shimla-kinnaur-spiti-lahaur-manali trip

Hi All,

First of all, I would like to thank this Forum for providing valuable information and assisting me in planning this wonderful trip. I have done my schooling from Shimla but being a kid never even thought about visiting places like Spiti, Kinnaur, Lahaul, Chandrataal Lake etc..

I started my journey on 21st June from London to Delhi. We reached Delhi at 4 am on 22nd June. I pre booked my Train tickets from Delhi to Kalka on 23rd June at 7:30 am.
23rd June: We reached Kalka at 11 am and board the Toy train at 12 noon. Toy train was a different experience, but train was overly crowded and due to intense heat in plains, there were many tourists visiting Shimla. Also it was a weekend, so added more crowd. Frankly speaking didn’t enjoyed toy train that much this time. Train reached Shimla by 6:30 pm, late by 1 hour. We had a hotel booking at HOTEL GULMARG REGENCY, near Mall Road. But when we reached hotel manager said that my room has been given to someone else as I am late by 30 minutes. I was furious. I told with him, that I am late because of late arrival of the train. But as there were lots of tourist that day in Shimla, he charged premium rates and given my room to someone else. This was highly unprofessional. I also warned hotel management that i will complaint about this to tourism department, but he was never bothered. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone else. Highly unprofessional. I spent 2 hours to get the hotel of my choice. It was almost 10 pm by then. Spent few minutes on Mall road, had dinner and went to hotel.

24th June: Through this forum I pre booked Taxi for my visit to Kinnaur-Lahual-Spiti and Manali. The driver name is Deepak. He was supposed to pick me up from HOTEL GULMARG REGENCY. But in all the chaos I missed to inform Deepak, about the change of hotel. Went to Mall road, and got the new sim and called Deepak. He was tensed that I may have opted for some other taxi. After receiving my call he immediately came to my hotel. He is having Innova. Car was clean and well maintained. I didn’t plan to stay more in Shimla. Shimla is beautiful, but has become very commercial and lost his peace and serenity. We started our journey from Shimla to Sarahan on the way Naldera, Kufri, Narkanda, Hatu Peak and night stay at Sarahan. We did horse riding in Naldera. It was a 10 year kid who was managing our horse. He told us that he go to school every day, but as it was holiday today, he came here to help his uncle. He showed us the tourist spots. It is a nice place. From here we moved on to Kufri. I didnt like Kufri much. Went to Kufri Zoo, as wanted to see Polar bear. Though there are not many animals in Zoo, but Zoo was well maintained. Another attraction was Snow Tiger. Kufri was so crowded that we decided to move on without wasting anytime there. We went on to Narkanda. Narkanda offers good view of Himalayan ranges. As pointed out by many in this forum, we also visited Hatu peak. Though the way to Hatu peak was a bit scary, but Deepak's driving skills were really good. As he was born and brought up in hills, he was expert in driving these tricky hills. View from Hatu peak was amazing. On top of the Hatu hill, ancient Hatu Mata temple is located, which is under renovation since Oct 2011.The peak offers spectacular view of the entire Himalayan ranges, snow clad mountains and in depths are the dense forests, green fields and apple orchards. It was started getting dark; Deepak suggested moving quickly, so that we can reach Sarahan on time. Sarahan is a small town but having high political importance in HP. Everyone suggested Hotel Shrikand in Sarahan. This is HPTDC hotel. Though the location of the hotel was amazing but there were no rooms available. Another good option was to stay in Bhimkali Temple, but again you need to do pre booking there. So this option was also not available for us. Deepak suggested one of his friend hotel. After few negotiations he offered the Himalayan ranges view room for 1400 Rs. Room was spacious and clean. After some refreshment we visited the Bhimakali Temple, reputed to be at least 800 years old, is dedicated to Goddess Durga or Bhimakali. The temple is Tibetan in its architectural style, with Buddhist and Hindu influences and bronze statues of both religions in the shrines. It has slanted slate roofs, golden towers, pagodas and a carved silver door among a host of wooden beams and intricate carvings. It is said Shri Veerbhadra Singh the ex CM of HP is the priest of this temple.


25th June: I made sure to get up early at 5 am to capture the different colours and glimpses of Himalayan ranges. There is a noticeable difference in the view before and after the Sunrise. You can make it out seeing the attached pics. Clicked many pic of the amazing views. We took breakfast, again visited the Bhimakali Temple and started our day, by visiting Hawa Ghar. Hawa Ghar is about 2 kms from Sarahan town. You can see the whole view of Sarahan town and Valley from Hawa Ghar. Our aim was to reach Chitkul today, via Sangla. As stated in this forum, road between Wangtoo and Karcham was pathetic. Roads were narrow and sometimes bit dangerous. SJVN and JP are extracting amazing amount of electricity from this region, they should also give importance to the social well being of this area. Reached Sangla by 13.00pm and took lunch. From Sangla went to Kamru fort. It is about 1 km walk to reach Kamru fort. It is old heritage site but the view of Sangla valley from Kamru fort is amazing. Finally reached to Chitkul around 16:00pm. Chitkul was simply a divine place with very cold wind blowing. There are only 2 hotels in this area. We stayed in Hotel Panchali and paid 900Rs. I can’t understand why HP tourism doesn’t support places like Chitkul. You have to visit this place to enjoy the beauty. I can spend whole week there. Chitkul seems pure, clean and calm. Hotel Manager was from West Bengal. He stays in Chitkul for 7-8 months as for remaining months there is heavy snowfall and nobody comes to visit Chitkul. I dont know if these 2-3 hotels were not there, we could have never seen the amazing beauty of Chitkul. We had dinner in the hotel itself. Food was good and reasonably priced.


26th June: Today's plan was to visit ITBP check naka. It is about 4 kms from the hotel. The only way to visit there is by walk, and i am glad that we went there. The trek was amazing. One of the most beautiful places i have visited. Being in UK, i have visited most of Europe including Switzerland and Austria, but beauty of this place is second to none. Amazing view of snow clad mountains and river flowing with full force. Afternoon started our journey towards Kapla. Again we passed via Sangla Valley and Kinnar-Kailash peak. We reached Kalpa around 16:00 pm. Again Deepak suggested hotel Kalpa Regency. Hotel was nice and good view of Kalpa town. Though, the food was pathetic. I would say the worth food in our entire trip. We planned to trek to Rogi village. As it was already 17:30 pm, we decided to trek one way and then will call Deepak to pick us up from Rogi village back to hotel. There were many apple and almond orchards, and can hear birds all along the way. We also had an amazing view of Kinnar Kailash peak on the way. With sunset, views were even better. Again not to mention but the road was scary. Locals say there is one suicide point on the way. Buy we found many of them . By the time we reached Rogi it was 18:30 and started getting dark. Now the adventure starts. I checked my cell, and there were no signals. I enquired in the village but nobody has any telephone there. Now, we were bit worried as how to contact Deepak. As it was almost 19:00 pm, it was completely dark. Again going back 4 kms in total dark that too in the forest area was scary. But there was no option. We started brisk walking towards hotel. There were strange noises, don’t know it was animals or wind. We almost walked 2 kms, and then saw our taxi coming our way. We were relieved. Finally it was Deepak who showed some common sense and came back looking for us. By God's grace we reached hotel safely.

27th June: Today's plan was to reach Tabo via Nako and Guin village. We started at 8:30 am towards Nako. The road was decent. Our first destination was Khab Bridge. Took few snaps of Reo Purygal, highest peak in HP from Khab Bridge. It was awesome, the road started to jig jag. Though the view was astonishing, but many times scary as well. After every passing day I was surprised that why i hell i dont know about such beautiful places of my own country? New Monastery of Nako was closed but the view of the valley and the sight of Reo Purygal from the top was breath taking. Visited Nako lake, though nothing special. At 14.00pm started from Nako and proceeded towards Chango to Sumdo. This area is totally dry, but can see different sculptures on the mountains. We took a different path of 12 km towards Giu for that famous Mummy, a temple is being built there where mummy would be kept. Then we reached Tabo around 18.30pm and found Hotel Diket Norphel, as suggested by many in this forum. He offered us the room for 600, which was good value for money. We tried some cookies at local German Bakery and had Thali in small restaurant just opposite to hotel. Visited Tabo Monastery but monastery was closed, so we have to wait till tomorrow morning. We took some snaps of the monastery from outside and had a healthy discussion with monks about Buddhist culture and Tibet influence in Spiti region.

28th June: We got up at 6 am as wanted to attend the Puja which happens every day in the big hall close to monastery at 7am. Puja was in Tibetan language but was soothing. At 8 am visited monastery which is said to be 1000 yrs old. Once you enter the monastery you can feel that. There is no light allowed inside the monastery as it may damage the paintings. Paintings were amazing and the whole atmosphere was mesmerizing. I personally saw the monastery for the first time, so it was totally new experience. Then we visited Tabo monastery meditation cave, which is situated on the hill. You get nice view of Tabo monastery from the hill. Then we had breakfast and departed for Kaza via Dhankar. We reached Dhankar at 12 noon. We made friends with one more couple during the trip. We saw them at Dankar. Now the plan was to see Dhankar lake. But to visit Dhankar lake, need to walk 4 km steep hill. We all 4 (me and my wife and other couple) started together. But except me all 3 gave up in between. After reading so much about it on this forum I was determined to visit this lake. It took almost 55 minutes to reach there. On the way saw some foreigners from Italy, coming back. This lake is beautiful. No habitat whatsoever. That makes this place more divine. I was able to see the mirror image of Manerang ranges in the lake. There was such calmness in this place that I can’t describe it. There were 3 workers building a Stupa there. They said it will take another 7 days to complete the work. Going down was just 30-35 minutes job. Deepak told me that others have gone to old Dhankar monastery. It was again 1 km from the new monastery but it was a plain road. Dhankar monastery was superb. Same old charm and the view of Dhankar valley were amazing from the top of the monastery. We had quick snack outside monastery and headed towards Pin Valley. On the way we say a swing that villages use to cross river. Deepak asked if we want to take a ride on the swing. We readily agreed. This was a very crude but effective to cross the river. A person needs to sit on the wring and pull the string from one end to cross the river. After this free and fun ride we moved towards Pin valley. But before reaching Pin valley, we came to know that there was a mud slide in Pin valley since last 2 weeks. So we were able to go till a point where villages along with some Government officials were blasting the mud so that way can be made for water to flow through. In this whole process we were able to see natural lake, as all the water was blocked by mud and got accumulated, creating a lake. We saw the blasting and took some snaps of the lake and moved on. We reached Kaza by 5 pm. Our plan was to stay at Rangnik in Spiti Saray. But on the way I saw some Swiss cottage by name Monk. I asked Deepak to enquire about the rates. After negotiation he agreed to offer us cottage at 1400 Rs inc Breakfast and Dinner. I agreed, as the location was very nice. It was close to Spiti River and about 10 kms before the Kaza town. We asked him to prepare for Dinner and went to See Kaza market. Did some basic shopping and came back to the cottage around 18:30 pm. It was getting cold. To our surprise the owner offered camp fire. We all had nice dinner and slept peacefully.

29th June: Today's plan was to reach Losar via kibber,kee, Langza,hikkim, Komic and Pin valley. We had a breakfast and started our day at 9 am. First place was Kibber monastery. The way to kibber was beautiful but roads were really bad. On the way can also see Parilungbi River. Monastery was really old but with beautiful paintings. Next was Kye monastery. The view from the monastery was breath taking. Then we visited Hikkim, Langza and Komic villages. The amazing part of these villages is natural beauty. It seems like heaven. Population of these villages may be less than 2000 people but there was Primary school in the village. This is one of the amazing thing in Himachal. In every village there is a primary school. Something to learn for most of other states of India. Langza and Komic were 2 awesome villages with Chau Chau kang Langda view, both places had monasteries where as Komic Monastery also has famous Snow Leopard. There was lots of preparation work going on in the villages as Buddhist Guru was planned to visit Komic monastery in 2 weeks time. We again head back to Kaza, had our late lunch at 4 pm and started our journey to last destination of today, Losar. It took almost 2.5 hours to reach from Kaza to Losar. Our plan was to stay at PWD Guest house in Losar, but they refused to give accommodation, stating this it needs to be pre booked, and if any Government official comes at night, we may have to vacant the room. Deepak suggested looking for accommodation in Losar village. After struggling for 30 minutes, finally we got an accommodation in Home stay. Though nothing special about the accommodation, but was the only option in that hour. Lady gave us room with attached bathroom for 600 rs. Homemade Punjabi food was good.

30th June: Today's plan was to visit Kumzum pass, Chandratal Lake and Keylong. We started early at 8am as wanted to cover many places today. First place was Kunzum pass. Vista got changed dramatically as we entered the snow zone with all white everywhere. Unlike Rohtang it was very clean and lonely pass to enjoy. After taking few snaps we moved towards Chandratal Lake. We were really happy to know that 2 days back the way for Chandrataal was declared open. We crossed the famous signpost where it was showing "Chandratal 14.5 km and Jeepable 13.5km". But these 13.5 kms were really scary. It was difficult to imagine how can 2 vehicles cross through such narrow road. I have seen many narrow roads in last 1 week but this was narrowest among all. I was really scared at number of places. Finally we reached our destination. But still Chandratal lake was 3 kms away. There is 3 kms walk to reach Chandratal Lake. It amost took 40 minutes walking to get the first Glimpse of Chandrataal lake. The vista was great. Snow clad mountains, grass grazing sheep and whatsoever no habitat. The glimpse of Chandrataal lake was out of this world. I have read alot about Chandratal Lake and seen lots of snaps on internet, but really the view of the lake was better than whatever i have seen before. Truely it was divine. I heard Pangong Lake in Ladakh or Lake Como in Italy is the most amazing lake, but can assure you Chandtaal lake is no less in any aspect. Spent one hour just sitting next ot the lake and admire the beauty. Then we thought to take the full round of the lake. The vista changes from the different views of the lake. After spending 3 hours around the lake, sadly we decided to go back. We reached Batal and decided to take late lunch. It was almost 4pm. While having lunch/dinner Deepak found that his mobile is missing. We thought he might have missed it somewhere at Chandrataal lake. The confusion was to go ahead as we were already very late and the way ahead was really bad and some "Pagal Naalas", or to go back and search for the mobile. But we decided that we will go back to Chandrataal lake and try to search Deepak's mobile. It was again 1 hour journey to Chandrataal lake. But this was all vain. We searched alot but was not able to find mobile. Deepak was really disappointed, as he recently bought this mobile for 7k. but now we have to move forward. It was already 18:00 pm and we were too far from Keylong. As we were moving ahead, we saw many waterfalls whose water was directly falling on the road. In the local language they call it Nallah. Going through some arduous stretches with scary water crossings. As rightly said by Kasuhik in one of the thread that it's just making way for humans rather than calling it a road. In one of the Nallah, there was so steep fall that I and Deepak need to throw some big stones to make the level even. Somehow we crossed that Naala. now it was 8 pm and almost dark. We were still to cross the famous Pagal Nala. We finally reached there, and as feared water flow was heavy and we got stuck in between. Cant move ahead or back. Deepak spent almost 30 minutes trying all the tricks to get the wheel out, but all vain and on top of it was ice cold water and chilly weather. Now we were worried what to do? Finally there were 2 Lorries which arrived. These Lorries cannot pass as we were stuck in the middle of the road. We took their help and through rope were able to pull our car out of the hole. But still there was danger of again getting stuck at the same place. Deepak gathered all his courage and with full throttle was able to get us out of the Naala. With God's grace we were out of this trouble, otherwise would have to spend whole night under that waterfall. It was 21:00 pm already. There might be more naala's on the way till Keylong. We didnt want to take any further risk and even Deepak was tired driving so much, we decided to stay in a very small village by name Chhatru. There was no hotel or even home stay in that village. We saw few foreigners staying in one hall. The hall was having some beds and quilts. So we decided that we will also stay there. Chandra River was flowing and we spent whole night in open hall. Finally this adventurous day ended.

01st July: After last day’s adventure we were greeted by bright Blue sky. We started our journey towards Khoksar. Chandra River was flowing at one end, but road was still in bad shape. After Khoksar till Tandi road was excellent. As some places we were able to touch the speed of 80 km per/hr. At Tandi, Chandra River meets with Bhaga to form Chandrabhaga. Our destinations for the day were Udaipur and Trilokinath in Pattan Valley. View of Pathan valley was amazing. Lots of Greenery and Chandrabhaga flowing at one end, adds to the beauty. In Udaipur Mrikulamata Temple was great with its wooden carvings. Then we headed for Trilokinath, the Trilokinath location was amazing and temple that hosts Shiva and Buddha together. We had very nice lunch in local dhaba there just opposite to the Temple. It was 14:00 pm now. We headed back to Rohtang. We didnt spent much time in Rohtang as we felt Rohtang has lost its charm and beauty. After seeing such lovely places Rohtang was not worth staying We headed towards Manali but there was huge traffic Jam at Rohtang pass. Spent almost 1 hour and finally were able to move. But the Rohtang pass has completely changed. After crossing the Jam we were able to touch speed on 80 km per hour for most of the distance. Finally we reached Manali. Again Deepak suggested good hotel in Manali.

02nd July: Today’s plan was to visit Manikaran. On the way to Manikaran bought some Shawls. Evening we had some leisure time at Manali's Mall road. But it was so crowded and so congested, we didnt like it much. We also said Good Bye to Deepak today and it was a great trip with him. I highly recommend Deepak. He is a very decent and nice guy, and most important trustworthy.

03rd July: We did some local sightseeing like Hadimba Temple, Manu Temple, Tibetan Market and Open Park just opposite to Tibetan market. Through park you can go and sit at the Shore of Beas River. There any many local vendors who offers Maggi, Cold drinks and all other types of snacks. Evening we left Manali for Delhi via HPTDC bus. This was the end of exiting and memorable trip.

Nice log but where are the photos?

Hi Mridula, i wanted to upload photos but on indiamike size the limit of photo is 100 kb, but all my pics are much bigger in size.. but let me know if anybody knowsthe free portal where i can upload bigger size pics

Himsmart you can re size your pics in the regular windows software. Look at the edit and then resize option. Within that choose custom and put them at 600 X 400 pixels and it would upload here fine. Do remember not to touch the original of you will lose the high res picture. Let me know if this works for you.

Here are some of the pics of the trip..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22917174@N04/