Mission Spiti 2015 - Day 09

Manali – Ambala – Delhi

Like the previous day, we could keep our target again and left on time at 04:05. And so happy was my brother because he could skip all the traffic. As soon as the light dawned, he pressed on gas to further his ambition of reaching Ambala by 13:00 for lunch. Cruising through Kullu Main Market (not taking the bypasss) at 60kmph, I sensed a puncture and yes the rear tyre which we had got tubed at Recong Peo got its first puncture. I felt amused that the problems we face in the cities are really the result of urban settlements. They are really urban problems and not rural so our fears of visiting rural places is totally uncalled for – since the facilities we fear we will not get there are required to solve only urban problems not rural. What the infinite number of pebbles and pointed stones could not do, was done by a small nail thrown on the main road of Kullu.

Outside of ACC Cement factory followed by Swarghat, we came across traffic snarls as usual but our early departure from Manali helped us a lot and we were at Ambala before time at 12:30. I had already re-filled our rear tyre once at the Toll Plaza before Ropar so we took help from my brother-in-law to get the tyre replaced from the shop at Ambala-Zirakpur road. The drive from Ambala-Delhi was eventless and non-stop since both of us dreaded the thought of going out of the car in 42°C.

Mission Spiti 2015 - Day 08

Kaza – Losar – Kunzum La – Rohtang La - Manali

The night seemed still young with no power. My brother took bath, as was my wish and advise. Today was to be the most difficult drive in our trip as well as in our lives – rather his life. It was 04:08 when started the car and made our way through the dark silence of Kaza towards Deyzor. To our surprise, the other party was loading the car and were supposed to leave in few minutes. My brother had told them that we are together on our road to Manali but nobody will wait for the other. If you are able to leave early – leave and if we are ready earlier – we will leave.

As soon as we crossed the Spiti bridge to reach Rangrik, there was a slight light that appeared on top of the peaks. The sky had a peculiar color between black and blue which, obviously, we cannot describe in words. And, with that growing light in the Spiti Valley, we started our most photographic day in our drive. We stopped at many places for the clicks with me quickly getting out of the car, taking the shot with the car and jumping back inside. We did not want to, no matter what, lose the early departure advantage. Soon the RJ-27 Innova overtook us smiling.

 

After Rangrik

After Kyato 

Before Losar

Clicking & Driving, we crossed Kyato to reach Losar in time at 06:15. The Tashigan Guest House, an associate of Jamaica, was the only one that seemed to be working so early morning. Walking in, we again met the 5 DL bikers with Support Innova staying there for the night before. Also we met the enthusiastic docile young Couple from Bangalore whom we had met at Ki Gompa 2 days back helping explain the Buddhism & Gompa concept & history to the large Caucasian group whom we had overtook inside the Gompa. They were on their way to trek ChandraTal and my guess was that the Losar stay must have helped them acclimatize. We had a hearty toast-chai breakfast at Losar when the temperature was still negative along with some khakra and dry fruits before proceeding ahead.

Approaching Losar

Entering Losar

Breakfast at Losar

Upstream with Spiti

Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear

The River is our Map, The Rocks our Milestones
The Grass makes our Bed, The Pebbles make our Road

Maneuvering & Video-taping, we finally reached atop Kunzum La at 08:00 sharp thereby giving us the feeling of an accomplishment not only w.r.t. our capacity but also our timing. After a long session of photography and relishing the achievement, we took back to the road. Although, not really to our surprise, there was no actual road after Batal that we could see or figure out or follow. It seemed like we were driving through the river. In places, the rocky trail took us away from the river but then it again brought us back to the pebble bed – no, the rocky bed. For the first time in our trip, we were now driving downstream with a river – the Chandra River originating from ChandraTal which means the highest point of our trip was Kunzum La. At a point after Batal, we actually had to pull the car to complete stop because we felt confused as to which trail to take but our far-sight and fore-sight helped us take the right trail each time and proceed on the right path. Soon after Batal, a local Bolero driver coming from opposite side waved us down and advised us in a jiffy “Chhatru ke baad 2 bade Naale hain. Rukna mat, jaldi Cross karlo. Paani khoob badhta ja raha hai.” On asking how far from Chhatru, he said “Hmmm, 10 km baad – aage”.

Climbing Kunzum La

A Little More

Just Around the Corner

Kunzum La

Kunzum La

Kunzum La Accomplished!

Looking East from Kunzum La

Approaching Batal

Leh 565 km from Batal

Today, as I write this log, the next 4 hours of that drive, seem to me as if I lived through them in my dream. And I feel moved – my eyes stare at oblivion – my throat skips and swallows – I forget whether I am breathing or not – when I reminisce those 4 hours through which my brother treaded the Batal – Gramphoo road. Contrary to my habit and need of putting everything in words, for once, I will not write anything about it. I request everybody to just watch pictures and our videos and then get inspired to drive through that path. I still get shocked and I believe I will continue to get appalled all my life looking at what we could achieve.

The terrain changed gradually after Batal but changed drastically after Chhatru when we started climbing. To answer our hunger pangs, we had decided to stop for Lunch at Gramphoo but as we joined the main Manali-Leh Highway, there was not a single person from whom we could even ask directions for. So we had to proceed to Rohtang La where we hoped we could get something to eat.

Water Crossing

Glacier Science Laboratory at Chhota Darra

Chhatru

Approaching Gramphoo

BRO Welcomes you to Rohtang Top

As we drove towards Rohtang, the Road looked very bad and felt very bad to drive on – still the traffic was thin limited to that going towards Keylong or Leh. I advised my brother in the movie Lakshya’s style (where Om Puri advises Hrithik Roshan before the final Mission): “Agar Kachchi Sadak khatm hojaye aur Black Top Road aa jaye to fauran laaparwah na ho jana. Yeh Off road dobara palat kar zaroor aayegi”. He burst into a laughter and I felt happy at being able to relieve his nerves at driving such a terrible road even after Gramphoo. However, Our happiness vanished as soon as we crossed Rohtang after having lunch. The road became butter-smooth but the traffic merging at Solang diversion was too much to handle for the little road and the resulting jam was longer than what seemed to be eternity. The smoke from the vehicles gave me the cough which no high altitude or low temperature could give me.

We felt quite uneasy with the punctured tyres but had the pump and the courage to drive on by filling the air and not getting it corrected at the Manali Fair. Inside, the actual reason, that we knew was that the puncture actually could not be repaired. It needed replacement. Period.

As we spread our legs at the Greenfields, the RJ-27 Innova caught up to us and we had an hour long chat relishing and reliving the day. After bidding happy and see-ya-soon goodbyes, we had a nice meal of Paneer-Roti-Dal-Rice and retired for the day. We had parked our Car on the road itself so that we could leave early at 04:00 again. I had decided not to take bath again.

Mission Spiti 2015 - Day 07

Kaza – Langza – Hikkim – Komic – Demul – Tashigong – Gette – Kibber – Chicham – Ki – Kaza

As per the program, we left at sharp 08:00 for Hotel Spiti to pick the RJ 27 Team. Good for us, the sun was shining brighter than ever and it gave us the much needed warmth from the yet cold temperature. Our first stop was Langza and to our happiness, our driver could tread the slush quite well. The slush was also not too bad today and was getting even better with the bright sun.

Freshly Snowed Peaks

Clouds & Sun

Sachinji enjoying the Sun in Freezing Wind

Langza Village

Langza - the World's Highest Motorable Village

Clicking pictures, we went on to pass by Hikkim followed by Komic. On the way, we took numerous sudden stops to spot the Birds. Now we were in company of 3 members of Indian Birding Association. They politely advised us to reprimand them when we feel their birding stops had got beyond tolerance. At first, we felt amused at their excitement of spotting birds and then embarrassed when they uttered color names like scarlet-necked and chestnut-tailed which, to us brothers, was completely alien as our comprehension of colors was limited to the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. We belong to that group of people who feel bemused when looking at our wives’ new fuchsia footwear and for whom the purple does not look much different than violet.

Komic

Komic Gompa

Komic Gompa

Gorge outside Chicham

A Herd of Yaks

Chicham getting connected by Asia's highest Concrete Bridge
Is it Good or Bad?

Trek from Ki to Kaza

Our Horse at KayCee Lodge

Practice Contentment

Are you well Educated or well Traveled?

It is You who belong to this Land

Hikkim Village

Komic to Tashigong

Gorge outside Chicham

Bull-fight

Anyway, we took our time to assimilate – not the birding information – but their need for stopping the car abruptly and it was after Komic Gompa, that I could bring out the Task Manager inside me and announce “People: Now we have targets to keep. It is 11:00 and we are at Komic. We have to reach Tashizom at Kibber for Lunch by 13:30 after visiting Tashigong, Gette, Chicham & Kibber.” Everybody obeyed me and our Driver easily maneuvered through every place. The landscape around Chicham was very different and my brother could easily declare that to be much better than US Grand Canyon.

We had a wet filling lunch at Tashizom where the attendant charged me lesser for the Thukpa than yesterday. I did not mind. For the sunshine, there were more vehicles today on the roads than yesterday as well as parked outside Tashizom. The brooding spectacled 55 year old that I had spotted lurking at Deyzor the last night was at Tashizom with his family. He commented about our rush to drive 2000+ km in a week and advised us to take life easy which I did not appreciate especially when he told us that he was in the Army. Inside I was just defending myself “Let us exchange our lives first and then talk about driving easy. And then too, we are just driving 600km on the first day and the last. All other days have 150km on average only.” When that Retd Army Official left before us, he came inside to bid us a special goodbye and wish us luck for the drive ahead – my brother, knowing the look at my face, consoled me “See, Ankit, I did not go to him. He came to me to wish me luck. That means, regardless of his comment about our rush, he was appreciative and perspired of what we were doing”.

Driving back, we took the decision of getting down before Ki and walk to Kaza. All of them asked for the definitiveness of our decision to which we replied “Do have the free GLHT!” Inspite of taking 2 shortcuts in the walk for more than an hour, Kaza was still 8km ahead of me. It was quite sunny, a little cold and all my clothes were wet because of the sweat. I heaved a sigh of relief when the car picked us again but I was yet to realize the after effects of a brisk walk at that altitude. My head did not stop aching till after sleep. On reaching the Kay-Cee, I got on to my tasks ahead and asked Ritesh to boil as much water possible for me to have a deep clean shave with a good bath. I had decided not to take bath the next morning before our scheduled 04:00 departure for Manali. Clearing all the accounts with Jamaica, I did not realize what I realized in Delhi that I had forgotten to click a special picture with him for my souvenir. The chef at Deyzor treated my brother’s demand very well with his pasta and bruschetta bread apart from the regular momos.

Mission Spiti 2015 - Day 06

Kaza – Langza – Ki – Kibber – Kaza – Dhankar – Kaza

Waking up, I was feeling much better while the cold rainy breeze swept through the lodge. Getting ready with the stove heated water was not as difficult as I thought it to be – I recalled my days in MNNIT Allahabad & FMS Delhi Hostel. Lapping up the Tea-Toast, we geared up to drive to Langza in our freshly rain-washed SX4.

Topping-up at Kaza

World's Highest Retail Outlet

The landscape looked very different in the cloud color than the yellow sunlight’s color. We must have been 2.5 km before Langza village when our car got stuck in deep slush and for the first time in our lives, we realized what slush actually means. My brother asked me to get off with my mobile immediately so that if the car goes down the road, I will be in a position to call for help. After getting off, as I took my first step, I could not – 2.5 inches of slush was stuck on my shoes’ bottom and it felt like somebody had tied heavy weights (like Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander cycling practice session). So panicked we were that I ran at my best manageable speed to call for help from a team of laborers hidden from the heavy rain in a nearby camp. Not willing to get drenched, they came out very reluctantly and promised to come for help if something happens (in their view, the slush was easily negotiable).

Approaching Langza

Approaching Langza

Approaching Langza

My brother could negotiate the car out of the slush and we decided to try Ki-Kibber route which we had been told was black top. Yes, that, it indeed was and was a treat to our eyes as well as our tyres because of being freshly washed by the rain. The color of the atmosphere was rain white, a good change from the dusty yellow color we had been driving through since the last 5 days. As we pulled over into the Ki Gompa Parking, we did not realize how far we had to climb to get to the Fortress. Due to my urge to answer a minor nature’s call, a large group of Caucasians were ahead in queue for us and it did take a long time for the front-benchers in that group to understand what Buddhism was all about, what Spiti region was all about and then what Ki Gompa was all about. We were not as good students of Buddhism as they were and finding a subtle opportunity to skip the queue, we took the plunge getting ahead of them in the sight-seeing game. Proceeding with the Old Prayer Chamber as well, I quickly got down to my main target inside Ki Gompa – the GLHT. My brother hesitated – and even knowing that I am much more miser than him – I said its free and we’re welcome here for freebies unlike Delhi thereby relieving her of the hesitation.

Approaching Ki Gompa

Welcome to Ki Gompa

New Prayer Hall

From the Roof of Ki Gompa

Interesting Metal faces on the Roof of Ki Gompa

Our Horse SX4 in the Ki Gompa Parking Lot

The GLHT at Ki Gompa

The Ginger Lemon Honey Tea was the best hot beverage I have had in my life so far and it further re-affirmed my cultural concept that one should always survive on the local food and water when traveling because I strongly believe there is a reason why Chinese cuisine has maida based noodles with soya sauce and soup whereas Tamil cuisine has a lentil based dosa and rice based idli with spicy sauces and sambar. One could argue that cuisine is based on locally grown or available products which is a perfect argument but I would like to argue back that the climate and topography are the reasons for the growth of those vegetables or availability of those kind of animals. The GLHT was a blessing and warmed us to the bowels, quite literally, in that severe cold which was being further precipitated by the wet precipitation.

Ki Gompa

We proceeded to the Kibber village and the cut towards Tashigong & Gette showed a grim state of slush. We had earlier planned to stay the night at Tashizom Guest House but that was when we had a travel plan of 1.5 days. With slush cutting short our day-trip to just 4 hours, we decided to just click pictures outside Kibber and then have a Thukpa Lunch at Tashizom which, at 13:30, again gave us enough warmth required for the next travel slot. The rooms, we visited, were a treat (especially the Family Suite with the Bukhari) and I wondered how my wife and kids would definitely enjoy a stay here – provided they can come with me sometime in the future.

Trek Start Point from Kibber to Prang La

Tashizom Guest House at Kibber

You only get the Signal at this point at Tashizom

Kibber

Kibber-Tashigong Link Road

On my brother’s advise, I called back Jamaica and requested him to keep a small car ready for our Dhankar visit, which was ready when we drove back into Kaza. We declared that we would have to forego the Sagnam-Kud tour now. The Dhankar Tour was quite eventless but I did not forget to click the Attargu diversion picture. The Dhankar Gompa & Village, contrary to my expectation, had a tinge of difference from Tabo or Ki. I had not felt this difference between the Gompas of Hemis, Thiksey, Lamayuru, etc. We returned to visit the Kaza Monastery right in front of our Room and we again bumped into the RJ-27 Innova. Thereon, what followed was a nice camaraderie between the 3 of them and the 2 of us. They enquired about ChandraTal and we towed them into the KayCee Lodge to have a chat with Jamaica. After laying down a lot of permutations and combinations, it was finally decided that we would forego ChandraTal and rather complete the local Village tour in a local SUV which was arranged by Jamaica. On his advice, we proceeded to Deyzor for Dinner, also because Deyzor was the only property in Kaza with a Generator.

Gorge on the way to Attargu

Diversion for Pin Valley

Dhankar Gompa at the brink of Collapse

Confluence of Pin into Spiti

Eroded Formations at Dhankar Gompa

Dhankar Village

Wildflowers before Kaza

Quechua Tent

Quechua Tent

Son of our Driver (Owner of Homestay)

Kaza Monastery

Kaza Monastery

And to our surprise, what property it was. Deyzor looked like an Oasis in that cold desert. The Thukpa, I ordered for everybody, was the best I have had so far and the sauce accompanying the Momos was nothing like what you get at Delhi stalls. The delicious food helped the night come down heavy on us by putting us to a good sleep.