Deciding the places to explore is a tedious task while planning any trip, so was the case with us. Though it was fixed that we will be visiting Himachal but we're confused whether to go towards Manali side or Dharamshala side as we were having limited number of days. While surfing youtube I came through an advertisement of notonmap.com and went through their website. After going through I was bowled down by a particular property in Sangla by the name Along The River and it was finalised that day that we will be visiting Kinnaur.
The package we booked was for 3000/- per person for horse riding, tube sliding, skiing and snow dresses and all.
After enough playing in the snow we headed for Rampur for our night halt. We booked a room for 2 for ₹700/- through OYO at Hotel North Park.
Next morning we headed for Sangla stopping in between at places to take a look at Sutlej river flowing by our side.
The roads leading us to our destination was carved so beautifully through the rocks that is difficult to express. As we were told the road ahead was more intimidating than this one which made us wonder about what was coming ahead.
Once we reached Kharcham we took the route along Baspa river which is a tributary of Sutlej river. As we went ahead towards Sangla we realised why we were told so about the roads here. It was snow all around where the eyes could reach.
Crawling by a speed of 10 kmph we somehow reached Sangla and was greeted by out host. He gave us all the instructions and warnings about the condition here as there were no tap water facility because the water freezes in the pipelines so we had to manage with limited amount of water for our necessities. It was a 10 min walk from the place where we parked our car. Meanwhile in that 10 min walk only we fell around 4-5 times because of snow and ice. Our host Mr. Negi gave us a glimpse of the wooden house where we will be staying and it was more beautiful than what I had seen in the photos.
After relaxing for a few hours we joined our hosts in their home which was adjacent to where we were staying. They were a family of six member with two little kids Diti and Saksham. Like all traditional Himachali homes bukhari was set up in their living room which kept us warm as while entering their home I had already slipped twice on the snow and was shivering.
Mr. Negi's mother now in her 60's shared stories of her times that how they used to travel when there were no connectivity and it used to take 8-10 days to travel to Rampur by foot crossing the mountains. They also showed us their wedding albums and photos of various festivals and shared about their beliefs and cultures. After all these we had our dinner and walked to our room. With stars glazing and lights flickering we slept under our 2-3 layers of blanket.
Next morning we went up early, took our cameras and went out in the cold. The only thing that we could see was snow. No people no vehicles just snow. We clicked many photos and went to Mr. Negi's house for our breakfast. After having many aaloo ke paranthe we packed our bags, took Mr. Negi with us moved towards Chitkul. As we moved ahead the roads kept getting narrower. We went till Rakcham as the road ahead was blocked and we were on a 2x2 vehicle so it was not possible for us to proceed.
We came back to Sangla, dropped Mr. Negi and left for Kalpa. It took us 2 hours to reach Kalpa. The Sutlej river accompanied us till we took the upper road for Reckong Peo. Since Kalpa is at a greater elevation than Sangla so the amount of snow was greater here and it was more difficult here to drive. We visited the famous temple of Kalpa and took the road back as we were were not sure about the weather.
We reached Rampur by 7 pm and slept for the day.
Next morning we took off early and reached Shimla by 1 pm and did some shopping at the Mall Road. After that we headed towards Chandigarh as I had a flight to catch the next day.
After having our dinner at the famous Pal's Dhabha we catched a bus for Delhi and reached early morning.
Before leaving for airport I visited Humayun's Tomb and had lunch at The Social, Hauz Khas.
So finally with lots of memories I came back to Ranchi.
So finally with lots of memories I came back to Ranchi
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