My Journey to the Cold Desert Mountains – Spiti, India

Posted on March 6, 2020March 6, 2020 by Neha Kalra

(A mesmerizing journey to experience)

Insights:
After visiting Spiti in June last year, I thought of writing a blog to share my views about this beautiful destination. This is not my first travel experience, but our daily hectic city life always pushes us to experience deep in lap of our motherland. My decision of visiting Spiti was most inspiring and truly rejuvenating. It began by leaving behind the city’s fast life and sitting in the lap of the green valley, enjoying the view of snow-capped peaks and finally reaching to the cold desert mountain at an altitude of 15,500 feet above sea level.
Itinerary: It was a 9 days plan with a very precised and systematic schedule
Let’s have a look of same 🙂

Day 1 : Shimla to Narkanda
Day 2 : Narkanda to Chitku
lDay 3 : Chitkul to Kalpa
Day 4 : Kalpa to Dhankar
Day 5 : Dhankar to Kaza
Day 6 : Kaza to Kee , Kibber, Komik , Langza. Back to Kaza
Day 7 : Kaza to Kalpa
Day 8 : Kalpa to Shimla
Day 9 : Reach Delhi.

After the overnight journey from Delhi to Shimla we reached to Narkanda. It took approx 3 to 4 hrs to reach Narkanda from Shimal. We spend a day in Narkanda and visited Hatu peak, Apple orchids and witnessed the scenic beauty.

On the second day of our trip we started for chitkul. It is a last inhabited village in the region. Night in chitkul was cold but, the day was sunny and bright. We Visited a beautiful river bank, Hindustan Ka akhiri dhaba, Indo Tibbet border and a walk in the village, Chitkul. Around 11:00 am we headed towards out next destination Kalpa. It’s a tiny beautiful town in kinnaur district.

You will find several points with scenic views. Suicide Point, Hu-Bu-Lan-Kar goompa (Monastery). This small town Kalpa is not limited to scenic beauty but is also a main doorway to a famous trek, Kinnar Kailash.

Day 4 towards Dhankar. From Kalpa to Dhankar we started observing a prominent change not only in Culture but also in the landscape, Flora and Fauna. This route brought us hidden opportunities like a refreshing visit to sacret lake Nako and Tabo Monastery. Distance from Kalpa to Dhankar is approx 230 km but, due to road conditions it took us approx 8 to 9 hrs to reach. Next morning we visited Dhankar lake, a small uphill trek of Dhankar village.

Day 5, we headed towards our next destination KAZA. On our way, we visited to Pin Valley and Mud village while sipping our tea and pleasant weather. We reached kaza before sunset and spent our time exploring cafes and a most visited German Bakery in Kaza market.

Day 6, we had our breakfast in kaza and left for Komic that included our parallel visit to Langza, Chicham Bridge, Ki-Goompa and Hikkim.

Langza “The fossil village” the most magnificent location after Dhankar and also a most beautiful valley in Spiti famous for its own fossil stories and for the big Buddha Statue. We got a chance to see some of the fossil from the local.

Ki-Goompa , an oldest and biggest monastery in this region and is also a religious training center for Lamas. It has the collection of ancient scripts and books, included Buddha images. Experiencing meditation rooms of monastery was a precious moment. We had herbal tea in the monastery. Life of a Lama is not only about chanting but here you will also capture a memory of seeing them having a normal routines and of’course one of those was to see little Lamas playing football and cricket.

Here comes a great combination of two of our locations 🙂 Komic is a highest inhabited village in the world and Hikkim has the highest post office in the world while sharing a distance of mere 5 kilometers . The feeling of sending postcard to your loved one from such a height has its own joy.

With joyful memories of day we return to kaza and had our dinner in cafe Zomsa. We enjoyed live music by the owner of the cafe. live performance from the audience. And, went to our hotel to take some rest so that we can prepare ourselves for the return journey.