SPITI -: Trekking, Home Stays and Facts

voyager61

Hi! Ecosphere is an expensive option,you can surely do the same things paying definitely less,plus they are definitely not the most experienced.

mridula

I would say ask ecosphere for non-luxury rates, where they do not include jeeps from Manali and expensive places to stay at Tabo etc.

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Mridula

Travel Tales from India

AdventureFellowship

Great work Dhananjay, i used their home stay. Know Ishita and Sunil very well. But you have done a great job for all visitor here...

meczko

I've done the Spiti left bank trek with my wife in August. It was pretty easy to do without an agency nor a guide. Here's our trip report, in case somebody needs the details. I included Google Earth coordinates, as most of the trek coupld be seen in good resolution.

We used Kaza as a base for the Langza – Komic – Demul – Lhalung –Dhankar trek, leaving excess luggage at the hotel. At first we were a bit afraid of finding the route by ourselves so we asked for the prices of arranging this trek by an agency. The first one we asked was Ecosphere (http://www.spitiecosphere.com/, http://www.himalayan-homestays.com/), but they quoted us rip-off prices of 550 Rs per person per day for accommodation and a further ca. 1000 Rs per day for pack animals and pony man.We asked at another agency at the small square in the very centre of Kaza (later an IndiaMike poster indicated me their name and webpage: Spiti Holiday Adventure, http://www.spitiholidayadventure.com/) and they gave us a honest advice – told us that hiring a pair of pack animals and pony man would cost about 500 Rs a day, the pony man would show us the way and find accomodation. However, they told us that the orientation is simple, accomodation easy to find, so we can easily leave excess luggage and go by ourselves. After their reassuring advice we decided to go by ourselves, but if anybody would prefer arranging it, I would definitely recommend avoiding Ecosphere and doing it by Spiti Holiday Adventure.

Route details of this trek can be found on the following webpages:

SPITI -: Trekking, Home Stays and Facts

http://www.gonomad.com/destinations/...dia-spiti.html

http://www.trekkingforum.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=3542 (in German)

http://www.trekkingforum.com/forum/s...php?p=83344(in German)

We started by taking a jeep from Kaza to Langza (32.16 N, 78.06 E, alt.4500 m) for 600 Rs, where we visited the monastery (some old frescoes) with a recently constructed giant Buddha statue. From the monastery we backtracked a little bit along the road and turned (at the junction over Langza, with Ecosphere sign) to another jeepable road going to Komic. We walked along the road taking some shortcuts and soon reached a pass, from where both the village of Hikkim and the Komic Gompa (at greater distance) were well visible. The village of Komic lies below the gompa and is visible first from the immediate approach to it. It took us some 3-4 hrs from Langza to Komic Gompa, walking very slowly because of short breath.

Komic Gompa (32.14 N, 78.06.40 E, alt. 4500 m) houses very friendly monks from the Sakyapa school. There are some interesting frescoes and masks used for Chaam dances in the old temple (near the guesthouse, out of the new temple complex). Unfortunately entrance to the old temple is forbidden for women, so my wife could not visit it. There’s also a stuffed snow leopard hung above the entrance. We slept at the monastery guesthouse, paid 150 Rs per person (additional donation was appreciated but not asked for), including food - 3 simple meals. The room had a waterless bathroom (bucket provided), water was available from a well nearby and toilets (also waterless) were on the outside. The monastery has a well stocked shop, selling bottled water, snacks, soft drinks,sweets and even beer (we didn’t risk it at this altitude). They also have one of the highest volleyball playgrounds in the world.

The next (2nd) day we walked to Demul, assisted by a group of boy monks from Komic monastery school going back to their families in Demul. The boys, aged between 5 and 10 years, were running and jumping around, gentle enough not to laugh at our pathetic altitude-crippled efforts. The way would be quite easy to find even without any assistance – for the first part it followed a jeepable road, along a path parallel to it, climbing to a pass with a small chorten (slightly above 4700 m, duly circumambulated by us together with our monk companions) and then traversing gentle slopes of a valley with one-house shepherds hamlet (called Doksa, 32.12.11 N, 78.07.31 E, alt. 4500 m) in its bottom. At some distance behind Doksa, before the road starts to wind down, we took a well-trodden path going to the left, first uphill, then almost flat. Soon we reached a stone hut of yak herders, where we had chai and yoghurt (probably32.11.33 N, 78.08.32 E, alt. 4600 m). Then we continued along the path, again uphill, to another pass of 4717 m, with a chorten and prayer flags. Views were awesome during the last part of the ascent, as a side valley opened a wide perspective on upper Khunke valley and surrounding snow-covered peaks,including Chang Chau Kang Nilda. A pack of yaks grazed in the valley below, of more‘yakety’ sort than the usual mix of yak and cattle. Behind the pass our path continued for the final 1 hr of quite steep descent to Demul, with some walls of interesting mani stones immediately before the village. Altogether the Komic to Demul walk took us some 6-7 hrs.

As we were told afterwards by our Lhalung host, there are several homestays in Demul (32.10.10 N, 78.10.45 E, alt. 4300 m). Not knowing it, we went to the only one with a sign – Gonpo Homestay, in a traditional house inthe upper part of the viilage, to the right of the main street as one arrives from Komic. The accomodation was very modest (waterless toilet, no bathroom,water available from a waterhose on the street) and the host family, being partof the Ecosphere scheme, charged us a quite high price of 300 Rs per person, including meals. We have not seen any shop in the village.

From Demul into Lhalung the path descends some 600 meters, which turned out to be quite useful for me, as I had a headache after the second night over 4000 m. The first part of the walk on our third day was a steep descent into a gorge immediately below the Demul village. After some time, the creek descending from Demul (and our path) joined the valley of Khunke (as named onthe Leomann map) - a bigger stream, with a well trodden path. A further 1 hr orless down this stream took us to the tiny village of Sanglung (32.08.54 N,78.12.25 E, alt. 3550 m) at its confluence with the Lingti river. From there we turned left up the Lingti valley, walking 1 hr along a well-trodden path traversing quite high above the Lingti. The path then descended to the bridge on the Lingti just below Lhalung. From the previous descriptions we found on the web there was some confusion as to the existence of this bridge (apparently washed away by a flood some years ago), so we can confirm – as of August 2008 the bridge has been reconstructed and looks quite solid. From the bridge it wasa 30 minutes ascent to Lhalung village. Total walking time for the Demul to Lhalung part was about 4 hours. The ascent would be indeed painful in the opposite way, so we were quite happy that we had chosen this direction and grateful to the Polish traveller who had warned us about that at Malling.

In Lhalung (32.08.50 N, 78.14 E, alt. 3750 m) numerous houses now offer homestays. After seeing one of them, we finally went to the Khabrik Guesthouse, a homestay ran already for some years by a very friendly family. The owner works also as a mountain guide (guiding i.a. treks from Kibber to Tso Moriri) and speaks quite communicable English. His wife also has some basic English skills. We paid 200 Rs per person, including meals. The bathroom and toilet were modest but functional and clean, with water (cold and hot) provided in buckets. There’s a shop in the village quite near to Khabrik Guesthouse, but without a sign, so we had to ask the hosts to point it. There was beer in the shop, in the quantity of one single bottle.

Lhalung has an old Gelugpa monastery situated a little above the village.It used to be a Tabo-like monastery complex (allegedly founded by Ringchen Zangpo in 996 AD) but only one temple survived till today, with very interesting frescoes and sculptures. A metal roof has been added quite recently, protecting the building but also damaging its view. Only ruins of other temples remain. The main temple was closed as we arrived, looking deserted, but as we hung around for a while, a friendly monk appeared and opened it for us (donation appreciated). He allowed us to photograph inside the temple for a photo fee – hence an appeal to the next visitors: if you are allowed to do it, be careful not to use flash, as it could damage the frescoes.Afterwards we had a tea in his quarters. He told us that Lhalung is now not a monastery on its own, but rather part of Dhankar monastery and Dhankar monks take turns staying in Lhalung.

The last, fourth day of our trip was an easy 5 hrs walk (at a slow pace)from Lhalung to Dhankar. Shortly after leaving Lhalung towards the main Spiti valley we took the upper jeepable road running parallel quite high above the Lingti. It’s possible to reach Dhankar walking all the time along this road but the views are far better taking a shortcut along a path as the road approaches the main Spiti valley. The path leaves the road to the left (uphill) and is well trodden and visible all the way. Shortly before Dhankar it rejoins the road.

In Dhankar (32.05.25 N, 78.12.45 E, alt. 3800 m) there are several guesthouses and homestays but we didn’t stop there for the night. We visited the famous Gelugpa monastery (very interesting, entrance free, donation appreciated) and the ruins of the fort on the top of the rocks. The village itself is quite picturesque too. We also considered going uphill to the Dhankar lake (32.05.30 N, 78.13.40 E, alt. 4140 m) but it looked so steep that after 4 days of trek a warm shower and comfortable room in Kaza turned up more enticing. Luckily, an Indian couple met at the monastery gave us a lift.

mridula

Meczko, that is a wonderful trip report. I did the same trek (Dhankar Lake included) with Ecosphere and somehow they did not charge us so much!

It is good to hear that is is easy to find the way on your own, something I am not really capable of!

AndreasW

...awake memories. Meczko, thanks for your trip report!

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meczko

Thanks for kind words. I used your reports - in fact they were one of the reason we have chosen this trek, so thank you for inspiration!

Perhaps if I had negotiated the price... but their starting price seemed so exorbitant, compared to standard Spiti prices, that we simply didn't try.

I also think we had somewhat better contact with the locals going on our own, including Komic monks - sleeping in the monastery was a great experience.

mridula

Meczko, now it is my turn to say thank you

I agree that if we had the courage to go on our own it would have been wonderful! Also we pre-booked this trek so we had no comparison point. And yes, whenever we return to Spiti I would love to stay in a monastery.

joie-de-vivre

Hey Meczko, nice trek report, very useful, thanks for sharing.

I would like to know, that you have mentioned `first part it followed a jeepable road, along a path parallel to it' in second day report, that means jeepable road goes beyond Komic, towards demul?, up to how long, from komic ?

meczko

The jeepable road goes far beyond Komic, through the first pass and then traversing the valley over the Doksa settlement. It doesn't go further towards Demul, as it then starts to wind down. We haven't gone any further along this road, but it's well visible on Google Earth - it continues traversing the slopes of the main Spiti valley and eventually joins the road from the valley to Demul, but quite far from Demul. The exact spot where it meets the Demul road is 32.09.13 N, 78.10.02 E according to Google Earth.

Perhaps it's a recent addition - neither of the web reports I had read before mentions this road.

four by four

Dhananjay! Do you happen to know this guy in this picture?

Attached Thumbnails

 

meczko

some pics from my trek:

http://community.webshots.com/user/HillTrekker

voyager61

Hi! I mentioned that road in another thread sometime ago,I went all the way from Kaza to the Lidang-Demul link road on it in a Sumo,it is quite spectacular,sometimes closed due to small landslides,but then reopened again. Above Lara village there were some blue sheep very near the road and not running away.

joie-de-vivre

Voyeger, did you take the kaza-langza-komik-demul route or the road from lara to demul ? Is it possible to reach demul in jeep, via either of these two routes?

meczko

It must be possible - I have seen a jeep in Demul and Demul was also listed among the destinations at Kaza jeep stand.