Spiti Valley

DAY – 1

The Continue drizzles till noon made the Himalayan roads unhealthy to travel. roads become muddy and while riding chances of skidding is there, And we are travelling on motor bikes, it makes the risk level and adrenaline rush to its peak.

We planned our travel loop last night was to complete Key monastery – Langza and Hikkim in one day. But because of the rain the road to Langza and Hikkim gets muddy and the locals of the Kaza advised us to don’t use the road today, because the road to langza and Hikkim are mostly steep roads, so better to finish key gompa visit today and keep langza and hikkim for day 3.

Around 12:00 the drizzle gets weak and we (Sarath/Puja/Sudheer & me) starts our trip in Enfield and Two Activa. Around a two kilometres passed we get lost in to two ways Sudheer went to key monastery correctly, me along with Sarath and puja lost way and starts climbing up hill road to langza ! As the villagers said the road was much danger to ride and the bikes skids at many areas. Bullet climbs very easily the up hills compared to my Activa. The mud get inside to the back wheels of activa and not moving even on full acceleration. And ride gets more and more miserable on these conditions. Most of these areas are steep and Its unable to ride, I was forced to get down of scooter and start to push it to move in this steep roads at a altitude nearly more than 13 thousand feet. Somehow till langza the climbing up areas was less and without much difficult we reached Langza.

Langza – A bowl like Village situated at an altitude of14500 ft. Also its known for its wide fossil collection– A Huge Buddha Statue, Langza village and Langza Monastery is the main Attraction to see here and offcourse not forgetting mighty Himalayas !, several home stays are available in this village. Population here is around 140 – 150 only. The Big Buddha statue make us feel that Buddha is sitting on the laps of Himalayas. We stayed there for around half hour only because of we need to reach Hikkim village where the world’s highest Post office situated which is at an altitude of 14400 ft. I sat there for few minutes silently and Listening Ananda valli keerthanam sung by Sreevalsan menon. Words can’t explain the feeling I get from there, literally it becomes my personnel fav spot of Spiti valley.

Hikkim Village & Post office – the village situated almost 14400 Ft. above the sea level and holding limca book of record for having world’s highest post office (altitude of 14567ft.) ride to there is even today its a bad dream for me but remembering a saying “the most toughest road will lead to the beautiful destination “.it feels true when we reached  Langza And Hikkim, Himalayan Beauty can’t be explained by words. Because of the muddy road we able to make there only after post office get closed. We Brought post cards from the small shop there and decide to come another day to post it but later we hand over the cards to our friend Sudheer who missed today’s trip with us to hikkim and langza. We have spent there around an hour and start go back to Kaza. 

“How much you hard work to achieve something, that much happy you feel after Done It“

Day – 2 (14/08/2018)

After the Adventure trip on day two we plan our trip to KEY GOMPA – Kibber – Chicham , Sudheer yesterday already visited key monastery so he tell us “ You guys move to Key and call me once u reached there and before finishing your visit I will be there”. So we leave him at home stay to sleep and we three (Me Sarath & puja) left to Key Monastery. 

Key Monastery (altitude 13668 ft) – A 600 year old monastery located on the banks of Spiti River. Key village and gompa Looks like a crown to Spiti valley where the gompa located on the top as a jewel. We went inside gompa, it was a prayer time there and lamas sitting chanting their prayers. Such a vibe their chanting’s created inside that room which can’t be explained by words. My mind and body feels weight less even after they finished their prayer. After the prayer finished we came out side and meet an spitian guy he take us to one Lama and he invite us to visit their gompa. Three main rooms were opened before us in gompa ,first we went inside room name kardung where lama informed us there they kept mortal remains of their gompas first head lama. The room contains several ancient scriptures, mural paintings and pictures of Buddha. Which is a first experience for me. Second we move to room named Xicheim, lama ji explained us when first time His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama visit key monastery he rested here. Lastly we went to room where they kept the oldest and biggest prayer wheel. After finish these visits Lama ji gave us an wonder full Green Tea that taste i didn't experienced before in my life. Later we went to see gurukulam in the gompa and gave young lamas chocolates, spent few time with them. In the meantime Sudheer also already reached there and waiting for us on the entrance of gompa, And we start ride together to Kibber Village from Key Monastery.

Kibber Village (Altitude 14200 ft.) – the village located 20 + kms away from kaza, compare to other villages in Spiti valley this one is the biggest one with a population around 350. Also it have a wild life sanctuary. there is a possibility to see the rarest Himalayan animals like Tibetan wolf snow leopard ibex red fox etc. we see there green pees fields which looks very beutifull. I take some photos of terrains and the village from there and we start move to Chicham (Asia’s Highest Bridge).

Chicham Bridge – (Altitude 13596 Ft.) – Asia’s highest bridge this bridge connects chicham village to Kibber. We spent 1 – 2 hours there in Chicham Bridge, for our legend to fly his drone from there to capture some wonderful pictures. And after taking pictures we move down to Kaza and reached back around 2:30 – 3:00.

Rangrik – It’s an unexpected visit we planned, it’s a village lies opposite to key village, these two villages are on the opposite banks of Spiti River. It’s a wonder full evening we spent there and experienced last light on the mountains from there. Sudheer captured that awesome pictures in his lens. Till the light gone we completely enjoyed that divine silence of the nature there and ride back to home stay. Thanks to Sudheer to take us there. On the same location we come back again on night to experience one of the most wonderful gift of Himalayas “Star Gazing” for this I need to thank my friends Sarath and Sudheer for compelled a lazy guy like me to go there and experience this amazing View. I felt completely speechless seeing the meteor showers and galaxy from there. And it turned into the best day of my whole journey. Sudheer took some great clicks of this beauty, We spent hours there by sleeping on the road and get amazed on the beauty. Cold starts to come inside through our jackets and tracks, And decide to get back to room to have some rest.

“Don’t be lazy on trips, it may cause the whole trip waste.”

Day – 3 & 4 (15/08/2018 & 16/08/2018)

The day start with bad news of somebodies death and the whole village was went there for the cremation ceremonies, because of that all stores and hotels remain closed till they finished those ceremonies. Around 12 noon the shops opened, we had our breakfast and starts my final day trip of Spiti to Dhankar and Tabo monasteries. Both are the world’s oldest Buddhist monasteries. And there is small and funny ego also going on between them on “who is older”. Later archeology Dept. came on this issue to make a confirmation and they come to a conclusion Tabo monastery was the oldest one and it is believed to have been built on 996 AD.

Dhankar Monastery – believed to have been built 1200 years ago, dhankar is nearly 8 km uphill from the village name Sichling which is 26 km away from kaza, the first 26 km was an descent drive but last 8 km from sichling to dhankar completed within 40-45 minutes. Sharp turns and steep climbing’s make this ride little tough. The monastery get closed when we reached there. So Sarath and Sudheer went for dhankar lake trek from there, me and Pooja decided to visit Tabo monastery. 

Tabo Monastery – 23 km of ride is required from Sichling to reach Tabo, the road conditions are not much bad but still need to be very careful while riding. Because chances for unexpected landslides are high on this road. Its took around an hour to cover this distance. There is two monasteries in tabo a new one and old. The old buildings are almost get ruined, so they built a new monastery nearby, same as the old one. We went to old monastery, Its an heaven for painting lovers to see & experience. Beautiful mural paintings more than thousand years old . I am not familiar with the paintings still it feel wonderful on watching those.

The time to say good bye to Spiti - It feels very hard to leave this beautiful place, 16th early morning was my bus to Manali and from there to Delhi and the train to Palakkad is on 18th morning. That return trip was gifted with few more beautiful things such as view of Himalayas from Kunzum pass, waterfalls coming from the glaciers, Chandra River, the beautiful Rohtang Pass Etc...

I will come back to Experience your Winter Beauty, if you call me again – but till that day “MISS U”

KV.Vishnu

01/08/2019