Spiti

It was time of peak summer in Delhi. So I decided to leave home after sunset. My friend had just flown in to the city. Even though we were meeting after a very long time, the scorching heat did not permit us to even hug before starting to ride to Chandigarh. After a quick halt at a nearby tea stall, we took first break 60 kms away from home, in murthal, at sunset. That's when I de-stressed myself after days of preparation for the trip. With a plan to wake up early, we spent night in a cozy hotel on shimla highway.

We had a chilled out morning. After nice breakfast, we left hotel by 9am. We had a very long distance (250kms) to cover. After various traffic jams near shimla, we reached rampur bushahr at 9 in the night. Rampur bushahr is a small town and a stop over place for many travellers going to Spiti or Kinnaur.

We started by 9 am and were welcomed by lush green grasslands of kinnaur valley with in an hour. I decided to park my bike in sangla valley and ride pillon to chitkul. The road on the way up to chitkul can hardly be called a road. But the view is so beautiful that the condition of road doesn't bother you much.

Chitkul is very beautiful but there isn't much to do. While my friend wanted to stay another day, I insisted on continuing the journey the next morning. Our bike punctured on the way; and the only way to fix it was to carry it in a truck to Sangla. We got the bike fixed and picked my bike to proceed further. Since we lost half of the day, we decided to spend night 40kms away in Reckong Peo.

Our next stop-over was mistaken. Instead of going to Tashigong town of Spiti, we happened to go to the town named Tashigang in Kinnaur. Since the road to Tashigang was extremely rough, I parked by bike at Khab and went pillion. We reached by late evening only to find out that there are absolutely no place to host guests there. There was a monastery up hill but it was impossible to walk there in dark. So we literally forced ourself inside one of the house to request the old couple to let us stay for the night. They opened for us, not just their house, but heart. They fed us hot fresh food and gave us a room to sleep in. We spent some time talking to them to understand the challenges for people living there. They struggle to get groceries from the town which is two hours away from their house. I decided to write about them asking people to help whoever happens to be around. I unfortunately lost their number. Apparently, the village has only six houses. So, it wouldn't be difficult locating the house.

We started to reach Tabo but decided to take a small detour to check out Nako lake. Nako is a small Buddhist village on a remote hill at the edge of Spiti valley. Technically it falls in Kinnaur district, but in character, it is far closer to the culture of Spiti valley. The availability of pubs and bars made us stay there for the night.

Now was the time to enter beautiful spite valley. We stopped at a Tibetan restaurant in Tabo for lunch before visiting picturesque village Dhankar in Spiti. Dhankhar was capital of Spiti for many years till needs of the modern day saw the capital shifted to Kaza.

Dhankar lake is about 1.5 Hrs high altitude trek from the Dhankar monastery. The initial ascent of about 30-40 minutes is pretty steep for someone less fit like me. Then, the path is uniform till the time you reach the lake. The beauty of the lake is not the lake itself but the extreme feeling of solitude it offers. Sun was setting so we didn't have much riding time. We decided to go to to a near by village named Lallung knowing it is famous for hospitable local families. The word Lallung means 'Land of god' and people of this village treat travellers like gods. I can't forget the taste of fresh vegetables and home prepared ghee that was offered to us at all these home stays that we stayed at.

From here, it was a short ride to Kaza. After dropping our bags in a hotel, we rode on the same bike to cute little village Hikkim which has world's highest post office. It also acts as a savings bank where villagers can deposit money in their savings accounts or withdraw money.

Then it was a time to time in Kaza. We went to a nearby pub which had karaoke and a lot of people were taking chances at singing. For last few days we were contemplating going to Pin Valley which required us to go little back in another direction. Since I didn't want to regret later for visiting not visiting the little heaven in spiti, I convinced my friend to go there. We had not seen such lush green fields in spiti valley so far.

The plan was to reach Chandratal the next day. It was a long journey hence we decided to leave from Pin valley and stay in Gaza. The estimate given to us was around 10 hours. So we were not really rushing. We reached Key monastery by around 10 am and then walked in to the cafe within the premises. It was one of the kind of places I can spend entire day in. We spent luxurious time there brewing tea and browsing some amazing books.

Then we halted at a place to have lunch. And then reached Kunzum pass by 5Pm. Sun was setting but the lake was pretty close, only around 19Kms. We were just 2kms away from our destination when we came across a biker coming from the opposite direction. He stopped out of concern and requested us to go back and spend the night in Batal. He elaborated further to explain how it is absolutely impossible to cross one of the section which is water logged from melted ice flowing down at very high speed from top of the hill. He, apparently, tried crossing it and had near to death experience. We assured him that we will return after having a look at it. We wet ahead but were already panicking by the narrative of the biker. We did not have spare days and were extremely disappointed with the fact that we won't be able to stay near the lake. There was a group of friends we had met some time ago. Two of them were on two separate bikes and remaining five were in a car. When they came and stood next to us, we shared our fear with them. But one of the biker said he would want to give it a shot. He first walked on the stretch to gauge the speed and depth. And then fearlessly rode to the other side. There was a huge applaud for his brave and confident attempt. And then few other bikers took the same path as his and made it to the other end. And then the guy; I call him hero; he encouraged me to go for it. After knowing that I am still afraid, he held my bike from behind, ensured that he will not let me fall down the hill and made me ride it to the other end. It was such a happy moment for me that I was almost in tears. And he became real life hero for me forever. The guys told us that the road to Manali is full of such stretches. So the happiness was soon replaced by worry. We spent night in a tent shivering out of cold and fear.

After breakfast, we pushed off by 9am. And the journey till Rohtang pass was extremely rough and scary. There were stretches which were crossed breathlessly by pushing bike using feet in ice cold water.