Every one of us probably has some memorable trips we have had in the past and sometimes some pictures, videos or even some words that we see will make our mind travel back to those moments. For me the trip to Gangotri - Gaumukh in the Himalayas with my friend Sudhin will always be a special one. The snow clad mountains, the risky trekking route, the heavy snowfall - everything that we saw and experienced that day comes to my mind each time I see some pictures of Himalayas or even any mountains. But besides all that there is one more thing that reminds me of that beautiful mesmerizing land - the night sky. Every time I look up to the sky at night, I think about the night in Himalayas where we stood still watching the starry sky and the Milky Way. Here back in my home town all I could see is only a few bright shining stars because of the light pollution. It makes me want to travel back to the Himalayas.
From the day I got back from Gangotri, my friends and family have been asking me where my next trip is to. And I didn’t have an answer, all I knew was that it would be to the Himalayas. In February 2015 I booked a flight ticket to Delhi for 23rd May. Yeah I booked a ticket without setting a destination! I had plenty of time for that. One day while browsing the internet I happened to see a picture of a Tibetan monastery which was covered with thick snow. It was a picture of Key monastery in Kaza. That spectacular picture made me search more about it and I learned that it is in Himachal Pradesh in a place called Spiti valley. The river Spiti flows through it and hence the name. The name Spiti means ‘The middle land’ that is the land between India and Tibet.A few weeks later I watched an advertisement of mineral water on the TV which was shot in front of the same place. I didn’t think too much. Spiti badly needed my visit and hence all these signs! Just like last time I searched a lot of online forums to collect every bit of information I could get. So I would like to thank every member in these forums especially in Indiamike and Devils On Road who helped me to answer my queries.
The destination - Key monastery in Kaza, Himachal Pradesh,India
When I came back from my last trip, many of my friends showed interest in coming with me for the next trip. So when I booked tickets to Delhi in February I was certain that at least one of them would come with me for the trip. But as the days passed by, everyone skipped it. Two weeks prior to the trip I was certain that I would have to do this alone. I was a little skeptical about going all alone and also some personal issues which happened a few weeks before the trip made me almost cancel the whole thing. But when I thought about my dad who is one of the greatest inspirations for me to travel, I didn’t hesitate much.
Ok for those who seeks quick travel itinerary I am going to list it out before going to describe it in detail. This wasn’t exactly like I planned at the beginning but had to make some adjustments as I travelled further. So finally it looked like this.
· Day 1 - Kochi to Delhi by flight, Delhi to Shimla by bus. Stay at Shimla.
· Day 2 - Shimla to Reckong Peo. Peo to Kalpa. Roam around Kalpa in the evening and stay there for the night.
· Day 3 - Kalpa to Peo. Peo to Nako. Stay at Nako.
· Day 4 - Roam around Nako. Afternoon go to Kaza.
· Day 5 - Visit Kibber village and Key monastery in Kaza.
· Day 6 - Kaza to Peo. Catch the last bus to Shimla from Peo.
· Day 7 - Shimla to Delhi
· Day 8 - Delhi to Kochi in train.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ts...g=w447-h320-no
My travel route map
Day 1
Finally May 23rd arrived. Just like last time it was my friend Alfred who agreed to drop me at the airport in the morning and exactly like on that day, it was drizzling outside. We reached the airport around 6.45, my flight was at 7.15. I was somehow lucky to arrive before the check in time closed. The usual late work shift of mine made me really tired in the morning, so I was hoping to get some rest in the flight. But I was so wrong. I was sandwiched between a monk and a lady, with an infant baby, who was travelling alone. The baby started crying as soon as the flight took off and I had to help her to console the baby by playing with some toys. The lady and I immediately became friends. Her name was Dhanya, a Delhi Malayalee visiting Kerala after 8 years. She was surprised when she realized that I was travelling all the way to Spiti alone. She told the story of how her brother once visited Spiti a few years ago .He loved to travel a lot in the Himalayas with his motor cycle. Dhanya advised me to never stop this habit of travelling and visit more places soon. It was really sad that we couldn’t say proper good bye because we took 2 different buses to reach the terminal from the flight. Around 10.30 I reached Delhi airport and from there I took the metro to the Kashmiri gate where the Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) is situated. The airport metro to Kashmiri gate, lunch from the Punjabi dhaba near the ISBT -all these became my regular thing over the past couple of years.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Fi...M=w398-h299-no
My regular lunch from the dhaba in Kasmiri gate
My first destination on the way to Spiti valley was Shimla which is around 10 hrs of journey from Delhi. From ISBT you could get buses to almost all the neighbouring states of Delhi. I had already booked a ticket for the 12.30 bus to Shimla through Himachal Pradesh Road Corporation’s online site. I specifically booked a side seat. In the bus I met Ramesh Kumar, a Nepali who was about my age. He was a construction worker currently working in Gujarat and going to Shimla to meet his elder sister who stayed with her husband. I told him I was going to Reckong Peo from Shimla and he said he was also on the same route so we could go together. I must confess my Hindi is not very good as it’s not my mother tongue and I only speak Hindi whenever I came to North India on tours. So many times I had to use sign language to communicate with him because he didn’t speak English.
I was hoping to get some rest finally since my first attempt failed, but again I was wrong. It was the hot climate which troubled me this time. May end is the hot summer time at its peak in North India and the bus ride through the wide NH1 made it worse. The seats were burning with hotness. I was advised to get an AC bus but at noon there was no AC bus available to Shimla. So my advice is that if you travel to Shimla from Delhi during summer time and no AC buses are available in your journey time, take an AC bus to Chandigarh and then take a bus to Shimla from there. At that time I didn’t know that all the buses to Shimla go through Chandigarh.
The bus passed Karnal, Panipat, Ambala- places that I had studied in the history class, and finally reached Chandigarh around 5.45. Ramesh and I became really good friends by that time. He bought me food every time some local vendors got into the bus. I refused it first time but he kept on insisting. So when we reached Chandigarh I bought him a sandwich. I asked Ramesh whether his village was affected by the recent earthquake which hit Nepal and he said everyone was fine in his home. In Chandigarh, the bus went to the Sector 43 bus stand from where you could catch buses which go only to the northern side of India (Himachal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir). If it is a bus which goes only up to Chandigarh, it will not go to Sector 43 but instead it goes to Sector 17 and then you may need to catch a city bus to get to Sector 43 in order to catch the Shimla bus. I learned all these things on my return journey to Delhi only. After half an hour’s halt at the bus station, we resumed our journey to Shimla.
On the way to Shimla you pass a place called Kalka from where the famous Shimla toy train route starts. I was earlier thinking of taking this toy train but there was no train available in the evening so I changed my plans. From Kalka, the road started to climb up. From here onwards you are entering the world of never ending journey through twisted and curved mountain roads... You could see the toy train rail line passing through the sideways of the road at many places. Soon we passed Solan and I had the first glimpse of Shimla town high above. Glazed with lights the town looked like a group of tiny flashy birds.
Finally at 10.30 we reached Shimla. The bus halted at the old bus stand. I was planning to get a room and stay overnight there and start early morning to Reckong Peo (locally known as just Peo) which was my next destination. But Ramesh said it was better to keep going, as we could get a bus to Peo and thus avoid staying in Shimla which could be really costly. I guess he didn’t have much money and his limited time constraints made him say that. But I was really tired and preferred to stay there and call it a day. I asked a guy at the bus stand about the room rates here and he said it could be around Rs 3000 for a decent room since it was tourist season. His response made me change my mind and follow Ramesh’s advice. We asked a shop owner about the availability of a bus to Peo at night and he said it could come at any time. So we waited. But the wait was too long. We asked a few more people and each of them gave different answers. Some said there were no buses at night and some said we must get to the new bus stand in order to get the bus. I was totally confused what to do.
It was almost midnight and the bus stand was getting deserted. We met two young boys with a drunken old man who were going to Peo. They said they were walking to the new bus stand which was about 4 km from there and we could join them if we wanted. I turned to Ramesh for his opinion but he was on a call with his sister. He then handed over the phone to me as she wanted to talk with me. I honestly had no idea which language she spoke… Hindi or Nepali. All I said was ‘ok accha theek hai’. I handed over the phone to him. After the call I felt that he was more confused than me. What he said next I won’t forget in my life. He said his sister told him that it was not safe to stand alone at the bus stand at this time because people might even cut your throats in order to rob you!! I asked-- what the hell did you just say?! “Some people may even kill you in order to rob you,” he explained with hand gesture. I felt my head was spinning. I looked around and all the people standing there seemed to stare at me. That is it, I had had enough. I am going to get a room here and stay overnight. I asked a guy who was sitting beside a shop to arrange a room. He immediately called his friend who said it would be Rs 500 for a bed but only one was left so we would have to share it. I didn’t bother to look for any other solution. I agreed and they took us to the room. They guided us through some really smutty dark alleys beside the bus stand. I looked back at Ramesh who was following me with fearful eyes. He kept on whispering to me not to trust those guys as they could cheat us. I must say here that the walk to the room from the bus stand was one of the scariest moments in my life. I didn’t know whom to trust. We stopped in front of some old building and my jaw dropped as he opened the room.
It was a dormitory and there were at least 20 people sleeping there and the bed he was talking about was too hard for even a single guy to sleep. But we had no other choice. Before they went back they said they would come back the next day at 4 in the morning to wake us up since we had to get the early bus to Peo. I went to use the toilet, a guy with 36 inch waist line would probably get stuck between the doors, it was that tiny. I would rather not speak about the condition of the toilet. I went back to the bed, Ramesh and I somehow managed to fit on the bed and went to sleep. The loud snoring coming from some other bed didn’t even bother me because my tiredness put me into deep sleep within minutes. There I was sleeping on a single bed with a Nepali guy, whom I had met just a few hours ago!
It always makes me laugh whenever I think about that night. I don’t know why I was paranoid to that extent, but honestly I was scared to death that night.
Day 2
We woke up at 4am hearing the alarm but both of us didn’t get up until a guy came knocking at the door. We had to move the bed in order to open the door. He asked us why we hadn’t left yet if we wanted to catch the bus to Peo. I had no idea who he was or how he came to know about our plan, anyway we didn’t waste much time. I didn’t even brush my teeth because I never wanted to go back to that toilet. It was early in the morning but the light had come up early. We went straight to the bus stand and asked a few people about the bus timing. Just like last night we got different answers. In the end a police officer said we should either go to the new bus stand or one other place (I don’t remember its name) and suggested it was better to go to the latter since it was nearer. So we took a cab and went there. A few people were already waiting there for the bus which they said would arrive at 6 am. While we were waiting I was thinking of all the incidents which happened last night. I had a lot of doubts in my mind whether I could do this trip all alone but after all the things that happened last night I thought I could survive anything!
The bus arrived at sharp 6 am. It was coming from Haridwar and was jam packed. I bought the ticket to Peo and Ramesh bought for ‘Autti’ where his sister’s house was located. The rush inside the bus was getting less as we travelled further and I managed to get a seat after 30 minutes. Around 8 am we reached ‘Autti’. The driver stopped the bus for a 30 min tea break. Ramesh called his sister and asked her to come there. We had breakfast from a nearby restaurant even though Ramesh insisted he didn’t want. I asked him why he asked his sister to come there instead of going to her house directly. Ramesh said he didn’t go to her house ever since he had a fight with his brother- in- law last year. So he was going to talk to her for some time and then go straight back to Delhi and then to Gujarat since he had only two days off! Now I knew why he didn’t want to stay in Shimla, he had a really tight schedule. I felt really awful about it. It must be so hard for him to travel half way through the country to just see his sister and spend a few minutes with her. I gave him some chocolates that I had bought last night, for his sister’s children. We hugged each other and said goodbye as the bus started. I had spent hardly a day with him but it still makes me really sad when I think about the moment we said goodbye.
An umbrella by the nature. Somewhere in Hindustan Tibetan Highway. Sutlej on the left side
The driver rushed though the roads which snaked across the valley. I felt lonely. The guys sitting near me were sleeping and I had no one to talk to. When I boarded the bus I had noticed two guys who were about the same age as me sitting in front but they were sleeping earlier. I guessed they were also travelling like me, seeing the camera which one fellow was holding. But then they awoke and one fellow came and stood beside me. I asked him whether they were heading towards Peo and he said yes, pointing to his friends who were sitting behind me. I was relieved that I got company till Peo. He was surprised to know that I was coming from Kerala, which is the southernmost State of India, to Spiti all alone. He said this loudly to his friends behind me and suddenly one of his friends poked me from behind and asked “naatil evideya?” (Where are you from in Kerala? -in Malayalam)! It was like Indian film stuff!! . And that’s how I met Vasudev. It is usually said in light humor that wherever you go, you would find a Malayalee and it is generally true. I was so relieved when I heard Malayalam being spoken. Vasu introduced his friends Jayesh, Jay and Abhimanyu all coming from Mumbai and working in the media industry. Vasu is a Mumbai Malayalee basically from Trichur, Kerala. He and his friends liked to travel on mountain areas just like me. We talked about our adventures from the past and it didn’t take long for me to become friends with them.
The Mumbai gang - Vasudev, Abhimanyu, Jayesh, Jay
Around noon the bus reached Rampur and it stopped for a 15 minutes break. From the bus stand we saw the river Sutlej for the first time. Before this trip I had looked up the map of Himachal Pradesh and found that much of the road that I had to travel passed by the side of the Sutlej. The road from Shimla to Peo is known as the ‘Hindustan Tibetan Highway’, one of the most treacherous roads in the world. I have seen a lot of stunning pictures of it on the internet and a few scenes from the Bollywood movie ‘Highway’ which was shot there.
The iconic tunnel of the famous Hindustan Tibetan Highway
Jay and Abhimanyu shifted their seat to the front near the driver, who was wearing sunglasses (I shall tell the story of it later) and started chatting with him. I looked at Sutlej, she was all muddy and flowing like mad. I guess may be somewhere on top of the Himalayas near the Manasarovar where it originates, it must be raining very hard. We stopped at a place called Jeori for lunch and after 30 minutes of break, we resumed our journey. Somewhere between Peo and Jeori we stopped in front of a Sikh temple. It seemed they were having some celebration and everyone was given free kesari(dessert), chana and some drink. I must say that it tasted really great. Soon we left and I saw the first glimpse of the world famous snowcapped Himalayan mountains in the distance which was Kinnaur Kailash range by the way. Though I knew I was going to spend a number of days on these mountains and that this was not the best position to take pictures, yet I became so excited that I started clicking photos even as we were travelling. Such is the influence the Himalayas has on me.
The road was really narrow at many places and we had to take reverse for some distance whenever a big vehicle came from the opposite side. In the whole journey we wasted nearly an hour doing this alone. As we travelled further we got a full stretch view of the Kinnaur Kailash range. Finally the bus reached Peo around 4.30.
The Mumbai team’s initial plan was to do the Kinnaur trekking but soon they realized it was closed due to snowfall. So they decided to stay at Peo and look for some other plans. My plan was to go to Kalpa, hardly 10 km from Peo, which is quieter and more beautiful than Peo from the information that I found on the internet. When they heard my plan they also agreed to come with me. We took the 5 pm bus to Kalpa, which was the last one for the day since it was Sunday. The local people here in the Kinnaur region, both male and female, wear a special type of hat of green and grey color. Along the way there was some regional music playing inside the bus. It was very rhythmic but all I understood was that they kept on singing ‘Rekkaang Peo’ which is the actual pronunciation. Peo has its own song. Cool!
It took hardly 30 minutes to reach Kalpa. Kalpa was the former capital of Kinnaur district which later shifted to Peo. Jay, Abhi and Jayesh went to look for a room as soon as we got down from the bus while Vasu and I went on a different way. We didn’t have to go long, we found a small guest house on top and luckily they had 2 rooms available for just Rs 600 each. The view from the room was absolutely spectacular which you cannot see anywhere else in the world. The Kinnaur Kailash range looked like a big white gate in front of us.
Couldn't ask for a better spot. View from our room in Kalpa
We kept our luggage there and went down to inform others. Soon all of them came to the room and put their things down. We heard some music coming from the Tibetan temple down in the distance and decided to visit it before it closed. Vasu and I went together first while the other guys were freshening themselves up. We reached the temple. There were lots of prayer wheels surrounding the temple. We walked around the temple turning those wheels. The typical Tibetan prayer music coming from the temple and the chilled atmosphere made us feel that we weren’t in India any more but in Tibet itself. Spiti and Peo are known as ‘little Tibet’ but I guess ‘little India’ would be more apt!! We also visited a Hindu temple nearby. You could see the vast valley from the balcony of the temple which is just awesome and I wished I could stay there for my entire life.
After that both of us went to a small restaurant to have some veg momos while the other guys also joined us. It was 7 pm in the evening but the daylight hadn’t gone at all. It was in the middle of the year and also because of its geographical location this place became dark only after 8 p.m. For a guy who lived closer to the equatorial line, all this was a wonder. We decided to go back to the room but Jay said they should order food then because it would take a while to prepare. Here in these mountain areas they only made food as per order, so everything would be all fresh and hot. We went to another restaurant and Jayesh suggested to me to order something Tibetan. I ordered a chowmeen which is a kind of Tibetan/Chinese noodle. He ordered a tupaka. We went back to the room to charge our cell phones and cameras and came back after an hour. But the food was not ready yet and also there were some foreigners sitting inside the restaurant, so we all waited outside. Darkness had spread everywhere by then. Nobody was there except for us and the guys inside the restaurant. It seemed that Kalpa went to sleep very early. The caretaker of our room Mr.Thotharam informed us that we could go trekking to a village on top of Kalpa when Jayesh asked him about the local sights. We had seen the snow covered mountain top earlier while coming in the bus, so they all were so excited about going there. Before I came to Spiti I had checked the weather forecast and so I told them that there were chances of snowfall for the next two days. The guys were so happy to hear this, because they all wanted to see the snowfall. But I had seen plenty of it in my last trip during the Gangotri Gaumukh trekking. I told them about my Gangotri adventure, how I saw the moving satellites and Milky Way and all. While I was talking, the power supply went off and it was totally dark everywhere like an omen. I immediately looked up to the sky to see the Milky Way but it wasn’t visible much. But I saw a few moving satellites and I showed them to my friends and all of them were astonished on seeing the sight. They never knew we could see them with naked eyes. You could see the moving satellites on these remote places as there is very less light pollution on a clear sky. They shine like stars because of the light reflecting from the solar panel and also move constantly round the earth. I think I have become an expert in spotting it.
Wonder what she is praying for. At the Tibetan temple in Kalpa
While we were talking, Jay was busy feeding the stray dogs with biscuits that he had bought. We then talked about our journey of that day and then only I came to know about our bus driver’s story. It turned out that he wasn’t wearing those sunglasses for style. He had an eye surgery a few days before and he practically couldn’t see with his left eye for a few weeks and hence the sunglass to protect it. Jay said that at one point he even put his head outside through the window to check whether the tires were all on the road while turning some sharp curves!! We laughed so much thinking about it. The food was ready at last and we all went inside. The power hadn’t come yet so we had to light up candles for light. The chowmeen tasted a little bit salty. I remembered my uncle once saying the real Chinese food tasted a little too salty for our liking. The food there didn’t taste like what we got in the so called Chinese restaurants back home. Jay shared his tupka with me. Tupka is a kind of noodles with lot of water in it. It was really great to have a candle light dinner on that cold night.
We headed back to the room after finishing dinner and I was already thinking of the next day’s plan. Those guys were planning to do trekking the next day and then go to Spiti the day after that. Actually their plans were similar to mine but they had one day extra. I thought a little adjustment in my plan could match with theirs but I decided not to do it. Even though I felt really comfortable with them, travelling alone has its own perks. I had confidence by then that I could do the rest of my trip alone. Also there were chances that I might get friendly with some other guys in the rest of my trip!! So I said that I was going to leave the next day for Tabo which was my next pit stop. I asked Thotharam how to get to Peo in the morning from Kalpa. I knew the bus to Kaza is at 7 am so I had to reach at least by 6 am to book the seats. But he said there were no buses to Peo from Kalpa until 9 am. He then suggested a different plan- to get the 11 am bus to Nako which would reach Nako by evening and stay there and the next day go to Kaza by taking the afternoon bus. So for that I might have to skip Tabo. I was really confused what do to on the next day because Nako wasn’t in my plan initially. After a few minutes Jayesh came to the room and said that he had talked to Thotharam and he suggested that I could walk to Peo early in the morning like a lot of foreigners do rather than taking a bus or cab. I thought that was a good idea and decided to go for it. I kept the alarm for 4 am and went to sleep.
Day 3
I woke up early in the morning. If I were to get the Kaza bus I should leave the room at least by 5 am. I snoozed the alarm for 1 hr and went back to sleep since I felt lazy to get up so early. When I woke up at 5 am, I could hear the rains outside. It was so cold inside the room even though I had put a heavy blanket on top of me. Walking all the way to Peo in this weather seemed suicidal. I decided to go for the plan B (Nako) so that I could get some more time to sleep. Finally we all woke up after 8 am and realized there was no power. I washed my face and we all went outside. It was really cloudy outside and drizzling also. The mountains were only partially visible. There was a Belgian guy near our room who also came outside to check the weather. I told Jayesh that if it was raining here, then there were chances of snowfall on the top of Kalpa where they were planning to do trekking. Jayesh and Vasu were so excited on hearing this. While we were talking, Thotharam came and said it was better to leave then to catch the Peo bus. I thanked him for suggesting Nako, said good bye to all, hoping we all could catch up later somewhere in Spiti valley and left the room. I had hardly spent a day with him but we had really become good friends. Vasu accompanied me to the bus stop.The bus arrived at 9 am sharp. We had one last hug and then I boarded the bus.
Reckong Peo bus station.
There I was all alone again. But I was sure something unexpected would happen any time, wondering with whom I was going to end up by the evening. I enquired about the Nako bus when I reached the Peo bus stand. It was around 11.30 but the booking counter hadn’t opened yet. I went to an ATM counter nearby to get some cash as I was afraid there won’t be any ATM available as I went up towards Spiti. I had some food and came back to the counter which had opened by that time. I specifically asked for a right window seat and got it. The bus took off finally and after some distance it reached near the river Sutlej. As I travelled further I saw several sign boards saying ‘You are travelling through one of the most treacherous roads in the world’ and I couldn’t agree more. The condition of the road was quite dangerous at many areas. You would become sacred by looking at the side of the mountains near the side of the road. It was not green as one could see from Shimla to Peo but instead it was all sharp rocks bulging towards the edges of the roads. I started listening to music but didn’t close my eyes for a second even though I was really tired because I didn’t want to miss out anything. You never knew what was going to come up next after each turn around the corner.
Here the bridges not just connects roads but the civilizations itself
The bus stopped for lunch at a place called Spillow, a small town. I talked to a local man while having lunch in the restaurant. I told him I was coming from Kerala alone. Here is the interesting thing, these people see many foreigners both male and female travelling alone there knowing nothing but English yet it didn’t surprise them a bit. But as soon as they realized that you were an Indian especially from the South travelling there alone, they found it hard to believe! I noticed this reaction every time I mentioned it to the people I met there. He told me there was nothing to worry about there,as the people there were really nice and helpful which was true every bit as I learnt from my own experience.
We left Spillow after a half an hour halt. If you have ‘Airtel’ mobile connection it was better to make all your calls before leaving Spillow because there won’t be any network further from that point. After we passed some distance, the bus stopped and I looked outside to see why it had stopped. The road ahead of us was blocked due to a landslide. I went near it to check the condition. The road was completely blocked as some very large heavy rocks had fallen from the top of the mountains.
Road block! BRO cleaning up the landslides near Spillow
I realized it would take hours to clear the road so I went back to the bus. While I was walking back, I saw a lady running back in to the bus, and then I looked up and saw some small pebbles coming from the top of the mountain and hitting the bus. I immediately ran back in to the bus. There were some sign boards along the road warning about these falling stones. They said ‘watch out for the shooting stones’ and I wondered earlier why they were called ‘shooting stones’ instead of ‘falling stones’, but now I understood why. They fell so fast from the top like someone was firing a bullet from up there! A small stone falling at that speed could really hurt if it hit you.
I didn’t feel like talking to anyone in the bus and moreover most of them were sleeping. There was a Lama sitting behind me but he was reading a book so I thought not to disturb him. I slept for almost an hour inside the bus and when I woke up I decided to go check out what was happening with the landslide situation. The roads there are maintained by BRO (Border Roads Organization). They came immediately whenever a landslide occurred and cleared it fast with big bulldozers and all. One officer stopped me from going further as I was walking towards the rocks. He warned me to stay back because they had drilled down the rocks and put some dynamites inside it in order to blast it. One guy who was sitting on top of the rock ran towards us after he lighted up the dynamites. Everyone gathered around there waited with anticipation to see what would happen next. The rock shattered into small pieces with a loud explosion and the sound echoed through the valley of Sutlej. BRO cleared the roads immediately after that and we resumed our journey.
The never ending journey through the twisted roads..
We passed a village called Pooh/Puh. I knew this place from the movie ‘Highway’ which I had mentioned earlier. It was this tiny place which had sparked my ambition to come here. As we travelled further I saw a bridge cutting across the river Sutlej and I noticed a river joining with it from the left side. It must be the famous river ‘Spiti’. Sutlej was all muddy but Spiti had more clear water. Good bye dirty Sutlej , see you back in a few days and hello Spiti!
Spiti(on the left) merge with Sutlej at Ka
If you went straight instead of taking the bridge you would reach the Indo - China border which was hardly 10 kms from there. Looking at the map in my phone I learned that the place was called Ka (The name of the snake from the Jungle Book J )! The change of scenery from Ka was unexpectedly breathtaking. The bus immediately began to travel through a steep road and the sides of the mountains on either side made you feel like you were travelling through the ‘Great Grand Canyon’. The sides looked like some painter had brushed that whole area with some big brush or something! I had never seen anything like that before. As if that wasn’t enough, the views dramatically changed as we climbed up further. How could I describe the surroundings there- let me say if you looked around there and compared it with some photo which the NASA’s Mars rover ‘Curiosity’ had taken from the Martian surface, you could never differentiate them! The land there didn’t look similar to anything that you saw not only in India but in the whole world! All you could see is a lot of reddish mountains with no sight of vegetation at all till the horizon. The only thing that made you feel you were still on the earth was the snow capped Himalayan mountains on the right side.
Where am I, at the Martian land?!
The river Spiti wasn’t visible by then. From Ka it was better to sit on the left side of the bus which provided more scenery.I sat on the bus wondering what all I am going to see more on this strange land...
It was almost 6 p.m. so I guessed Nako couldn’t be far from there. I asked the Lama about whom I had mentioned earlier, how far Nako was and he said it was not very far. He was also coming from South India, Karnataka actually. I knew there were a few Tibetan monasteries in Koorg and he was coming from there. He came to Spiti to visit his parents who lived in a village near Nako. The bus stopped in front of a small tea shop and the conductor told me to get down there. I was shocked when I looked around because there was no sign of hotels or even any house. The Lama laughed and told me to look behind the tea shop and as I looked I saw the whole Nako village in the distance. I said goodbye to him and started walking towards Nako. Nako is a small village but definitely bigger than Pooh I guess. 5 minutes of walk and I reached Nako, I went straight to the first hotel that I saw but there was no one around to make enquiries. Luckily there was another hotel adjacent to it and the caretaker took me to a room. The room was nice with water heater and all. There was an open passage to the room where one could sit and see the entire Nako valley from the top. I paid Rs 300 for the room and decided to take some rest before having dinner. I slept for almost an hour and when I woke up there was no power. Luckily I had managed to charge the phone and camera earlier. I went outside to have food. There was a small dhaba next to the hotel run by the same guy but since he wasn’t there at that time I went to a restaurant inside the hotel just opposite the road. There were plenty of foreigners staying in the hotel and many of them were in the restaurant too. For the second day in a row I had candle light dinner. While I was having food I talked to the waiter there. He said the chance of power coming that day was really low. It could be raining or snow falling somewhere in that region, so they must have cut off the power supply as a precaution.
Its beautiful as heaven - a view from Nako village
When I came back to the room after dinner I was thinking of going straight back to bed but the awesome climate there changed my mind. As I said earlier one could see the entire valley from the passage to the room in that hotel and even though it was dark at that time I still could see it by the light of the vehicles coming from down the valley. I sat on a chair which was in the corner, looking at the valley. But I couldn’t sit there for long as the cold started to cover Nako. I went to the room and picked up a heavy blanket, covered my whole body except for the eyes and sat on the chair listening to music. Through the light of the vehicles I saw the mist coming from down the valley and slowly starting to cover the entire village. I didn’t know how much time I spent there looking into the darkness. Many things came to my mind that night- my life, my profession, friends, family, football! I think that night I spent there alone, was one of the highlights of my trip. The whole long hectic journey to reach there was worth it just for that night. At some time during the night I went back to the room as my eyes wouldn’t keep open any longer.
Day 4
I woke up past 8 a.m. the next day, the power hadn’t come yet and also there wasn’t any water in the pipe. So I went out looking for the caretaker but couldn’t find him. When I returned I saw a foreign lady coming out from the next room. She took a bicycle from her room, and headed outside. I asked her in English whether there was water in her room. She replied ‘Nahi he… kal se hi nahi he’ (No, not since yesterday) in Hindi. I was stunned by her reply, that foreign lady spoke better Hindi than me! Luckily last night I had managed to save some water in a bucket so somehow I managed to do the morning chores with that and went outside again to have breakfast.
The white cloak of nature! Mist covering a Nako morning
The caretaker was there at that time and he agreed to make me parathas for breakfast. As he started cooking we had a conversation. His name was Sonam and he was coming from Ladak, Kashmir. Sonam told me to go check out the Buddhist temple on top of the hill and take a walk to the Monastery down the road as I didn’t know much about Nako. He advised me to hurry up because I should get back there by 12 p.m. in order to get the bus to Kaza. The bus could come any time after noon. The weather was all cloudy in the morning and even snow started to fall but only for a very short time. As soon as I finished breakfast I started trekking towards the temple as Sonam had suggested. The narrow pebbled pavement to the temple on top disappeared a little while after I started climbing up. I looked up, the temple was made up of rocks and I guessed it wouldn’t take more than an hour to reach there. On the way I saw the Nako Lake on the right side, it was nothing to boast of, probably a little larger than a pond. The trail completely disappeared after a while, so I had to stop at many points to find a way to the top. While climbing up I saw a giant prayer wheel on the edge of the mountain and made a quick detour towards it. The view from there was spectacular. The sky was getting clearer after the morning snowfall. All the reddish mountains that I saw the previous day had put on the white cap of snow by then! The white clouds were flying through the gap of the mountains on top of Spiti. I turned the prayer wheel a few times and listened to the sound of the ring echoing across the valley. I sat there for at least half an hour gazing at the flying clouds. In that mesmerizing land, you could be alone but never lonely. I think sometimes we feel more human when we leave all the civilization far behind and come closer to nature.
Nako village - a view from top
I started climbing again towards the temple after a brief moment of philosophy. At some point I saw a glimpse of the trail on the other side; I guessed I took the wrong path from the start itself. After a half hour of trekking I looked up again. The temple looked just at the same distance as when I looked from below. How could that be possible? I was quite sure that I was not going to make to the bus stop in time if I was going to continue with the trekking, so I decided to come back. From the top I saw the Tibetan monastery on the far side of the Nako village. To reach there I would have to cut through the village or walk the whole way to the hotel and then take the road. I decided to go with the former option which seemed easier and less time consuming. And by doing so I could see more of the village also.
The forgotten trails - Trekking towards the old temple in Nako.
I asked a few guys for the route once I got down from there and they showed me a tiny footpath going through the village. As I walked through it I realized I had made a big mistake. The roads through the village seemed more complicated than some maze you found in the newspaper. It split into a dozen paths as I went further and I didn’t know which way to take. The worst part was that there was no one there to ask for directions. I was pretty sure I was circling for a while at the same point. There were a number of cattle and sheep and donkeys adjacent to some houses. Somehow I managed to escape the maze and reach the road which led to the Monastery. But disappointingly there was nobody there and it seemed to be closed, so I roamed there for a while and decided to go back to my room since it was getting to be noon. On the way back I purchased some souvenirs from a shop. I packed up my entire stuff, said goodbye to Sonam and started walking towards the junction. On the way I saw an old man coming from the opposite side. I wasn’t looking at him but as soon as he reached beside me he asked where I was going to. When I told him I wanted to go to Kaza, he pointed to the bus stop. He advised me to get some rest at the tea shop which I had seen the previous day because the bus would come only after 1 p.m. probably. This was what I loved about the people here……. everyone you met on the way is really friendly and helpful even though you weren’t asking for it. I went and sat there on the chair outside the tea shop from where I could see the bus from the distance even as it came through Nako village. The minutes passed by and there was no sign of the bus. I had rice and curry from the shop while waiting. As I was standing there I saw a bearded guy with beanies walking towards the junction carrying travel bags. That guy reminded me of the hero from the movie ‘In to the wild’. He asked me what time the bus was and I said I had no idea as I had also been waiting for the bus. He asked me to come to the junction so we could chat till the bus came. I picked up my luggage and followed him. That’s how I met Nikhil.
Nikhil who was from Mumbai was working with an advertising firm, later quit his job and had been travelling around in Himachal Pradesh for a month with his friend. But from Peo he split up with his friend and came to Spiti alone. Actually he had a really funny story- he was staying in Sichiling (27 km before Kaza) with a few foreigners he had met during those days. But the snowfall which occurred that morning was quite heavy in those areas and they decided to come down as fast as possible because in those areas the road might get closed if the snowfall continued. But while coming back, he saw the weather getting clearer and so decided go back to Kaza because after coming all the way and still miss the Key monastery would be a pity, so he got down at Nako. As we were talking, an Italian couple (Marco & Sabrina) came to the bus stop. Actually I had seen them that morning; they were also staying in my hotel. Soon our conversation moved along various topics from Indian culture to Mao se Tung to Italian weather! We didn’t realize the time was already past 2.30. Finally we saw the much awaited Kaza bus coming through the Nako village. I wondered whether Vasu and his friends were in the bus, even if they were, there was a chance they would get down at Nako village (later I learned they weren’t in the bus).We kept our luggage on top and went inside the bus. It was jam packed; Nikhil and I had to stand beside the door. The condition of the road was getting worse as we travelled further but Nikhil said it was actually better compared to what we would have to face shortly. There were a number of migrant workers in the bus coming from the Northern States of India----Uttar Pradesh and Bihar mostly and some foreign and native travellers. Nikhil said it was really difficult to get a seat from Peo in the Kaza bus unless you came to the booking counter early in the morning. The decision to take the Nako bus instead of Kaza bus on the other day turned out to be a great decision even though it wasn’t planned.
After an hour of journey we reached a place called ‘Sumdo’ where there was an army check post. The foreigners had to submit their in line permit which they got from Peo to travel beyond that place. We resumed our journey and later stopped at ‘Hangring’ for tea break. This time I ordered mutton Tupka as per Nikhil’s suggestion and it tasted much better than the last time. There in those mountain areas mutton seemed more popular than chicken mainly due to its availability I guess. The journey continued- the constant twists and turns made standing beside the door really uncomfortable but it gave us an amazing sight that I would never forget. On the opposite mountain there was a man leading a group of sheep through the steep cliffs. The sheep were all either black or white in color so from the distance they all looked like a moving chessboard! It was one of the most spectacular scenes I had ever seen in my life, too bad I couldn’t take a picture of it. The bus reached Tabo after 6 p.m.. Marco and Sabrina along with many foreigners got down at the bus station. Since Nikhil had already stayed in Tabo a few days earlier, he knew all the places there to see and so he advised them on their Tabo itinerary. Finally we managed to find a seat in the bus. Apart from the few migrant workers and natives and us, there was a Gujarati family also in the bus. It was so refreshing to see an Indian family with small kids coming to these unexplored areas rather than going to some usual places like Shimla or Manali.
In to the wild - Heading towards Kaza from Tabo
I felt really enthusiastic on seeing the sight in front of me as I put my head out through the window. The road was leading straight towards the big mountain which was partially covered with white clouds. The cool breeze coming from the mountains just wafted through my hair. I started listening to music. The light began to fade away after 7 p. m., the clouds were gathering in the sky probably for a snowfall and I wasn’t wrong. We saw tiny pieces of snow falling down through the headlight of the bus. The members of the Gujarati family I talked about earlier were getting really excited seeing this, probably first time in their life they were seeing a snowfall. Nikhil and I weren’t really excited, he just had been through one that morning and I had seen plenty of it last time in Gangotri, but still it was beautiful. Finally after 9 p.m. we reached Kaza. We climbed to the top of the bus to get our luggage and it took a while to unstrap all of it. So by the time we got down, everybody in the bus had left the bus station. Snowfall was getting heavier, so we started walking from the bus station to find a hotel to stay. There was no electricity just like the previous day and all the shops were closed. Nikhil said it felt like we were walking through some deserted town that we saw in the video games and I couldn’t agree more! Soon my hands started to shiver because of the cold. I saw the light of a tiny candle coming from a small shop on the left side. I went close to look; yes it was a liquor shop! I pointed out to Nikhil, he stared at me and said “Yah let’s have some booze”. Getting liquor became our priority rather than finding a place to stay the night in that cold weather! We bought liquor and went in search of a room. Finally we found an open restaurant, and asked for a room. The waiter arranged a room in a hotel just opposite the restaurant for Rs 400. After dinner we went to the room, shared the drink and chatted for a long time until I fell asleep.
Day 5
Getting up past 8 a.m. the next day, we wandered through the streets of Kaza after breakfast. There was one SBI ATM in Kaza, so the information that I got earlier about the last ATM being in Peo turned out to be wrong. I bought a few more souvenirs from a small fancy shop. While coming back from the shop I saw Nikhil talking to a guy. He introduced him as Nithin - the biker. Nithin was travelling alone in a motorcycle and these guys had actually spent some time together a few days earlier. Nithin introduced to us his lady friend he had met the previous day and it was none other than the Hindi speaking lady I had seen at Nako hotel. Small world!!!!. He introduced her as Kim, the cyclist. She had come all the way from Chandigarh in her bicycle! Soon we left them. Our plan for the day was to go to Key monastery which was 12 km from there. We enquired about the bus availability to Key but learnt that there was only one bus and that too only in the evening, so we decided to get a taxi to get to Key. From the taxi stand near the bus station we managed to get a taxi for Rs 800 which would get us to Kibber village (a small village which is hardly 5 kms from Key) and then to the Key monastery.
The sceneries you find on either side of the road to Key were absolutely mind blowing. The Spiti flowed through the wide stretch of areas between the mountains on the clear sunny day. There was a small village (Rangrik) on the banks of the river on the opposite side. On the way to Kibber we stopped at Key village to take a look at the Key Monastery and later we resumed our journey. By 11 a.m. we reached Kibber village. We told the driver that we would come back by 12.30 and went out to roam through the village. Kibber is one of the highest villages in the world with an altitude of over 4000 meters. At the Government High School a few students were sitting outside to study. I guess sunlight there was a luxury, that’s why probably they were sitting outside even though there were class rooms. We saw the neighboring village called Chitkul when we reached the top, which was on the other side of the village. But walking till there would take hours, so we didn’t even consider going there. One farmer was taking his yak to the paddy fields but by the time we got to him, he would have covered a lot of distance. A local man standing there said couple of years ago they saw a snow leopard in the village!
On top of the world - Kibber village
Kibber felt like a pitch inside a giant stadium, surrounded by snow capped mountains instead of the gallery. I was totally unaware of this place but was so glad that I could I visit there. There was a Monastery in the village but it was closed at that time. The locals said the Lama could come at any time and we should wait if we wished to see him. While waiting for the Lama, our attention shifted to a very pleasant sight. We saw lots of small kids sitting on the ground to study in a pre-school. What were the chances that it could be the world’s highest pre-school, I wondered. No matter where you were and in what condition you live, education is a birthright for you, isn’t it? We went near them and took some pictures. They were all looking at us possibly wondering what was so special about the whole thing! Surely they were the cutest kids that I had ever seen; their cheeks were pink as if they had applied some make-up! Apart from their teacher there was one more person to help them with their studies and it was none other than our driver! Guess he worked as a part time teacher also. When we came back the Lama had arrived at the monastery and we went inside. Apart from a prayer wh
