Himachal's own shangri-la

This time again we continued our last years tradition of giving holi(indian festival) a golee (slang for slip in hindi) and decided to head for the kinnaur and spiti districts of himachal pradhesh.

The take off point for the trip was ISBT Delhi. My partners this time were Sumita and Sunny. Sumita took a flight from chennai and Sunny from banglore. Also this was not our first trip together. Our earlier common trips had been lansdowne and triund.

21 March:

We got the bus tickets till recong peo for Rs 460 each. The Journey is a rather uncomfortable one as it takes 21 hours to reach and moreover only government buses ply that far so you can imagine the quality. I have very fond memories of this journey as this is not my first time and i invariably end up like a conehead at the end of it. All thanks to non reclining seats, i sleep with the forehead resting on front metallic bar of the seat and i guess that explains the conehead part.

22 March:
We were still travelling. I find the journey boring initially till shimla. Only once the road descends on to satluj bed, the drive becomes exciting. For most part of the year , satluj remains dirty except for in winters when its is green. There is a change in terrain once you cross wangtu. It becomes noticeably rocky

After a long tiring journey we reached the district HQ's of kinnaur- Recong peo. There we checked at a hotel next to the bus stop. The rooms were decent except for the smell. I guess they had not opened in a long time since the season had still not started.They charged us Rs 300 for a night. We settled in our rooms and freshened up. Me and sunny decided to take a short stroll while sumi was cozying up in the bed. Since much part of Holi was over that day and already the sun was preparing for some rest, the whole town bore an eerie look. The view of kinner kailash ranges was not the best around that time since light was very low

We did see a lot of children activity. There were these group of sherpa kids who were giggling and laughing a lot.

We took a private taxi for kalpa which commands a grand view of kinner kailash. But we were in for disappointment as it was dark by the time we made it.The taxi cab took us for a ride in both sense as at the end of it he asked for a princely amount. We had no option as we forgot to settle the price prior to starting.
After the short trip we got back to our rooms had dinner and were back in bed.

23 March:
We got our tickets for Kaza from the bus stop for 200 Rs. Kaza is the district HQ's of spiti. The journey is again a long one involving about 10 hours and a drastic change in topography. Initially the terrain is very rocky . There are stretches where the mountains on the either side of satluj bed close in as if trying a death grip on you. It can get very claustrophobic.

Any foreigners traveling to spiti will have their permits checked at jangi post. They need to arrange the permits from recong peo.

For breakfast we stopped at spello, some distance ahead of the jangi post. We had delicious alloo ka paranthas. As we were moving ahead there was a nice contrast in the scenery with hues of pink, brown, blue and white.

The local childrens were very cute.

As you enter upper kinnaur the mountains become more stark and barren. Also you can see some impressive bridges like this one at dubling


At Khab the road bifurcates for spiti and shipki-la. The river spiti (blue) and satluj(brown) meet at khab.

As you keep driving up the valley floor keeps getting higher. The average altitude is higher than 10,000 feet ahead of khab with road climbing to as high as 12000 feet at malling. It is a notorious area known for frequent slides. The entire are is strewn with boulders . Kinnaur as such doesnt have any passes on the main highway that remain closed during winters. Malling is the only stretch that might remain closed during any part of the year. During winters it might be snow while during summers it may landlslides.
After crossing khab you reach the small hamlet of nako. The views of himalayas are impressive from here.

Nako at 3625m is one of the highest villages in kinnaur . There's a small landlocked lake which gets frozen during winters. Of lakes of similar variety, the one at dhankar is more spectacular. One needs to trek to reach there. I've heard there are huge fish in it. In fact in Nako lake also you can see gold fish.


Kalchakra was once held at nako . There's a beautiful complex that had been constructed to facilitate the same.

After you leave Nako the roads continue to wind and remain at a great height . if you suffer from vertigo then maybe its not the best place to be at. A peek down the valley can leave you dizzy.





Also the terrain starts to become more and more barren. One doesnt get to see any trees around.



We kept going on the unending journey and finally reached kaza at 5 PM. Kaza looked straight out of some deserted ghost town as the entire place was shut down. No shops were open and much to our horror no hotels were functional. We had arrived at the wrong season. Due to the excessive cold all pipes were still frozen , thats why no hotels were functional. We kept checking up until one co-passenger from spiti helped us out by taking us to this government lodge. I spoke to the officer in charge and he agreed. The rooms were very comfortable, only problem like i said earlier was water. The attendant Vijay was a very sweet guy and made sure hot water was available.

Those of you who are ready to brave all this, then only step in else the trip can be a nightmare. Fortunately all of us were so high on himalayas that these small worldly problems seemed insignificant. Oh yes another word of advice: Unless you wanna go in for the dusky look don't forget to carry a sunscreen with highest possible SPF. Beware if you dont you will end up like peeled potatoes and once you are back to your respective cities don't forget to get the vital supply of lost vitamin D

24 March: Day 1 at kaza

We decided to stay at Kaza for a good two days and decided to explore as much as possible.Todays plan was a visit to dhankar gompa and the worlds highest village comic.

We proudly present our very sweet and infinitely patient driver. Oops i forgot his name :(


Dhankar Gompa is pretty much ancient. It is said to have been constructed around 9th century and belongs to the Gelugpa sect ( yellow hats). It is perched precariously on mud cliffs . As per one poster which i saw there, its condition has been deteriorating and a lot needs to be done to preserve it.



Dhankar commands spectacular view of the valley below. One can see the confluence of pin and spiti river, also the valley leading to pin is visible. The pin parvati trek ends here only. There's another gompa on the road leading to pin valley. Its called kungri gompa. Since it was little off route we didn't have it on our itinerary.

Inside the Dhankar gompa there are a lot of ancient thangkas and statues . Unfortunately we are not allowed to photograph them. They say the flash from camera can cause damage to the old paintings. Also in the past some people were taking advantage by selling the pictures .

I made two friends with the lamas. One of them was Lama lobsang tantar whom you can see below. quite a funky dude aint he :) of course he is traditional as well. We had a great time chatting up with them. Even learnt a tibetian mantra.

Guys , in case you planning a visit to dhankar i would greatly appreciate if you could check up whether they recieved the cd and pictures from me. Its a small place and i'm sure it wouldn't be much of a hassle. Just in case you do my mail id is arunnegi82@gmail.com.



It was time to head for the second leg of our journey i.e. we were heading for the worlds highest village at comic.

Sumi was very much interested to spend some time by the river so we stopped enroute. The water was freakingly freezingly cooooold. I still cant figure how sumi and sunny were staying in that frigid water. I came out fast. They were having a good time it seems

Even donkey were having a gala time

After the short break we carried on for comic. After crossing Kaza the climb started and soon we were getting on same level as the mountains. The scenery was breathtaking.



There's a vast flat area on top . You can get an idea from the google earth pic below. Also the prominent mountain below is Shilla. There is a pic as well as you go down below. All the places that i've marked are relatively spaced and are not geographically accurate but to a certain extent good enough.




Kibber wildlife sanctuary is located on the flat top that you see above. We did see blue sheeps or bharal as they are known.

A very prominent feature is the shilla peak that overlooks langcha village. Mountain expeditions keep scaling it until recently when a ban was imposed owing to environmental issues. Interestingly the villagers had imposed this.

Langcha village below the shilla peak. If you notice there's a big statue of lord Buddha as well.

Finally we arrived at comic village. Around the time we arrived the young lamas got some time off for themselves. They were very playful and we had a great time with them. The timing was just perfect.
Cricket was the game of choice . Probably they were playing at the worlds highest location since comic is as it is the highest village.

They even played with their pet donkey. I must admit he was actually quite adorable. I even have a video which i'll upload on youtube

Cubism is the word that comes into your mind when you see the houses in spiti. Unlike in kinnaur these houses are made of mud. minimal wood is used since it is scarce here. I heard from one of my relatives that nothing goes wasted here.Even animal dung is collected at real time to be used for fire. Life surely is tough out here. All the more makes me appreciate whatever i have.


young Lama trying the elvis poseWe took some pictures of ourselves enjoying some quiet moments

Sunny was busy with sumi' shoot and i was busy with sunny's shoot.


There was a monastry at comic as well. I'm afraid the light was too low for me to click and moreover i wasnt carrying a tripod for a long exposure so had to do with outside paintings.

The highlight of the monastry was the snow leopards pelt. I couldnt believe that i was actually seeing an entire stuffed snow leopard. Since i read peter Matthiessen snow leopard, i've always been mesmerized by this elusive creature. I've heard a lot of stories from my relatives as to how they stalk livestock and dogs during winters. In fact my paternal aunt from thungi ( kinnaur) has lost two of her dogs in the past. Well I dream that one day i'll be able to spot one in the wild.
I guess everyone's aware as to how much endangered the snow leopard is. People like George B Schaller and peter Matthaliessen have campaigned for its survival. Poachers kill snow leopard for its pelt which can fetch a very high amount in he international market. Villagers often inadvertently kill the snow leopard when it strays in their domain for the fear of the safety of their livestock but now awareness is high among them plus the laws are more strict.

As far as my knowledge is concerned they are found in pakistan,india,nepal and central asian countries.

25 March: Day 2 at Kaza
Todays plan was to visit Losar and Ki Gompa. As we moved towards Losar the amount of snow kept on increasing considerably.
Beauty wise no doubt the area has no parallels but when it comes to living here its a struggle. At least i take so many things for granted like water supply, food on time etc. The problems associated with the lack of all this became more evident when you have to live in same conditions. It was indeed tough to have water heated for smallest of things and that too when someone else was doing it for you. Just think of it all water sources are frozen. What do you do? I know i've seen how people often make fun of mountain folks saying they dont take bath etc. If those guys have to brave these conditions they wont be any different.

Tourist activity was almost nil. The only other people i saw were these 2 bikers at dhankar having karnataka's registration. While returning we met 2 guys who seem to have succumbed to the cold weather. Local taxis were plying ferrying people from one village to other.

Enroute there was a big statue of Lord buddha overlooking one of the villages.

Sunny spotted a fox while we were driving towards Comic yesterday and as luck would have it we managed to see another one. This was our second sighting of the beautiful animal. I guess they avoid human contact as the moment he saw us he sped away galloping in his own cute way far away. Then he stopped , glanced back momentarily . By then he had assumed a safe distance from us humans . He kept staring at his version of wild creatures.

After a certain distance road was the only part not under snow. Imagine this was the snow cover in March. i wonder how the things would have been in January.

Soon we reached Losar only to find the roads were blocked. I was hoping that we'll be able to make it till Kunzum-la which was 22 km's from Losar.

This was probably the same bulldozer that had been clearing the road right from Kaza.

Losar , like Kaza was a sleepy town around this time of the year. We hardly saw much activity. One elderly person invited us for tea at his place.

He had a nice cosy kitchen. pretty much the same like we have in kinnaur.

We had some fun time in the snow. sumi really freaked out and two days later because of my and sunny's facial sunburn we also freaked out.

Rolling in snow is much faster than walking. Sumi was picking up things fast :)

Sumi being stalked by yeti

Me and sunny climbed till some vantage point and the view from there was awesome


The sun was setting down and so we decided to head back as we had to go to Ki gompa . Within few hours we reached Ki gompa.


All of us were cold since we had been freaking out on snow. Lama's tea was a nice welcome change. His name is Lama Chering.


26 March: Drive till Chitkul, Kaza goodbye.

We started off early in morning from Kaza for our next destination i.e. Chitkul. We were sharing the taxi with few more people and had to pay three grands.

The journey was smooth except for some stretches in between where road clearing was going on.

Here in the pic below you can see the typical labour responsible for maintaining and building the himalayan roads. They have to brave severe weather conditions and often many lives are lost and go unacknowledged. Except for some few obscure highway monument , mountains are the only ones who bear testimony to their indefatigable spirit.

For the ardent himalayan traveler road side signs like project himank, deepak,beacon surely rings a bell.

By evening we had started climbing up for sangla valley, i had an inkling the weather was getting bad. My fears were confirmed when we neared rakcham. It started snowing. I was excited as i had not seen fresh snowfall in a looong time. The last when i saw snow fall was way back in 93 in arunachal.

By the time we reached it had stopped snowing. We stayed at Raj guest house, the same person i stayed with in 2003. That time i had come with my college friends Devrishi and ashish. God Bless Dev , he is no longer with us.

Raj had made some modifications to his room. Now he has one room with an attached toilet. His room rates are also very nominal. If you are visiting chitkul i would recommend this place.We stayed there for the night and next morning we had some time so decided to explore the area.

27 March: Chitkul and Sangla

Raj's guest house

One of Raj's friends came over early. He had a very typical kinnauri face


We decided to walk till baspa's bed through the village. The most prominent mountain feature that is visible from chitkul is Tha-la. Actually i still dont know the proper name, its called Tha-la by the locals.

In kinnaur all villages have a temple complex where they keep the devta. For any big decisions or village problems they take the help of devta. This was the entrance of the temple at chitkul.

The old lady was basking in sunshine
The forest on the right bank of Baspa

Soon all of us were busy doing our stuff.

We tried some river crossing. Sunny managed to pull himself to the other side

Mine was fraud

Sunny appreciating the view

Sumi in a pensive mood
We took the afternoon bus for Sangla. Found a reasonable guest house for our stay.
We decided to take a walk along the road leading to chitkul. It was a nice pleasant evening and we just took off at our own lazy pace clicking here and there.
A chance meeting with a school boy and our short walk became even more interesting. Deepu was walking back from school and was probably in his usual naughty mood. While sumi was clicking he was playfully trying to block her frame :)

He also joined us for our walk and soon started telling us about the area.
donkeys can be photogenic at times. strange my pics never come out nice :P
Deepu told us an interesting thing about this white thing you see in the centre of the pic. It is said to be a conch which blows automatically, an harbinger of oncoming disaster. It is rumoured when last time the flashfloods came it did sound. Some person who tried stealing it fell to his death.

In case you wanna spot this feature, it is right above a bridge. By the side of the bridge you have this wooden vulture. It seems to be a guardian against evil.

We continued to walk, walk and walk.
Sunny enjoying some moments with Deepu

Sunny clicks on
sumi looking pretty in sepia mode
soon it was dark and time to take a u-turn. As it started getting darker it was getting spookier

28 March: Sangla

Today was our last day in kinnaur . Sigh all good things have to come to an abrupt end !Anyways we still had a good few hours so we decided to walk till the river bed through the village. so we took a path cutting right through the village.

Around this time a lot of trees were in bloom. Specially apricot and almonds.

The cute kid was enjoying her quiet moments until i disturbed her. She gave me that look which yelled " what the hell"
In kinnaur its very common to see young kids piggybacking on mom's

even on grandpa's
Boddhisatva paintings on roof of some structure

As we were passing through the village, we realised there was a ceremony going on where the devta's ( local diety) were being taken out. Sunny managed this shot. Once inside we were not allowed to click. I must say this was the most beautiful temple complex i've seen in kinnaur

We crossed a bridge to get to the other side

From the river bed, the view of entire sangla was breathtaking.



Villagers were busy carrying woods for daily needs

We had a nice picnic. we had got local bread packed along with jam and butter. Dont worry we disposed of the plastics properly :)

looks tasty doesnt it
Guess it sure was...we had some uninvited guests but thats okay...happens always. doesn't it?Food makes us happy


Well another memorable trip comes to and end!!
For any queries you may contact me at arunnegi82@gmail.com
also see sunny's pics:

http://www.worldisround.com/articles/345235/index.html


My Flickr link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/arunnegi/

this is the best book available on kinnaur and spiti. You could get it from bookwork at CP