Trip report : kinnaur spiti tour - april 2008

[quote=bijondhanbad;520663]
SIMLA TO SARAHAN - 169 km
SARAHAN TO SANGLA - 93 km
SANGLA TO KALPA - 44 km
KALPA TO TABO - No idea, Kalpa to Khab Bridge is 77 km
TABO TO KIBBER & BACK - No idea
TABO TO RAMPUR - No idea, Khab Bridge to Rampur is 158 km
RAMPUR TO SHIMLA - 129 km
SHIMLA TO KALKA - 85 km

Buy yourself Nest & Wings HP map in Delhi or Shimla, nothing better.

we are planning the same route in mid october this year. from 17th of october to 27th of october to be precise.
I have some queries
1. Is this off season or season? do i have to book in advance?
2. the rates u mentioned are season rates only. do i get any discounts that time of the year?
3. if i plan to do the route from manali, via kaza and then on to kinnaur through nako and tabo, will it be better than doing it from shimla because of chances of snowfall at that time of the year?

Thanks again for the superb trip report..........

anindya,

1. Off-season, with the spike due to Durga Puja hols in WB.
But you won't have to book in advance.
2. In fact I went in exactly the same period 2 years ago, and plenty of discounts to be had.
3. Absolutely right, if it makes no difference you shud start at Manali and end at Shimla, just to be safe. At most Rohtang La will be closed a day or two, but why lose them?

Dilliwala/Anindya

1. the puja holidays are the peak season because most of the tourists are bengali. I would think a reservation would be better, other wise you may have to pay a high premium for very seedy rooms.

2. I have usually mentioned both season and offseason rates. the ones we got were off-season rates as we were the first tourists of the season almost everywhere.

dilliwala.... the scenario has changed a lot in the last two years. almost every bengali travel magazine I have read in the last six months has an article promoting kinnaur/spiti as a destination. lots of pckage tours being orgainized out of kolkata for kinnaur heavily advertised in the magazines. so I would suggest pre-booking a hotel.

Quote:

dilliwala.... the scenario has changed a lot in the last two years. almost every bengali travel magazine I have read in the last six months has an article promoting kinnaur/spiti as a destination. lots of pckage tours being orgainized out of kolkata for kinnaur heavily advertised in the magazines. so I would suggest pre-booking a hotel.

Ah, didn't know that. Still, I'm always personally confident of getting a decent room at a decent rate in Oct and must say I've never been disappointed anywhere in HP or UA - and the Bengalis also go everywhere, not just Kinnaur .
The benefit in this approach is - bargaining . Booking long-distance early means the hotel folks always lie and get full rates - "Oh yes, we're full up!" Face to face they can't prove they have people staying that aren't there.
In fact - 2006, Prakash GH Sangla - a group moved in just before us and got the better rooms (or so we thought - they took the ones facing the road). Bengalis of course. But there wasn't anyone else, and we were still offered a discount. I have already mentioned earlier the mistake in not taking it up.

thanks for the replies....
to put it through i dont want to lose on the discounts as well as i dont want to be staying in a seedy hotel.
we may be some 18 to 20 people and as far as my knowledge goes i should be getting rooms everywhere other than tabo where there r not many hotels.......am i right??????
but prebooking from kolkata means not getting any discounts or having to shell out more than 600 rs for any room.........
but i dont want to pay more than 400-500 for decent room with geyser and room heater if possible as there will be some 60+ people in our group..........what do u say.........is my wish far fetched or is it possible???

waiting for ur valuable inputs

anindya
if you have such a large group (including senior citizens) I would definitely recommend prebooking. 20 people will mean atleast 5-6 rooms. so you may anyway have to split into 2-3 groups even if you prebook.

without prebooking if you arrive in sangla with this huge group you will spend all the time running around from one GH to another trying to accomodate 2 here 3 there another 5 somewhere else.

kinnaur has become immensely popular among bengali tourists in the last 1 year. so I doubt you will get any discount in the peak puja season anyway. they see you with such a large group they will charge for premium even to accomodate you in "not preffered" rooms.

thanks nayan once again....
i also do think so but let us see if we can book through some better travel operator who can get us good rooms at less charge.
anyway it is still not clear how many of us will be going finally.
i will know in a day or two....till then keeping my fingers crossed

you can contact Ramchandra ( no given in trip report)........they can suggest good hotels for yoru group....... tell budget..... but I do feel that 750 per day would be more realistic budget

Whoa, for 20 people I wud book too! But closer to the date, let's say in Sep.

Let's see now:
Shimla - I can dig up the fone no. for Hotel Greenland on Circular Road (the back road) near Lakkar Bazar. Decent hotel, more importantly, has road access.

Sarahan - Temple GH, but may not be enough accom for all. Spread yourselves out between this and that Bengali hotel that I can't remember the name of - Sagarika? Not too great, but ok for a night or two.
Btw, this hotel, alongwith Debbhumi Regency in Sangla, and Rakpa Regency and Chini Bangla in Kalpa are actually owned/leased by a Bengali, from Howrah. Might be an idea to contact for "package rates".

Sangla - More here.

the no of people are still not fixed. so i am not being able to book rooms.
can u give me the contact address/phone no of the travel operator of howrah who has hotels in sangla and kalpa??????????

I see there's a third one at Kalpa, Hotel Shivalik.
And Sagarika at Sarahan is correct.
They also have the Jajabar Camp Resort at Mastarang, not far from Chhitkul.

Ok, the contact I have is:
Himachal Group of Hotels,
9/2/2, Girish Banerjee Lane, Howrah 711101.

For some reason they seem not to want to be contacted there, becos apart from the tel no. missing, the card continues to say:
"Contract by
Geetanjali Tours and Travels
8-B, RN Mukherjee Rd., Cal 1
Tel: 26502415"

Anyway, here are the tel nos. in HP if you need them:
Kalpa - 01786-226158
Sangla - 01786-243030
Sarahan - 01782-274491

Note: If you do go with them, ask "Do you have enough staff at each place? How many?"
At Sarahan there was one manager-cum-receptionist-cum-cook and one chhokra-cum-bellboy-cum-kitchen help-cum-water mopper-up! (both from Howrah, of course).
So they were going frantic at 9 am the day we were leaving cooking and serving dal/bhat to a group of 6 or 8 Bengali tourists, consequently our half-breakfast was delayed.

Thanks Nayan and Dilliwala for all the info ...i've more or less finalised my trip to Spiti starting 26th July and guess what it's 'Ramchandra' for us as well...but he is asking for Rs2300 per day instead of Rs 2000...

My trip details is given below though would like to ensure i'm in Kee on the 6th day for the Chaam festival.

Require info on road and weather condition at this time of the year.


Day-01 eparture from Shimla to Sarahan via Kufri ,Fagu ,Narkanda, Rampur.
Day-02 :Local Sightseeing at Sarahan and departure to Sangla and local sight seeing.
Day-03 eparture from Sangla visiting Chitkul on the way and reaching Kalpa and local sightseeing at Kalpa.
Day-04 eparture early in morning from Kalpa to Tabo and visiting Nako lake and Gheun village and reaching Tabo by nightfall.
Day-05 :Local sightseeing at Tabo and Dhankar monastery
Day-06 :Pin valley and reaching Kaza by nightfall.
Day-07 :Visiting Kibber village and Kee monastery.
Day-08 :Komic,Langza,Hikkim
Day-09 eparture from Kaza to Manali

Road: Watch this thread closely, specially for updates by voyager!

Weather: Expect rain.

Reading the article on Kinnaur Kailash & viweing the photos I am planning to go there . I have some questions, here they are

Q1. Is October start or end a good time to view snowy peaks all around? Can we go there in winter like January mid/ end?
Q2. We havn't booked our rooms, so if we go in October ( PUJA HOLIDAYS) is there sufficient accommodation available ?
Q3. Can we go direct to Sangla from Simla in one day if we start very early in the morning.--Actually I have planned in the following way--

Day--1-- reaching, Simla stay
Day--2-- leave early in the morning for Sangla ( time to travel ???)
Day--3-- Sangla to Kalpa ( time to travel ???)
Day--4-- Kalpa
Day--5-- Kalpa to Sarahan ( time to travel ???)
Day---6-- Sarahan to Kalka ( time to travel ???)
to catch night train , that's why I want to keep Sarahan at the end.