Munsiyari.. with an icing of Binsar!!

Generally managers (especially in India) believe that one should not get any holidays apart from Saturday/Sunday/Statutory Holidays (those too, only when you don’t have work)! In such circumstances asking a leave without some medical/legal emergency, without some relatives wedding is like a Non-Bailable Crime and I have been guilty of it not only once but many a times!  And yes, I shall continue to do the same in future also, as I can’t live without travelling to unknown routes, meeting people from different culture, breathing the clean and fresh air of some distant mountains, dipping feet in the cold stream of water.. and the list continues..

As I had recently switched job and took quite a few leaves when I got married (one year back) I started to think about the options I had for taking the leave.  After much of brainstorming I decided to try to convince my boss for the actual reason i.e. travelling. Believe me it was much easier, as I didn’t have to think of a lie for every counter question he asked. That was an unexpectedly pleasant start to my trip planning activities..

Early Morning View at Munsiyari

This time it was Munsiyari, the trekkers paradise and we were not going there for trekking! After the June Floods in UttaraKhand, I had to alter my plan a little, had to drop Dharchula from my itinerary as the road was completely washed-off especially near Jauljibi, so I included Binsar in our trip and struck Dharchula off with a heavy heart, not that I regret it now, as Binsar offered some equally awesome memoirs to remember.

We started from Delhi on Friday night, took a train to Kathgodam, from there on we had pre-booked a taxi. Morning 5.30 AM when the Sun was still asleep under the blanket of dark clouds, we started our road travel.

Total 12 hrs road journey through the broken roads, water crossings, few distant recent landslide areas, unmatched mountain views and awesome monsoon weather of hills, a normal drive through the clouds. We reached Munsiyari at evening 5 PM. If I have to describe the village in one line than: A small and pretty tribal village with a daunting view of Snow covered Pachachuli Peak from almost every nook and corner of the village. You are likely to find a lot of trekking groups as lot of small & long, easy & difficult treks start from here.

The distant landslide enroute munsiyari

Road through clouds

Next day morning I woke up early in the morning, to my luck it was a clear morning with awesome view of the Snow Cladded Mountains. As the day progressed the clouds come up and cover the higher peak. The only things to do in munsiyari either go for a trek or just laze around and embrace the stillness, calmness, and listen our own heart beating against the cool breeze. For a change I did the later..

View from our room

Nandadevi temple is located right in the middle of lush green high mountain peaks and offers some awesomeeeeeee paranomic views of snow covered peaks, The small walk till the temple is through the tall green pine trees. I thought of spending some time at one of the benches but the house flies were guarding the place like anything!

View from Nandadevi Temple.. though covered under clouds but thats a small price you have to pay enjoy weather that awesome

Rainbow on some unknown road @ Munsiyari 

Spent the evening walking around the village, sitting on the edge of some unknown road, watching the sun-set behind those huge Blue Mountains having small patches amber-pink clouds. That pristine sight was captured in my heart for ever and ever!!  To have an un-interrupted encounter with nature, I didn’t carry my camera that evening, to avoid any urge to click the photograph.

Next day we started early morning for Binsar accompanied by some heavenly view and landscapes. We halted at Kali mandir which is supposed to offer some awesome views but by the time we reached there, the entire atmosphere was full of clouds, though there is no comparison of such hilly monsoon weather but we were devoid of some spectacular views. We were walked amidst of clouds, removed our slippers and entered into the old open corridor of temple of Goddess Kali..

Suddenly, our driver stopped the car and pointed towards a distant falls and told that is Birthi Falls, from road it seemed a little far, so we decided that we will walk to have a somewhat closer look and come back.. As I started walking, my feet started itching to reach the falls.

There was not a single soul near the falls or enroute to falls. As we reached near the magnificent and loud falls. The Cool breeze of air, the water mist, the grey cloudy sky gave a feeling of rain though it wasn’t. It was totally worth to climb through that steep and very slippery route, just to experience that surreal environment. 

First Sight of Birthi Falls; I couldn't do any justice while capturing the magnificence but still.. 

It’s not that I haven’t seen huge and magnificent water falls, but there was something different about this one. Maybe it was the (rainy) weather, serenity, calmness & stillness, solitude or it was my state of mind, but it looked Divine!!

The broken road to Heaven

While driving to Binsar, we were accompanied by the Ganges for a long time, also the ‘Sangam’ (confluence) at Bhageshwar can be easily seen while crossing the city. By the time we reached Binsar the Wildlife Sanctuary was closed so we headed straight to our resort. The huge glass window in our room gave an un-interrupted view of the sun-set behind the snow-cladded white peak..

Sunset at Binsar

Early morning we went to the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, while tracking we saw few distant peaks. But could have the paranomic view of the Nanda Devi, Nanda Kot, Panchachuli, Chaukhamba and Kedarnath because of clouds, but the track itself was worth an early morning walk.

After a filling breakfast we headed to Rahul’s favorite hill station i.e. Nainital, and did some touristy activities such as boating in Naini Lake, visiting the artificial Caves, roaming on the mall road, taking a cycle rikshaw ride on mall road (must do in Nainital) etc..

The everrefreshing beauty: Naini Lake @ Nainital

With this pleasant evening our trip was summed up and we were refreshed to go back to our hectic corporate lives with fixed schedules, until the next holiday!!

Nako & Tabo: Here we enter the Spiti Valley

Day4:

Detailed Route: Kalpa – Reckong Peo – Powari  – Riba – Jangi – Spellow – Pooh – Kashigs – Nako – Malling Nala – Sumdo – Tabo

We started at around 9.00 in the morning, today was supposed to be the longest and one of the most exciting days of our journey. Our plan was to reach Tabo via Nako. Unlike rest of the trip there was a huge “Karavan” of vehicles. Soon we got stuck because of traffic jam near Shongtong, which cleared soon and we moved forward. There is a bridge somewhere near Riba which is a single lane bridge and while we drove on it, the movement of wooden logs underneath can be felt and heard easily. The one way route means again a wait of arroun 20 -30mins.

Wooden Bridge

Few kms ahead of it, land clearing process was going on. There had been a landslide due to the blasting of mountains. We waited there for around half an hour under the scorching sun and chilly wind, what a combo!!  By now, my nose had become Reddish-pink and Patchy.. Kudos to the Heat of Sun!!

Once bulldozer cleared the road we resumed our journey amidst of dusty and broken path. Soon we found a small tea counter managed by Indian Army in the middle of nowhere. You can find good tea, coffee, biscuits and clean washroom here for free. Once Hats-off to our Diffence Services!! After refreshments we started again on the dusty road and every now and then there was a signboard saying that “You are travelling on the world’s most treacherous road” filled our chest proud and sense of achievement.

We had to halt at Jangi check post to get ourselves registered. Once you cross Jangi the tarmac is excellent. The roads kept improving from the moment, we witnessed the confluence spiti & Sutlej river. Here we entered the Spiti region, inhabited with Tibetan people and highly influenced with Tibetan culture. The Villages having entrance through beautiful arches, white & maroon mud houses built in small groups, lots of villages having population of 30-100, white golden stupas just confirming the arrival in Spiti Valley.

Arches for entering the village

Kashigs has a freshly laid jet black road, full of curves which welcomes you while ascending towards Nako. Hereon the views on both sides of road were exhilarating.

We reached Nako at around 2.00-2.30PM. First thing we did, was to head for lunch and try to charge our camera, but to our bad luck there was no electricity. After lunch we started to explore the village and Nako Lake. We took a walk around the village and the lake. The Lake was beautiful but not as magnificent I had imagined in my head, but it gave some clear reflections of the brown mountains and trees standing at its bank. Spent some time talking and walking around the lake. Visited the monastery and headed back to our car. It’s a small village having quite a few staying options.

Nako Lake

 

Nako Lake 2

Nako Village

There was a small group of cute little children which was happly playing, falling and posing for photgraphs. By the time we reached our car it was around 4.00 PM, we quickly got into the car and started our journey further.

The road till Malling Nala was in very bad conditions after that there were some good and some bad patches but the tarmac were awesome. The sheer glimpse of the landscape was enough to take our breath away. Soon we crossed Sumdo and there was a stretch of flat road, not much ascends or descends make up for a quick drive. Suddenly the sun wasn’t that sharp, wind was chiller, silver glaze was created by the reflection of sunlight through the river, dark blue/black mountains on one side and shining golden mountains on the other side of the road made a sight forced us to immediately stop the car,  step out to have closer and longer look at this scenery of nature.

En-route Views

 

en-route views

Tabo a beautiful quite village at the foot of huge barren mountains. It was one of the most beautiful village we encountered during this trip (not to mention we encountered so many such villages during this journey). Very small village having its entrance through the beautiful green arch, having verses written in Tibetan  language.

We stayed at Hotel Dewachen, the best hotel in Tabo, it’s the same hotel where star cast of “Highway” stayed while shooting. Luckily we got the room with best view from the balcony and believe me you don’t wanna miss sunset while sipping tea in your own personal balcony having such magnificent view.

View From our room



View from other side 

 

After getting refreshed we went ahead for the walk around the village, the Tabo Monastery was closed by the time we reached there, so it was postponed for the next day.

Stupa Outside Tabo Monastary

The Monastery Restaurant is a must try, we got the most delicious and awesome Tibetan food of the entire region. While having food you can chit chat with Monks, as this is the common stopover for them. We were off to bed soon after having dinner thinking that our adventure for the day has ended, but there was something more to it..

Suddenly, at around 3.30 AM there was a loud bang on the door, Rahul went out to check, it was our driver having some symptoms of Altitude sickness, acute chest pain & breathlessness. So Rahul took him for a walk at those wee hours and gave him zintac to relieve him from gastric problem. Finally we went back to sleep.

Next leap would be towards our last destination of the Tour Kaza...