru – Kunzum Pass – Kaza (Spiti Valley) AND then other one goes through via Shimla – Kinnaur Valley as Shimla – Kinnaur – Nako – Sumdo – Tabo – Kaza (Spiti Valley), commonly known as Hindustan – Tibet Highway. The Hindustan – Tibet highway remains open all throughout the year via Kinnaur Valley and you can make a journey to Kaza over it all round the year because there is no high mountain pass that comes on this route.
Going via Manali side by and large depends first upon opening of Rohtang Pass and then opening of route from Gramphu to Kunzum Pass and Kunzum Pass in itself. This generally takes time and remains closed for almost 7 months in a year. Rohtang Pass generally opens post Mid – May and further route to Kaza over Kunzum Pass almost opens by second week of June only. So, you have very little time in a year.
Reaching Kaza is a challenge in itself. It takes close to 30 hours of travel to reach Spiti valley from Bangalore. We took an early morning flight on July 15, 2016 from Bangalore-Delhi and booked 2 Savari cabs from Delhi to Manali at 9am. We reached Manali by 11pm after a 14 hour long journey where we booked the Hotel Ocean Blue for an overnight stay. Next morning, July 16, 2016 at 7am, we started our trip to Kaza. Our tour coordinator had booked us a Tempo Traveler. We had to start early due to the high river crossing (NALAS) which will increase over the course of the day. This makes driving very difficult and dangerous. The roads to Kaza are as horrible and dusty as it can possible be. After a 12 hour journey, we reached Kaza at 7pm and checked into our Hotel Deyzor rooms. The high altitude of Spiti (3300-5000 meters) needs considerable acclimatization for every traveler, whether or not it's your first time to such an altitude. We didn’t have enough time to get acclimatize and hence the first two days was slightly difficult.
We had pre-booked the hotel rooms, homestays, tents and bikes in Spiti Valley for the next 5 days with Dineshji, our tour coordinator. We enjoyed some excellent and prompt services from Dineshji throughout our stay in the valley.
July 17, 2016, Day 1 in Spiti Lahaul - Kibber
The bikes were ready by the time we were up the next day. 4 bikes, 4 riders and 4 pillion riders. Our first stop was Kibber. Kibber village is located at a height of 4205m and 18 km from Kaza. The highest habituated village in the world which has its own polling station during elections. One has to drive ahead from Key Monastery to reach this village.
Key Monastery - This monastery is located at a height of 4116m and 14 km from Kaza. It is the largest monastery in Spiti Valley. Established in the 11th century, it has ancient Buddhist scrolls and paintings. It also houses large number of Buddhist monks and nuns and a cafeteria. There is nothing interesting about the monastery. The interesting facts are not inside the monastery, but outside the monastery, all around the Kibber Village. The height of monastery gives the visitors a perfect chance to experience the surrounding landscape with snow-capped mountains in the arid cold desert. We spent about an hour at the Monastery and then moved back to our next destination, Kibber village.
We reached Kibber and checked into our Tashizom Guest house. In the evening, we went for a ride to Tashigang village which is at 4500 meters and reached back before dawn. We woke up to a clear and a glorious Sunrise. After an amazing breakfast, we headed to our next destination.
July 18, 2016, Day 2 in Spiti Lahaul – Lalung, Dhankar and Pin Valley
We started from Kibber and headed towards Lalung in our bikes. Lalung village is known for its Monastery. It is also known as Sarkhang and Golden Temple and is situated at a height Of 3658m. It was very hot and sunny at Lalung and with great difficulty we found a shop where we had our lunch (Biscuits and Frooti). Next stop was Dhankar. Dhankar village is situated at an elevation of over 3,800m. It is just like any other small village in the desert of Spiti valley. Untouched and away from tourist’s exploitation, the population of this village won’t be more than 100. Dhankar is known for its Monastery and Fort. The fort of Dhankar now lies in ruins, but still is a place worthy of visit. From the remnants of the fort one can see vast expanses of the Spiti valley.
Dhankar to Mud Village (Pin Valley) is approx. 3 hours distance. The bikes started from Dhankar at 4pm. The plan was to reach Mud Village by 7pm. One of the advantages of high altitude places is that it gets dark only after 7.30pm. The sun sets around 7pm. We started from the muddy roads of Dhankar towards Mud Village. Two bikers, Karthik Shetty and Avinash Naik were riding fast and they overtook the other two bikers, Vinay Shetty and Manoj Rao and crossed the Pin Valley Bridge. We still had to cover approx. 2 hours of distance. It was then, the third bike Vinay Shetty broke down because of the Clutch Wire. Thankfully, I was behind so I could see the breakdown and stopped my bike. Only BSNL sim works in Spiti Valley and thankfully to BSNL. After several attempts, I was able to contact our tour coordinator Dineshji. He arranged a mechanic who arrived at our location and fixed the clutch wire. It was 6:45pm then. We rode in the dark for more than an hour in the unknown terrain and pathetic roads and finally reached Mud village by 8:30pm. We had some good food at Tara Guest House slept for the night.
We woke up early next morning for the Sunrise view of the mountains. The views in the entire Pin Valley including Mud village were just majestic, and the valley is mostly virgin, serene, barren and beautiful. Mud village is also known for providing base for trekking route towards or from Pin-Parvati Pass or Bhabha Pass. The children there at Mud village had smiles all over their faces looking at our bikes. We had a photo session with the children and it was really enjoyable. We finished our breakfast and started for Tabo.
July 19, 2016, Day 3 in Spiti Lahaul – Tabo
Tabo is a small town in the Lahaul and Spiti district on the banks of the Spiti River. It is on the highway from Kaza – Shimla approx. 40kms from Kaza. Tabo is known for its Monastery, which according to legend, is said to be over a thousand years old. The Dalai Lama has expressed his desire to retire to Tabo, since he maintains that the Tabo Monastery is one of the holiest. The apple trees is also one of the main attractions in Tabo. Tabo is the only town other than Kaza which has an ATM in the entire Spiti valley. We spent about an hour in Tabo and headed back to Kaza for our stay in Hotel Deyzor.
July 20, 2016, Day 4 in Spiti Lahaul – Langza, Komic and Hikkim
Today was our last day in bike and we started from Kaza towards Langza. Nestled between the mountains in a bowl shaped area in the Spiti Valley is a small remote village named Langza. This village is situated at an altitude of 4400m above sea level. At the first glance of the village, one will instantly notice a huge Golden coloured Buddha statue which is believed to be around 1000 years old. The view across the mountains is simply majestic. Young kids can be seen running around the village collecting and playing with these fossils trying to persuade the travelers to buy them in return for money. We stayed there for some time and then headed towards Komic.
Komic Village is the highest motorable village in Asia. Komic monastery has the honor of being the world’s highest motorable monastery at 4587m overlooking the Komic village and mountain peaks. In Komic, there are only about a dozen houses and the total population is between 50-60 people. We had Lunch in Komic (Maggi and tea) and then headed towards Hikkim.
Hikkim village is at an altitude of 4330m. The village is credited to have the world’s highest post office. The pin code is 172114. On our way back to Kaza, we negotiated some tough under construction roads due to a short cut route (8kms shorter) and reach Kaza in the evening and checked in at Hotel Snow Lion. We submitted our bikes and shopped in Kaza in the evening and had some hot delicious Jalebis in Kaza main market.
July 21, 2016, Day 5 in Spiti Lahaul – Kunzum Pass and Chandratal Lake
Next morning, we started our journey towards Chandratal Lake in a Tempo Traveler. Chandratal Lake is approx. 90kms from Kaza and it is also the mid-point of Kaza-Manali route. On our way to Chandratal, we stopped at Kunzum pass. Situated at 4,551 m above mean sea level, Kunzum La or Kunzum Pass is one of the gateways to Lahaul and Spiti valleys. It is one of India’s highest motorable mountain passes and is located in Himachal Pradesh. Kunzum Pass offers spectacular views of Bara-Sigri, the second longest glacier in the world. Also visible from the top of the pass are the Chandra-Bhaga Mountain and Spiti valley. The presence of chortens and prayer flags signify a strong Buddhist influence in the area. Also popular, is the Kunzum Devi Temple where all vehicles must stop to pay respects to the goddess. We reached Chandratal camps in the afternoon.
Chandratal or simply Moon Lake is a barren but beautiful lake located at a height of 4300m in the Lahaul region. The lake got its name because of its crescent shape. Unlike the Pangong Lake, this is a sweet water lake which is around 2.5kms wide. From the camping grounds the lake is still about 3km way. You can take the trek route and walk to the lake. We went in our TT to what is known as the ‘parking lot’ of the Chandratal. From the parking lot, the lake is a twenty minutes leisurely walk. First glimpse and the place is just wow! Everything about it is so magical. It just hypnotizes you. Clean and clear blue waters, vegetation free multicoloured mountains and patch of green around the lake. Simply picture perfect. We spent the evening in and around the lake and reached back our Parasol camps before it was dark. It was super chill in the camps. Thankfully, we had campfire closer to our tent. We stayed there till we finished our dinner and slept in our tents with a thick blanket provided to us.
We woke up early and started back to Manali on July 22, 2016 at 7am after breakfast. We hired our TT driver for a Manali city tour for the 2nd half of the day and 1st half of next day till we boarded our bus to Delhi. We reached Manali by 2pm and checked into our Hotel Ocean Blue. In the evening, we visited Hidimba and Ghatotkach Temple, Vashisht temple, Nature park, Tibetan Monastery, Ram Mandir and did some shopping in the Mall road in Manali.
Next morning, July 23, 2016, we went to Solang valley for Paragliding. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions, it was put on hold till September. We went to the top of Solang valley in the Ropeway and spent couple of hours amidst the hills covered with fog and a beautiful view of the valley and then came back down in the same Ropeway and headed towards the bus stand. It was a comfortable Himsuta Volvo travel from Manali to Delhi.
We reached Delhi early morning on July 24, 2016 at 5am. We took Delhi Metro from the Bus-stand to the Terminal 3 airport. The flight was delayed by 30 mins and we reached Bangalore at around 12.30pm.
Conclusion
From the homestay in the highest village of the Himalayas to the camping on the banks of Chandratal, from the biking in the dusty roads of Spiti to the TT drive in the narrow roads towards Chandratal, this is an experience for a lifetime. Although we have been to Ladakh before, this trip of Spiti Lahaul was even better. Barren beauty of the land with rough cum majestic and intimidating Himalayan Mountains were just too good. I hope to come back to this place once again and I’m sure my friends wouldn’t agree more on this.
We started planning for the tour in mid-April. Unlike our trip to Ladakh couple of years back, which was an all-boys trip, we had two ladies this time for our trip to Lahaul Spiti. The final count was 8 people. The plan was to reach Kaza, (the capital of Spiti valley), hire the bikes and go for a road trip of entire Spiti valley in 5 days.
The Journey
There are two routes that goes to Spiti Valley, one via Manali as Manali – Rohtang Pass – Gramphu – Chattru – Kunzum Pass – Kaza (Spiti Valley) AND then other one goes through via Shimla – Kinnaur Valley as Shimla – Kinnaur – Nako – Sumdo – Tabo – Kaza (Spiti Valley), commonly known as Hindustan – Tibet Highway. The Hindustan – Tibet highway remains open all throughout the year via Kinnaur Valley and you can make a journey to Kaza over it all round the year because there is no high mountain pass that comes on this route.
Going via Manali side by and large depends first upon opening of Rohtang Pass and then opening of route from Gramphu to Kunzum Pass and Kunzum Pass in itself. This generally takes time and remains closed for almost 7 months in a year. Rohtang Pass generally opens post Mid – May and further route to Kaza over Kunzum Pass almost opens by second week of June only. So, you have very little time in a year.
Reaching Kaza is a challenge in itself. It takes close to 30 hours of travel to reach Spiti valley from Bangalore. We took an early morning flight on July 15, 2016 from Bangalore-Delhi and booked 2 Savari cabs from Delhi to Manali at 9am. We reached Manali by 11pm after a 14 hour long journey where we booked the Hotel Ocean Blue for an overnight stay. Next morning, July 16, 2016 at 7am, we started our trip to Kaza. Our tour coordinator had booked us a Tempo Traveler. We had to start early due to the high river crossing (NALAS) which will increase over the course of the day. This makes driving very difficult and dangerous. The roads to Kaza are as horrible and dusty as it can possible be. After a 12 hour journey, we reached Kaza at 7pm and checked into our Hotel Deyzor rooms. The high altitude of Spiti (3300-5000 meters) needs considerable acclimatization for every traveler, whether or not it's your first time to such an altitude. We didn’t have enough time to get acclimatize and hence the first two days was slightly difficult.
We had pre-booked the hotel rooms, homestays, tents and bikes in Spiti Valley for the next 5 days with Dineshji, our tour coordinator. We enjoyed some excellent and prompt services from Dineshji throughout our stay in the valley.
July 17, 2016, Day 1 in Spiti Lahaul - Kibber
The bikes were ready by the time we were up the next day. 4 bikes, 4 riders and 4 pillion riders. Our first stop was Kibber. Kibber village is located at a height of 4205m and 18 km from Kaza. The highest habituated village in the world which has its own polling station during elections. One has to drive ahead from Key Monastery to reach this village.
Key Monastery - This monastery is located at a height of 4116m and 14 km from Kaza. It is the largest monastery in Spiti Valley. Established in the 11th century, it has ancient Buddhist scrolls and paintings. It also houses large number of Buddhist monks and nuns and a cafeteria. There is nothing interesting about the monastery. The interesting facts are not inside the monastery, but outside the monastery, all around the Kibber Village. The height of monastery gives the visitors a perfect chance to experience the surrounding landscape with snow-capped mountains in the arid cold desert. We spent about an hour at the Monastery and then moved back to our next destination, Kibber village.
We reached Kibber and checked into our Tashizom Guest house. In the evening, we went for a ride to Tashigang village which is at 4500 meters and reached back before dawn. We woke up to a clear and a glorious Sunrise. After an amazing breakfast, we headed to our next destination.
July 18, 2016, Day 2 in Spiti Lahaul – Lalung, Dhankar and Pin Valley
We started from Kibber and headed towards Lalung in our bikes. Lalung village is known for its Monastery. It is also known as Sarkhang and Golden Temple and is situated at a height Of 3658m. It was very hot and sunny at Lalung and with great difficulty we found a shop where we had our lunch (Biscuits and Frooti). Next stop was Dhankar. Dhankar village is situated at an elevation of over 3,800m. It is just like any other small village in the desert of Spiti valley. Untouched and away from tourist’s exploitation, the population of this village won’t be more than 100. Dhankar is known for its Monastery and Fort. The fort of Dhankar now lies in ruins, but still is a place worthy of visit. From the remnants of the fort one can see vast expanses of the Spiti valley.
Dhankar to Mud Village (Pin Valley) is approx. 3 hours distance. The bikes started from Dhankar at 4pm. The plan was to reach Mud Village by 7pm. One of the advantages of high altitude places is that it gets dark only after 7.30pm. The sun sets around 7pm. We started from the muddy roads of Dhankar towards Mud Village. Two bikers, Karthik Shetty and Avinash Naik were riding fast and they overtook the other two bikers, Vinay Shetty and Manoj Rao and crossed the Pin Valley Bridge. We still had to cover approx. 2 hours of distance. It was then, the third bike Vinay Shetty broke down because of the Clutch Wire. Thankfully, I was behind so I could see the breakdown and stopped my bike. Only BSNL sim works in Spiti Valley and thankfully to BSNL. After several attempts, I was able to contact our tour coordinator Dineshji. He arranged a mechanic who arrived at our location and fixed the clutch wire. It was 6:45pm then. We rode in the dark for more than an hour in the unknown terrain and pathetic roads and finally reached Mud village by 8:30pm. We had some good food at Tara Guest House slept for the night.
We woke up early next morning for the Sunrise view of the mountains. The views in the entire Pin Valley including Mud village were just majestic, and the valley is mostly virgin, serene, barren and beautiful. Mud village is also known for providing base for trekking route towards or from Pin-Parvati Pass or Bhabha Pass. The children there at Mud village had smiles all over their faces looking at our bikes. We had a photo session with the children and it was really enjoyable. We finished our breakfast and started for Tabo.
July 19, 2016, Day 3 in Spiti Lahaul – Tabo
Tabo is a small town in the Lahaul and Spiti district on the banks of the Spiti River. It is on the highway from Kaza – Shimla approx. 40kms from Kaza. Tabo is known for its Monastery, which according to legend, is said to be over a thousand years old. The Dalai Lama has expressed his desire to retire to Tabo, since he maintains that the Tabo Monastery is one of the holiest. The apple trees is also one of the main attractions in Tabo. Tabo is the only town other than Kaza which has an ATM in the entire Spiti valley. We spent about an hour in Tabo and headed back to Kaza for our stay in Hotel Deyzor.
July 20, 2016, Day 4 in Spiti Lahaul – Langza, Komic and Hikkim
Today was our last day in bike and we started from Kaza towards Langza. Nestled between the mountains in a bowl shaped area in the Spiti Valley is a small remote village named Langza. This village is situated at an altitude of 4400m above sea level. At the first glance of the village, one will instantly notice a huge Golden coloured Buddha statue which is believed to be around 1000 years old. The view across the mountains is simply majestic. Young kids can be seen running around the village collecting and playing with these fossils trying to persuade the travelers to buy them in return for money. We stayed there for some time and then headed towards Komic.
Komic Village is the highest motorable village in Asia. Komic monastery has the honor of being the world’s highest motorable monastery at 4587m overlooking the Komic village and mountain peaks. In Komic, there are only about a dozen houses and the total population is between 50-60 people. We had Lunch in Komic (Maggi and tea) and then headed towards Hikkim.
Hikkim village is at an altitude of 4330m. The village is credited to have the world’s highest post office. The pin code is 172114. On our way back to Kaza, we negotiated some tough under construction roads due to a short cut route (8kms shorter) and reach Kaza in the evening and checked in at Hotel Snow Lion. We submitted our bikes and shopped in Kaza in the evening and had some hot delicious Jalebis in Kaza main market.
July 21, 2016, Day 5 in Spiti Lahaul – Kunzum Pass and Chandratal Lake
Next morning, we started our journey towards Chandratal Lake in a Tempo Traveler. Chandratal Lake is approx. 90kms from Kaza and it is also the mid-point of Kaza-Manali route. On our way to Chandratal, we stopped at Kunzum pass. Situated at 4,551 m above mean sea level, Kunzum La or Kunzum Pass is one of the gateways to Lahaul and Spiti valleys. It is one of India’s highest motorable mountain passes and is located in Himachal Pradesh. Kunzum Pass offers spectacular views of Bara-Sigri, the second longest glacier in the world. Also visible from the top of the pass are the Chandra-Bhaga Mountain and Spiti valley. The presence of chortens and prayer flags signify a strong Buddhist influence in the area. Also popular, is the Kunzum Devi Temple where all vehicles must stop to pay respects to the goddess. We reached Chandratal camps in the afternoon.
Chandratal or simply Moon Lake is a barren but beautiful lake located at a height of 4300m in the Lahaul region. The lake got its name because of its crescent shape. Unlike the Pangong Lake, this is a sweet water lake which is around 2.5kms wide. From the camping grounds the lake is still about 3km way. You can take the trek route and walk to the lake. We went in our TT to what is known as the ‘parking lot’ of the Chandratal. From the parking lot, the lake is a twenty minutes leisurely walk. First glimpse and the place is just wow! Everything about it is so magical. It just hypnotizes you. Clean and clear blue waters, vegetation free multicoloured mountains and patch of green around the lake. Simply picture perfect. We spent the evening in and around the lake and reached back our Parasol camps before it was dark. It was super chill in the camps. Thankfully, we had campfire closer to our tent. We stayed there till we finished our dinner and slept in our tents with a thick blanket provided to us.
We woke up early and started back to Manali on July 22, 2016 at 7am after breakfast. We hired our TT driver for a Manali city tour for the 2nd half of the day and 1st half of next day till we boarded our bus to Delhi. We reached Manali by 2pm and checked into our Hotel Ocean Blue. In the evening, we visited Hidimba and Ghatotkach Temple, Vashisht temple, Nature park, Tibetan Monastery, Ram Mandir and did some shopping in the Mall road in Manali.
Next morning, July 23, 2016, we went to Solang valley for Paragliding. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions, it was put on hold till September. We went to the top of Solang valley in the Ropeway and spent couple of hours amidst the hills covered with fog and a beautiful view of the valley and then came back down in the same Ropeway and headed towards the bus stand. It was a comfortable Himsuta Volvo travel from Manali to Delhi.
We reached Delhi early morning on July 24, 2016 at 5am. We took Delhi Metro from the Bus-stand to the Terminal 3 airport. The flight was delayed by 30 mins and we reached Bangalore at around 12.30pm.
Conclusion
From the homestay in the highest village of the Himalayas to the camping on the banks of Chandratal, from the biking in the dusty roads of Spiti to the TT drive in the narrow roads towards Chandratal, this is an experience for a lifetime. Although we have been to Ladakh before, this trip of Spiti Lahaul was even better. Barren beauty of the land with rough cum majestic and intimidating Himalayan Mountains were just too good. I hope to come back to this place once again and I’m sure my friends wouldn’t agree more on this.
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