Off Blue Skies and Mountain Highs #VisitAgain

So first I want my readers ( they are few but Solid) to know that I went out on a backpack trip around the state of himachal pradesh travelling around the lines of chinese border, and this was in 2018. Yes! I am writing a post after 2 years.

Everyone wants to go to Spiti and gaze at the landscape of those beautiful bare mountains. Let me tell you as beautiful as it is , it is also very dangerous because you never know, a sand clutter might fall on your head from those eye catchy mountains.

Well now that the cautions are all over with, let's start with my story of backpacking through Spiti.

In march 2018 I decided that I have to go to Spiti all by myself. I had my money saved up and all set, a couple of my friends decided to join me on my expedition. The thrill was I decided to go on a budget. Let me tell you I traveled for 12 days through Delhi, Shimla, Rekongpeo, Kaza in just a sum amount of 18000 INR and had the time of my life.

We were travelling in March so it was offseason over there. We reached Delhi after a long journey of train that too chair car. Yeah, please don't do that ever! We reached at a friend's place who was going to be joining us and spent time till night in Delhi, one of my friend did a little sight seeing and was saved from getting mugged, while I was busy partying in delhi. Well its not about Delhi being unsafe, its about my friend being in a wrong place. 😉

After the whole party scenes we caught a night bus to Shimla partially slaushed and then slept off.😁

We had one day in Shimla before we set for a hectic journey to Rekongpeo. Which was a 13 hr bus ride through hectic roads of Himachal Pradesh.

So we decided to take a day off from long travels and chill in Shimla, then explore the city in the evening. But my smart ass friend goes ahead and books tickets for Tour-de-Shimla and believe me! what we saw was amazing, we saw dried apple trees, mountains without ice and most beautiful, donkey poop! 😂😂. Came back all roughed up then swindled around Shimla, which is a really beautiful city.

Next day was a really hectic day but we got to see some amazing landscapes. From that point started the land of thukpas, momos and aloo parathas. We were just taking a nights halt in Rekongpeo to travel the next day towards Kaza, again a hectic 13 hr drive which turned into and 18 hr drive because our bus decided not to move ahead (broke down). Although it stopped at a very beautiful place.

We finally reached Kaza, which is a really beautiful place and the township of the region of Spiti valley. The moment we reached there all afraid and amazed by the mountains, thats when we realised that we are very very far from home. Trust me that feeling is gold!

The first and the only problem you are going to face in Kaza is low oxygen. It gets difficult to breath and also its very cold. The maximum temperature we faced in Kaza was -29 degree celsius. One advice I got from the locals which was helpful is always carry a clove of garlic, have a small byte whenever you feel low on oxygen or tired or even very cold.

Apart from that the place is heaven, on the second day we went out for a stroll, which was more of a trek, met some locals, had a bonfire on the shores of Spiti river. The most awesome part was it started snowing which was even surprising for the locals. By the next morning, the whole landscape changed. It was all covered on snow. We went to Key Monastery and came back to party at our homestay. Yes in Spiti you only have home stays. The people there are sweet and very welcoming.

We left the next day as there were chances of land slides, because of which aparantely you can get stuck for upto 3 days. So we left Kaza and  spent an extra day in Rekongpeo, the city which resides in the shadow of Mt. Kailash. Got #tagged 😉 in Rekongpeo and left for Delhi.

We finally ended our trip in Delhi and came back to Mumbai by flight with some crazy memories. This was my experience of Spiti if you have done anything that I missed out please feel free to comment. There are many more stories I haven't added in this which you can find on my Instagram handle @thebeatnik_rambler. Go check!