Kinnaur & Spiti Valley

Kinnaur &  Spiti Valley  

Itinerary Followed: 

Day1: Delhi - Sarahan (12-13Hrs) 
Day2: Sarahan - Sangla
Day3: Sangla - chhitkul & Rakcham(4 Hrs) - Kalpa (3 Hrs) 
Day4: Kalpa- Tabo (10-11Hrs) 
Day5: Tabo - Kaza (2-3 Hrs) 
Day6: Kaza -Lasar- Kunzum (3-4 Hrs) - Kaza
Day7: Kaza - Kalpa (12 Hrs)
Day8: Kalpa - Chail (10-11 Hrs) 
Day9: Chail- Delhi (7-8 HRs)

Now when Ladakh has become such a popular travel destination, I had to look for another Offbeat location in Himalayas which can be a gateway to another world with exceptional views, different culture, adventurous road travel, untouched / unspoiled beauty and not much commercialization, the obvious choice was Kinnaur and Spiti Valley. I had been longing for this trip for last 4 years now (soon after I returned from Ladakh :-) :-) ) and finally Rahul (my husband) agreed to accompany me on the trip.

So there started the ‘Marathon’ Planning phase with lots of secondary research for the places to be visited and the routes to be followed. First thing I did was to freeze the itinerary depending on the road conditions, landslides occurred recently, opening and closing of passes and many other things, also to have atleast one Plan B if KunzumLa doesn’t open on our travel time, keep 1-2 days extra in our original itinerary to accommodate the longer return path.

As our tenure had two weekends so hotel booking on those dates was bit of a concern, as on those days we were at very famous tourist destinations, so getting the rooms at run time might be a difficult task. Read lots of hotel reviews as I wanted to stay in good hotels, few places in our itinerary were really remote so getting much option/reviews online was really difficult, but somehow we got the best rooms we could have managed.

We were all set for our journey and on Friday evening (6^th June) we started our trip to Spiti Valley with a plan to travel though the most treacherous road in the world.

Friday night we stayed at Kumar Hatti, and considering it is a hilly area, the weather was pleasant during the night. But I couldn’t sleep properly because of the excitement of the upcoming trip.

Day1: Sarahan: We entered the Land of Gods

Itinerary Followed: 

Day1: Delhi - Sarahan (12-13Hrs) 

Day2: Sarahan - Sangla
Day3: Sangla - chhitkul & Rakcham(4 Hrs) - Kalpa (3 Hrs) 
Day4: Kalpa- Tabo (10-11Hrs) 
Day5: Tabo - Kaza (2-3 Hrs) 
Day6: Kaza -Lasar- Kunzum (3-4 Hrs) - Kaza
Day7: Kaza - Kalpa (12 Hrs)
Day8: Kalpa - Chail (10-11 Hrs) 
Day9: Chail- Delhi (7-8 HRs)

Day1: Next day we were all set to start (9am) our real journey to the Spiti valley via Sarahan-sangla-kalpa. I wasn’t feeling good may be because of paucity of sleep, so most of the route I was sleeping in the Car.  

Route to Sarahan

We reached Sarahan at 5 in the evening. The first view of the village is very calm and peaceful. The small city/village is en-circled with snow covered mountain range peeping through every corner of the city and right in the center there is “Bhimakali Temple” which is also a “Shakti peeth”.

View from our room

In the evening we went to the temple for Arti. There is a “dharamshala” in the corridor of the temple where stay arrangements can be made. And a basic canteen is also available in the temple corridor. After crossing that area we entered the main temple building, we had to leave mobiles, watches, wallets, belts and all leather things/equipment outside the temple. The main building has a small but beautiful entrance. It is a padoga style temple having delicate wood carvings on each corner possible. There is a small staircase which takes you to the main temple. The idol of Devi is on the 3^rd floor of the building. Walking through the narrow pathway we reached the place.



Main Temple

Rahul in front of Shiva temple

The aarti was at 8.00PM, so we spent sometime in the open area in front of the temple & went back again and believe me the way people do arti here is an experience in itself. It starts with the chants of the priest and ends with the joyful sounds of various musical instruments.

View from the Temple Complex

After aarti we took a walk through the small village, purchased few medicines for our journey ahead and went to sleep in our hotel room with a thought that we should have planned for an extra day for Sarahan, being unaware of the fact what lies beyond.

We stayed at a Green Valley Hotel contact no. 98166-86789, 98161-85518, 94180-92894. HPTDC hotel is also there at a very good location but unfortunately it was full on the day we needed. Also stay arrangements are available at the temple.

Day 7, 8 & 9: Khardungla & Nubra Valley

Day 1: Delhi – Manali (Volvo)

Day 2:  Manali– Jispa (Car)

Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)

Day 4: Local Sight Seeing (Car)

Day 5: Leh– Pangong (Car)

Day 6: Pangong – Leh (Car)

Day 7:  Leh – Nubra Valley (Car) +Day 8 & 9: Nubra Valley– Leh (Car) + Leh – Delhi (via flight)

Day 7: We were very excited for Khardungla and Nubra Valley. But we were little late to start, we started at around 10-10.30 AM. We found a traffic Jam a few Kms before Khardungla. It got cleared in the sometime and we reached the highest motor able Pass in the World “Khardungla”.  It is at the altitude of 18380ft. 



View from Khardungla

The low oxygen of the atmosphere can be felt easily here, it is suggested to walk slowly and not to exert yourself.  We had a hot cinnamon tea to cope up with the chilly wind.

Cinamon Tea with our aviators

We were on the move for our next destination, we reached north pullu where we had to submit our inner line permit to go further. Once you cross khalsar there is a road diversion which takes you to Diskit. And indeed we made a very good decision. As soon you start ascending for Diskit the scenery changes from arid desert to small patches of greenery. The famous vistas of Nubra valley can be experienced here.

On our way to Nubra Valley

 

 We had to divert from our path to visit the monastery, we told Dorji to skip it because of our tiredness and laziness. But he insisted to visit it and we decided to go for it. There is a Diskit Monastery, which is at the top most position of the Hill. It feels like you are on top of the world and surrounded by green farmer’s valley with Desert like mountains at its backdrop. To add to it there were children dressed up in traditional tibetiyan style. After talking to them we got to know that Sonu Nigam’s shoot was going on their.

View from the Temple

  

Little girl all ready for the shoot

 We descended back from The Monastery and reached Hunder. Amidst of the farming fields and orchids  fields there lies the sand dunes. Everything you can expect from a landscape. Hunder is famous for its sand dunes and two humped camels. A small cannel was flowing by the dunes and there were huge barren mountains behind it.


First Glimpse of the Sand Dunes

Two Humped Camels

Sand Dunes having Golden Mountains at its Back Drop

Mesmerised..

 We enjoyed the ride at the back of two humped camels and then played with water at the canal. After being total exhausted we headed back to our hotel. Our plan here was to stay in the tents in middle of the sand dunes, but we could get an place there. So we headed to a hotel in Diskit, and I must tell I wasn’t at all disappointed with it. The room was so beautiful and had an equally beautiful Lawn. And after a small break we all got settled in the lawn.

After Spending few minutes there we saw a lot of hustle bustle at the parking till the entrance which is rare sight in this region. And there its Sonu Nigam walking with his crew to reside in the room across ours. I was so happy to find that. Soon after dinner, there was no electricity in the region, And that’s when we noticed the moon and stars were at full glow. One should must experience the sky in night at nubra, full of stars like the milky way.

Night @ Nubra

It was the perfect end to our day listening to sonu nigam humming his own songs in such weather and surroundings. One cannot ask for more.

Day 8: Today was the last day of our trip, we were all said with the very fact that tomorrow we have to leave this majestic land and go back to the respective cities and with our routine life.

Another sight of Khardungla

On that note we started our journey back to Leh. We reached Leh at the lunch time. We had lunch in one of the restaurants in the market and explored market bought few souvenirs and went back to our hotel. After a lot of Gup-shup in our room we were off to bed. We Had to catch an early morning flight back to Delhi.

Day 9: We all woke up at around 5 in the morning, and boarded our cab for airport at around 6 AM, and left for the airport to catch our flight back to our diverse destinations. But we had one feeling in common, that we didn’t have enough of ladakh and need to come back for more… And after having so many trips to Himalayas, my belief has been much stronger that you need spend a lifetime to have enough of these mighty Himalayas.

Day 5 & 6: Leh to Pangong and back...

Itinerary:

Day 1: Delhi – Manali (Volvo)
Day 2:  Manali– Jispa (Car)
Day 3: Jispa– Leh (Car)
Day 4: Local Sight Seeing (Car)

Day 5: Leh– Pangong (Car) + Day 6: Pangong – Leh (Car)

Day 7:  Leh – Nubra Valley (Car)
Day 8 & 9: Nubra Valley– Leh (Car) + Leh – Delhi (via flight)

First Glimpse of  TsoPangong 

Day 5: This way the day to feel the much talked about, TSO PANGONG. The route to Pangong was as exciting as the lake itself. By now we got acclimatize with the high altitudes and also we were sipping garlic water every now and then to prevent any kind of altitude sickness. So we happily crossed the zig-zag roads of the brown mountains and hopped from one to another mountain..

Zig-zag Roads to Chagla

On the way to Pangong

We crossed the 3^rd Highest Motor able Pass in the World -  The mighty ChangLa at the altitude of 17800 Ft. Lot of vehicles were parked there, we found few army men also. From Changla one route goes towards the Siachen glaciers, hence lot of defence people were around that area. Never the less the views were awesome!!

Aakash with Army Man @ Changla

 As we started the descending the tarmac and the scenery, started getting greener and better. We halted near a meadow just capture the serenity is our heart forever, and experience the un-interrupted views of nature.
Few miles away there was a herd of yaks roaming around the field, so we stopped again to capture these magnificent creatures.

Few miles ahead of Changla

Pet Yaks: this white one was really short tempered ..

After around 6 Hours there is the first glimpse of the serene lake. It just looks as if you are part of painting. It looks like very fine strokes of a painter on the huge canvas of nature.
As you approach the lake, you the get to realise the magnificence of the lake by the time you reach its shore. Turquoise blue water having huge mountains at its backdrop makes it tranquil. The lake is approximately 130 KM long. And goes all the way to China, in fact 2/3^rd lake is in China. If you move further along the lake after around 10 kms we reached our camp. Spent the evening by the lake side.  

We timed our visit to Tso pangong so that full moon night can be experienced, but our despair, entire night it was raining like cats and dogs. So much so that at once I felt that my tent will flown away with the blowing wind. Though our tents were very good, best tents I had ever stayed in.
The tents were cosy and warm and had attached toilet what more can you expect in the lap of serene nature and the Food was also above expectation. We were inside the tents soon as the weather was chilling.

Day 6: After few hours of thunderstorm there was a quite morning. The blue water of the pangong was bluer than ever. It was a bright sunny day with a clear blue sky giving its perfect reflection blue in the still waters of the Pangong Lake. We spent few hours just to admire the serenity of the Landscape. After spending few hours there we started our journey back to Leh.

Pangong in the morning

At the opposite side of the lake

Enroute to Changla we stopped on the roads for clicking photographs with the walls of snow and there the snowfall started.. It was the very first experience of snowfall for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After travelling kms, we again halted at Changla and played with fresh snow.

Lalit leaning against the snow

As usual we were accompanied by some awesome captions by the road side.

We reached Leh by the afternoon and had explored leh in the evening. We went to the Potala Palace and War memorial.


Enterance of the Palace

The Palace

View from the Palace

 The War memorial is full of the stories, pictures, maps and other artifacts of the Kargil War, War at Siachen Glacires and others.. And it brings out the patriotism hidden inside you and being an Indian one can easily be overwehlmed with the feeling of pride and honor just by reading the proceedings/ history of the wars and you feel like saluting to the matyrs, who devoted their lives for our Mother Land.

Proud Moment .. infront of the War Memorial

Rest of the journey will be published soon.. :)