So we covered the distance of 1700+ kms. from Nashik to Rampur Bushahr in 4 days. Read Part 1 of my blog on this part of the drive by clicking here.
On Day 5 of our trip, after a good night’s rest, we got up raring to go.. today was the start of our Spiti adventure, as we drove into the Spiti Valley. We departed from Rampur Bushahr and topped up fuel in our vehicles. There are 02 petrol pumps in Rampur. We decided to also fill our 20 lts. fuel drum, as we weren’t sure about fuel availability ahead.
After crossing Sangla, we took a tea break at a small village. The locals were wonderful and the elderly persons sitting around were full of stories.
Driving along, we came to an ITBP checkpoint. You have to make an entry, which is crosschecked while returning, just to make sure that you leave 🙂
The last few kms. to Chitkul are also very picturesque. Seemed like we were driving through a fairyland.
Finally.. we made it !!
We drove through Chitkul upto the next border Checkpost. China border is about 40 kms. from the Checkpost, but It’s not possible for civilians to go any further. So we chatted with the sentry and returned to Chitkul. Our original plan was to drive to Kalpa, but the beauty of Chitkul was spellbinding. We couldn’t think of leaving from here in a hurry. So we decided to stay here a night, even though it meant using up a buffer day, right at the beginning of our journey.
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| Beautiful valley |
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| View through the windshield |
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| Picturesque parking |
Hotel Review: Zostel
Rating: 5/5
Review:
We were lucky to get a room, which freed up as a group couldn’t reach Chitkul that evening due to a landslide while coming from Kaza. We took 02 rooms on the ground floor, which had bunk beds. Warm covers are provided with the beds, which are really required in this region. You have to pay for towels though.
The rooms are compact but comfortable. They have an attached bathroom, which has a geyser for hot water and a shower. real luxurious in this small village in one corner of India.
There is an awesome common room, which has a TV, books, indoor games etc. It’s a great place to socialise and meet fellow adventurers. I loved this room the most.
The coffee shop / restaurant was under construction when we stayed. But it’s going to be an enclosed space with seating. We ended up having all our meals under the open sky, and loved every minute of it. The kitchen is functioning throughout the day and we were supplied with steaming cups of tea and pakodas whenever requested.
The hotel is run by Nitesh Kumar and his team. They are pretty competent and helped us out. Nitesh also took us for a walk around the village. Overall a very warm and helpful guy.
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| Zostel, Chitkul |
Chitkul village is also very beautiful, untouched and unaffected so far by tourism. Apart from Zostel, there are a few home stays and small shops for essentials. Our village walk with Nitesh was also fun, with the locals welcoming us. The children running and playing are very cute and friendly. The monastery is small, but beautiful.
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| Chitkul Village |
While we went for a walk in the village, the Himalayans went out to play in the wilderness..
Lets not forget the famous Sharmaji Dhaba, which served us tasty rajma chaval and maggi..
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| Dhaba with a view |
On Day 6, after eating breakfast to our heart’s content, we departed from Chitkul for Kalpa. We backtracked on the same road, past the Checkpost and through Sangla to Karcham. From here we took a right turn to head towards Kalpa.
We reached Reckong Peo around 02:30 pm. Unfortunately, due to our lack on knowledge, we found a hotel in Reckong Peo and checked-in there. We didn’t realise that Kalpa is approx. 7 kms. ahead, and the stay options there are aplenty.
Hotel Review: J K Hotel:
Rating: 2/5
Review:
The hotel is down a narrow alley and the Thar barely made it through. There is a partially complete building opposite, where we parked.
The rooms are below average and very basic. The bathroom is not maintained and the facilities are broken and not functioning. There is no restaurant or food made available.
It’s best to stay in Kalpa.
In the evening, we drove to Kalpa and onwards to Suicide point, which is a sheer cliff. Good for taking pics.
Suicide Point, Kalpa
On the way back, we visited the Kalpa monastery, which was closed but they opened it for us. If you walk ahead of the monastery, there is also a temple. The temple door was open, but everything inside was barricaded and locked.
We took some time for photography and just enjoying the slow vibe of Kalpa.
In the evening, we went to Recking Peo market. It’s definitely one of the largest markets in this area and you can also find some good eating options. We opted for chaat in a local sweet shop followed up with dinner in Little Chef restaurant. The food here was average and the ambiance also was very dingy.
On Day 7, we left bright and early from Reckong Peo. We topped up our fuel again and drove down the mountain towards our night halt destination of Tabo with a stopover at Nako and Gue Monestary in between. Pretty soon after leaving Reckong Pro, we came across a landslide area, where a water crossing had flooded and closed the road for nearly a whole day. Luckily, the weather was sunny and the road was clear when we crossed.
Breakfast at a small roadside dhaba included awesome omelettes and Maggi. This is definitely the best food you can get in the hills. Soon after, we came along a bridge, where only 1 vehicle can pass at a time. It was quite a hair-raising experience, with the raging river far-far below us and the wooden floorboards of the bridge.
The drive onwards in through a terrain unlike anything I have ever seen. It’s mountains after mountains of just dirt and rubble. I am sure that even a loud bang will trigger a landslide. This is definitely the closest that I have felt like driving on the moon.
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| Landscape from the moon |
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| View through the handlebars |
Tea stop before Nako..
The drive upto Nako was uneventful. We entered Nako village for a quick visit to the local monastery. The monastery was buzzing with activity as their chief priest was visiting the next day. Colourful tents covered the grounds and there was unbelievable energy in the air.
After visiting Nako monastery, we drove onwards to Gue monastery. Again, we were lucky to get to a landslide just minutes after it happened. Harshad jumped out of the car, and with some newfound superhuman strength, pushed away large stones to clear the way.
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| Splendid Views |
We got into Gue monastery in the afternoon. Gue monastery houses a 565 year old Mummy. It was found by the army during blasting work. It was kept in a closed glass case, but after it’s condition started to deteriorate, they opened the glass case and now the mummy is perfectly in restored condition. I am told that the hair & nails on the mummy grow till date.
The mummy is kept in a small room and a much larger monastery is currently under construction.
Spectacular views from the monastery..
After Gue monastery, we moved onto Tabo, our halt for the night. Tabo is a small town, which is well known for it’s monastery. We had booked ourselves in Hotel Maitriya Regency a day before and we were lucky to get the last 2 rooms.
Hotel Review: Hotel Maitriya Regency, Tabo
Rating: 5/5
Review:
The hotel is at the end of the only road which leads into Tabo. It’s a quaint little place, which is run like a family hotel.
The rooms are large and the third bed could be accommodated easily. The rooms are clean and the washrooms are also very well kept. There is a geyser, but it works only if there is electricity.
There is a common room on the ground floor, which has a tastefully done seating area and the dining tables. The lone TV in the hotel is also in this room. Other than that, there is an outdoor seating area and a little space in the reception.
We had our dinner in the room as there was a function of the Army in the dining area. The food was delicious. We also had snacks and tea in the evening and omelettes and parathas the next morning for breakfast. All of the food was very tasty.
The staff of this hotel makes it a class apart. The owner has leased out the hotel to a local person and it’s run flawlessly. Of course, there are going to be problems because of the remote location, but the staff really gives it their all. A friend of the owner (I think his name was Mr. Dhani), who stays in the hotel for 4 months in a year to help out is really a gem of a person and I spent quite a few hours in the evening chatting up with him.
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| The caretaker on the left and the owner’s friend on the right |
Day 8 started with a visit to Tabo monastery. It was established in the year 996. The positive energy that I felt in this monastery is unlike any other monastery that I visited during this trip. Definitely the best monastery that we visited during our visit.
After breakfast, we were informed that the road ahead was washed away due to rains the previous day. It would take at least 2-3 hours to clear the road. We weren’t too anxious as we had an easy day with visit to Dhankar Monastery and then final halt at Mudh valley. So we took the opportunity to do shopping of local artefacts in the shops outside the monastery, walk around the small but picturesque village and even send a postcard home from the local village post office.
Finally we left Tabo around 11 am. We got through the landslide area without any difficulty. We stopped for photos at some awesome locations 🙂
We reached Dhankar monastery and to our surprise we found that the road leading up the mountain was completely washed away. We found an alternate “kaccha” rasta and went ahead.
The road ahead was luckily in excellent condition and we were able to drive up smoothly. Although this is the first instance where I felt that the Thar was losing power due to low oxygen and I had to frequently use the first gear and clutch to power up steep inclines.
Dhankar monastery is peached up on a mountain and the road narrows as we near it. But there is just about enough space to turn around at the end.
We visited the Monastery. It’s a multi-storey building and the prayer room is on the top floor. Even though this monastery is at about 12,500 ft. above MSL, we were all out of breath. Out of all the monasteries we visited, Dhankar monastery is the only one which charged us an entry fee (Rs. 25 per person) for entering the prayer room.
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| Dhankar Monastery Building |
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| View from the top of Monastery |
After coming back to the village, we had lovely ginger lemon tea and parathas in the cafe next to the monastery.
We started our drive onwards to Mudh Valley (It’s in Pin Valley National Park). We drove along NH 5 and then turned left about 17 kms. before Kaza to enter Mudh Valley.
The drive ahead upto Mudh village is a mixture of roads. It started with extremely barren landscape with rough roads. Then we moved onto some rocky terrain in the mountains. After that, we came onto a smooth winding road with brick walls on both sides. This area reminded me of driving in the English countryside.
The views in these parts are spectacular. We got pics like the ones below, even when we stopped randomly to check Gaurav’s bike tyre, which had gone flat. The scenery makes even an amateur photographer seem like a professional 🙂
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| The scenery is from a picture postcard |
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| You can’t stop taking pictures in a place like this |
The road is pretty simple. You keep driving straight and the road finishes in Mudh village. This area of Spiti is less explored and often included as a day visit or entirely skipped. We had decided to stay for one night and the friendly persons in Hotel Maitriya Regency, Tabo had helped us in booking rooms in Tara Guest House.
Hotel Review: Tara Home Stay, Mudh Village
Rating: 5/5
Review:
We got 2 rooms at the top floor (road level). 1 room was corner room and had a great view of the valley and an attached bathroom. The other room was behind it and had no window and no attached bathroom. The common bathroom is just a few steps away in the same complex.
The stay was extremely comfortable. It’s very basic but you get a cosy room, warm blankets and clean bathroom. Can you really ask for more?
The food was delicious. It’s a home kitchen and everything is cooked in front of you. We ordered well in advance and got an amazing meal of rice, rajma and Tibetan pizza. The chocolate momos are amazing too. The menu is large and everything we ordered was cooked and served without any fuss. Breakfast included omelettes, French toast, parathas and tea.
The only connection with the outside world is through a satellite phone, which is available in this guest house on nominal charge. There is no mobile range.
The view of the valley from the roof is very good and we also had a great view of the Milky Way from the roof in the night as there are no lights to obstruct the night sky. But we could handle the cold only till midnight.
They have another guest house up the road, but we did not check that out. Book in advance and enjoy your stay here.
The views from the roof are breathtaking.
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| Views in the morning |
On Day 9, after an evening well spent in chilling with like-minded travellers, hikers and trekkers and even a group of Israelis travelling on bike, we moved out after breakfast towards Kaza. It was an easy and short drive and we planned to use the day to relax in Kaza and get some required repairs done on our bikes and car.
We backtracked the same way until we reached the turnoff for Kaza and took a left turn. The road further to Kaza is in decent condition and it took us about 2 hours in total to reach Kaza.
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| One of the smaller villages we passed on our way.. Population: 30 🙂 |
There is an authorised Royal Enfield service station right at the beginning of Kaza, while coming from Tabo side. Out riders stopped there to get their bikes serviced. We decided to move ahead to get our car horn repaired, which had stopped working couple of days back.
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| A true biker.. never leaves his bike in anyone’s hand.. inspecting everything himself |
There are three car garages in Kaza. We visited all 3. The first 2 were ready to do only mechanical work. The third garage, which is at the end of Kaza town after crossing the petrol pump, had a mechanic willing to do electrical work, and our horn was finally repaired. There is only one shop for puncture repair. So get any work done ASAP on arriving as shops here tend to close early.
While getting their bikes checked, the riders came to know that the service station has started a dormitory and cafe right above the station. We decided to stay here itself.
We spent the afternoon in Kaza market, visited the famous Himalayan Cafe and did some shopping in the souvenir shop. The evening was reserved for celebrating Shaunak’s birthday with some cake and fine single malt, which we had carried all the way from Chandigarh 🙂
Hotel Review: Grease Moto Club , Kaza
Rating: 4/5
Review:
This is strictly a hostel. There are 3 rooms with bunk beds (6-8 capacity each) and an attached bathroom in each room. Our room had 8 bunkbeds and we crammed in with our luggage and bags.
The rooms are basic with beds and charging points close to each bed. The bathroom is average size but has a geyser for hot water as well. It is very slow and be prepared to wait for 10-15 mins. for a bucket of hot water. Electricity is sporadic as in most of Spiti, and the generator is put on only in the night.
The cafe restaurant is run nicely with a small kitchen. He cooked food as per our requirements and the meals were satisfactory. Coffee made by him deserves special mention. Remember to order meals half a day in advance, as the cook goes to Kaza town to shop accordingly. We ordered dinner at 6 pm on the first day and finally got our meal at 10:30 pm.
Other than this, there are no creature comforts. But it’s sufficient for a basic no-frills stay.
This brought to an end our stay at Kaza, the largest city in Spiti valley. The Spiti adventure had delivered as promised and we were amazed by the place, people and terrain of this far-flung land.
Little did we know about the adventure that lay ahead of us, as he headed onwards to Kunzum La and Chandrataal. Stay posted for Part 3 of this blog to read about this adventure and our return journey to Manali.
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