Monsoon weekend in Spiti valley

CHANDIGARH TO KALPA (350 Kms)

At 4 in the morning, while it was raining cats and dogs, We kick-started our journey from the wet roads of Chandigarh to the lush green valleys of Himachal. Make sure you take a 4x4, as driving on the wet stretches can be a bit tricky in monsoons. Getting to shimla is a cakewalk with the help of Himalayan expressway, You barely get to see the traffic in wee hours of the day.
Be prepared for the traffic when you bypass shimla though, You can also take the alternate road from chail, a few kilometres before shimla.
We had only one goal in the mind, to reach kalpa by evening before the sun goes down. Which meant we could only afford one break, which was Negi Himalayan Dhaba in narkanda. Don't forget to stop there enroute spiti, The food here is out of the world with the lovely Himalayan ambience.
After the scrumptious food we drove all the way to reckong peo, passing by beautiful roads of kinnaur.
Kalpa is a 15 minutes uphill drive from reckong peo, at reaching kalpa, we checked in to one of the most beautiful properties ever witnessed, HPTDC kalpa kinnaur. Most of the rooms here have the view of the mighty Kinnaur Kailash range. Most of the hotels here in kalpa are vacant because of the monsoon season.
Being a government owned accommodation, it was very well maintained. If there wouldn't be the time constraint, we would have stayed in the property for a day more atleast.
Dinner has to be ordered two hours prior as they prepare the meals specifically on order.
We slept early in order to leave as soon as we could the next morning, as the next day was full of challenging roads and adventures.

KALPA TO KAZA (200 kms)

Although 200 kilometres seem pretty less on paper, but surely they weren't on the world's most treacherous track The NH05. The biggest setback for us was the roadblock right after we left kalpa early morning, There was a huge landslide which left us stranded for 2 hours at the same spot.
The roads are maintained by BRO, they're still in pretty good condition owing to the altitude and location.
As soon as you enter Spiti Valley, the world changes.
Spiti is a rain shadow region, even in the monsoons it receives very less or no rainfall as compared to the other parts of Himachal.
The first stop of the day was Nako, it is a small village right after you enter spiti. Nako lake is a prominent spot here, where we had our lunch.
We left Nako right after the lunch, as there was nothing much to see. Roads after nako towards kaza were pretty smooth, views while driving makes the eight hour long drive all worth it.
After driving for 60 odd kilometres more, we passed Tabo village, home to one of the oldest monasteries in the world. The sun began to set, we were accompanied by spiti river all the way upto kaza.
As we entered Kaza, We could spot our pre booked accommodation, Zostel Kaza. With a bunch a travellers, this place offers all types of accomodations, Tents, Dorms, Even private rooms. This is like an oasis in the cold desert of Spiti.
We took a tent in the Zostel campus, Words cannot define the experience of sleeping under a million stars, neither the pictures can! The food at zostel is the best we have had on our whole trip. Prices are unbelievably cheap at such high altitude and the courteous staff makes it all more comfortable. If you're in Spiti, look no further, Zostel is the place to experience the real Spitian vibe.

Langza / Hikkim / Komic / Kye

It was Sunday morning already, and technically this was our first and the last day in the valley.
We started early morning as we had to cover all the places before the sunset. The first stop was Langza, a small village primarily dominated by a large Statue of lord Buddha, The magic of nature at Langza left us speechless.
From Langza there goes a road upwards to Komic. Komic is known to be the highest village connected by the motorable road. The word Komic means " The eye of the snowcock".
Then we drove downwards to Hikkim. Hikkim is home to the world's highest post office. You have to park your vehicle at the main road, then a small walk into the village leads you to the beautiful post office nestled in the middle of this beautiful village of Hikkim. People from all over the world send postcards from the world's highest post office, this has made this place a must visit attraction for everyone who visits Spiti.
The last and the most spectacular location of our day was Kye monastery. The beautiful Monastery is situated at a hilltop very close to Spiti river, the view is unbelievable. The Monastery still houses ancient Buddhist scrolls and paintings.
We concluded our day with Barley coffee at The Himalayan Cafe in Kaza. Finding something like this at a remote location like Kaza is a real delight.

Just like another Monday morning, this was a gloomy morning, not because the weekend has ended but the Amazing Spiti trip has come to an end. We started our day early with the hot pancakes in zostel Kaza.
At 7 in the morning we left for Tabo, to visit Tabo Monastery. The Monastery is a mixture of old and new architecture, with the centuries old paintings kept in the temples.
From Tabo, while on our way back, We took a road upwards to Gue, unsure of the road conditions we took the car to the off-road trail. The 7 Km stretch took us almost an hour to reach the Majestic Gue Monastery, The place has magical vibes, Gue village feels out of the world. Totally disconnected from the civilization, this place is worth a visit. A kilometre above the village lies a Monastery, where the 500 year old Mummy of Sangha Tenzin is kept, It is unbelievable how the mummy is in an excellent state, might be because of clean air and extreme low temperatures in surrounding high altitude area.
We were spell bound with the beauty of little hamlet Gue as we started off with our final leg of the journey towards Chandigarh. It was a long 12 hour drive to Chandigarh but surely one of the best weekend trips we would ever experience in our lifetime, could only be possible because of my trip mates Arjun and Anmol as we took turns driving, On the world's most treacherous Road. The road to Spiti valley!