Finally after mustering courage (particularly because we were going to drive all by ourselves in our 6 year old Fiat Palio!) we decided to start on the 25th of August, and we prayed hard that it didn’t rain any more. We decided to take the anticlockwise route i.e. Delhi to Shimla and all the way to Manali. The 2 things that affected the decision:
1) We would gain altitude at a slower rate if we took the Shimla first, route (since it was my first time at such a height, I wasn’t sure if I would or would not have altitude sickness). Going from Manali meant gaining height much faster.
2) Since Spiti is a cold desert, we didn’t expect any rain there and once we got through from Shimla and Narkanda we would at least get to see the Spiti valley and could retrace back if the road ahead towards Manali wasn’t good.
August 25, 2007: Delhi to Narkanda
We started at 6.00 a.m. inspite of wanting to start earlier (which, really helps in such trips, as you get out of the city traffic before it gets too bad). The whole country seemed to be under construction. The GT road in Panipat, is a driver’s nightmare. The road just before Chandigarh, were dug up for a long stretch. We managed to bypass that rush courtesy a sardarji who was kind enough to lead us through godforsaken interior roads, out into a street where we could see the “Welcome to Chandigarh” board. A very interesting thing that I noticed in Chandigarh, was traffic cops fleecing money out of people. I saw 6 cops while we were driving through the city and incidentally all the 6 were negotiating with some driver for money!
Once we started driving through the mountains we could clearly see a lot of mud on the roads (a result of mudslides) that was pushed aside (a result of the bulldozers which promptly cleared the way). And there were a few stones erected, a makeshift micro temple constructed beside each such location. We also a saw a couple of houses that had been damaged by some falling boulder.
Life in these areas could force anyone to believe that God exists.
7.00 p.m: We reached Narkanda, HPTDC Hotel “Hatu”. The road to the hotel had fallen trees, loose roads, and lots of mud. After a long tiring drive it was nice to see no tourists and the hotel offering a 30% discount!
August 26, 2007: Narkanda to Sarahan
We started at 10.15 a.m. The roads till Rampur were nice after which we found stretches that were bad but the overall situation was better than expected. In the last 12 kilometers to Sarahan we were stopped by a mudslide..the smell of fresh earth. But thankfully a bulldozer had already arrived and we just had to wait a few minutes before we could go ahead. You can safely call this “Apple country”. Apples everywhere! The trees laden with apples and everyone around eating an apple!
We checked into the beautiful HPTDC hotel “Srikhand”. Discount again- 30%. We were the only tourists in the hotel. The last time I was here it was their weekly market day, with small shops spread out on the streets. But they were not there this time. The few other tourists I saw were foreigners.
The Bhimkali temple overlooking the hotel was very pretty. The architecture was unlike anything I had ever seen. You see such stuff only in these parts. The outer doors are beautifully carved brass and the inner doors are all silver. There is even a guesthouse inside the temple premises, which had only foreigners. I secretly pledged to come back and stay here next time. By the time we got to see it, the daily “aarti” was over. The priest asked us to come early next morning.
August 27, 2007: Sarahan to Kalpa
We woke up at 5.30 a.m to see the sunrise, but there were so many clouds that we seemed to be suspended mid air among clouds. You can literally see and feel the clouds pass by you.
I finally managed to find the source of gushing sound I had been hearing since last evening. A small white stream hidden in the greenery, hardly visible from the balcony above.
We had been asking about the condition of the roads ahead as we proceeded, so we decided to give the Sangla valley and Raksham a miss this time. We remembered the roads there, when we had visited last year. That was when they said that the roads were “nice”!
So we started at 9.30 a.m and headed towards Kalpa. As we started driving down we realized that the weather was not as cloudy as it seemed from a height. It was even sunny. Initially the roads were nice and it was nice to see the river Satluj flowing beside us like a fellow traveler who has been continuing the journey for thousands of years. The flow of the river is very fast and scary and the water is very muddy. There was a point where you could clearly see the Nathpa Dam. Very nice place to explain to a kid about how dams work!
The nightmare begins. The construction of some hydroelectric project by the Jaypee group had made the road dusty and bad. There was almost no tarred road here. This was a really long and tiring stretch. There were trucks everywhere and the roads were narrow ending in a very steep precipice into the Satluj. Our Palio moved at a speed of 5 km/hr. The rugged mountains and the lunar landscape were awe-inspiring. We finally reached Kalpa. It has the last petrol pump before Kaza. The route to the hotel as very steep. It was a different world altogether. We suddenly saw a lot of greenery and pine trees, unlike the route earlier. It had a beautiful, small stream every few metres. The whole stretch smelled of pine!
We reached HPTDC hotel Kinner Kailash. Awesome location. Directly overlooks the peak “kinner kailash”. Apples, pears, and apricots everywhere. And also, the area is covered with marijuana plants. It seemes to grow wild here, like grass elsewhere. “Grass”land!!
The hotel again had no tourists and our room was an entire cottage all to ourselves. We got a glimpse of snow covered kinner kailash in the evening when the clouds moved a little. It had become really cold in the evening with chilling winds and a beautiful view of the clouds and peaks.
Kinner Kailash
August 28, 2006: Kalpa to Nako
We started at 9.50 a.m. The roads were really nice and the entire stretch was very solitary. Very few vehicles or people. The only ones you ever see are either trucks or army jeeps. It is dry, has no greenery, and is lined with huge mountains. All you see is a brown landscape and a grey winding road. You would get a feeling that nobody ever lived there. But you would be surprised at how a small village springs out of nowhere, every few kilometres. Population- 18 to 22 people or lesser. Such villages are far more frequently seen than one would expect, considering the landscape and conditions. You cannot help wondering about how these people manage emergencies and daily requirements so far away and inaccessible to a big city. Nako is one such village.
The wind was cold and the sun strong. We were already tanned.
After we passed Morang there was a place where one could clearly see the Spiti river meeting the Satluj. The mountains here are unbelievably huge and driving through them is an awesome experience. Pindrop silence and driving through those giants, its as if they have a life of their own, they have been standing there and staring… for thousands of years. The rocks here are shiny and glitter as if wet. They seemed to have some mineral or metal in them.
Later the rugged mountains give way to a smoother topography. They have a smoother appearance, worn down by nature over millions of years. Everything’s so big here; it is too much to take in all at once.
The road till Nako was very nice. Zero traffic. Weird plants with beautiful flowers, growing out from rocks lace the entire stretch. Looked like they sprouted from inside these rocks. That was the only vegetation, or for that matter life we saw in this stretch. We finally reached Nako. The PWD rest house we had planned to stay at had just one room and that was already taken for the day by some army guys. So we stayed at another place just opposite the Nako lake. The lake freezes in winter and people play cricket etc. on it. The people here store food and rations for all the winter months.
There are no hospitals here, just some health centre giving out Ayurvedic medicines. I asked our old cook about how they dealt with emergencies. He told me that cold and cough were the only problems they ever had. He has never seen anybody having a heart attack! And in rare cases they go to the hospital in Recong Peo, more than a hundred kilometers away.
He also told us about a monastery nearby, 1,100 years old. People back then took clearings in mountains to travel for months before they could reach a city like Shimla.
The highest mountain in this area is the Purguil. The food is simple and divine. Potatoes, peas, and rotis.
August 29, 2007: Nako to Kaza
The next morning we started at around 9.00 a.m. We decided to see the 1,100 year old monastery. The place looked very deserted and gloomy. Very different from the pompous places of worship one usually sees in India. Then we saw a couple of lamas, who volunteered to show us around. They opened up the prayer rooms; there were 3 of them. The doors were so small that we had to bend a little to get in, and suddenly we enter a room which is not too big but with a roof much higher than one would expect. There were ancient paintings on the wall, and statues of Buddhist gods, supported on beams. The paintings have started to chip off but you can still make out the bright colors. The whole place looks like an ancient sepia photograph, except for the colorful prayer items like brightly colored cloth pieces, golden lights hung from the roof etc. that looked kind of, out of place in that setting. Photography is prohibited inside the prayer rooms.
At around 10.00 a.m we started off towards Kaza. The road was not so good, with lots of areas where the tarred road had either been pulled out by landslides or covered with boulders. And at some places it was dangerously narrow. Every few kilometers we could see a small village having a maximum of 10 houses. We also saw the route to Dhankar diverting upwards towards the right. We decided to make another trip sometime later just to see the monasteries in the area. Time constraints this time.
Finally we reached Kaza at around 4.00 p.m. Kaza has the last petrol pump in this stretch before Manali, so we first went to get petrol. But there has been no electricity since morning and we decided to go to our HPTDC hotel and come back later. The only Indian Oil petrol pump here closes at 7.00 p.m. in the evening and opens in the morning at 9.00 a.m. Since we wanted to leave early next morning, we went back to the petrol pump as soon as the electricity was back. You can also get your tyres checked for air at a workshop near the pump, but that too closes early in the evening and opens late in the morning.
The hotel had no water, and 2 buckets of water was what they could manage to give us for the day. Water and electricity are in short supply here. Even around the hotel you see only huge, silent mountains, not even a spec of greenery.
August 30, 2007: Kaza to Chandratal
The moon was still clearly visible, even at 7.00 a.m. We managed to get some running water the next morning and start off for Chandratal at around 9.00 a.m.
We went to the petrol pump to check if the tyre workshop had opened. Luckily he’d come in earlier than usual and we start off towards Losar. The famous Kye Gompa was just 12 kilometres away but we didn’t have time to go and have a look. The road was awesome, better than any I had seen even in Delhi! There’s plain land on both sides with mountains at a distance. Pradish said that it reminded him of “More Plains” enroute Leh. We saw Kye Gompa from a distance. It is amazing how it was even built in the first place. The nightmare began once we got out of Losar. The roads were bad and because of the altitude you feel breathless even with little activity once you reach the Kunzum pass. It was very windy and cold here. As we went down towards Batal, we saw a Japanese couple on a bullet. We couldn’t help admiring their spirit. We reached a point where there was a board pointing towards Batal on the left and Chandratal on the right. Just below Chandratal on the board is written in a small font “Jeep layak rasta” meaning the road is fit for vehicles like jeeps to go through. When we took this road we had absolutely no clue about what was in store for us. The road initially seemed just narrow and bad until we saw a huge stream passing through the road ahead. As we were still contemplating turning back, a jeep came up behind us and seemed to pass through easily. We tried to muster courage to do the same considering the ground clearance our car had. We somehow cleared the stream and drove along a road that forced us to consider turning back every few seconds. The himachal tourism map that we were following placed Chandratal at 6 kms from Kunzum. Driving along that treacherous route our car started showing 10 kms and still the place was nowhere in sight. And now it became impossible to drive forward. It was 4.00 p.m. in the evening and that stretch of 10 kms had taken us 2 hours. Now we were in a fix. We couldn’t turn back, we couldn’t reach anyplace before dark. So we decided to park our car and continue by foot. We had decided to either find Chandratal or spend the night in the car. And not a soul around to ask for directions. For the first time in my life I started missing the crowds in Delhi, where people or rather, the lack of people was a non-issue! We must have walked for around 4 kilometers when Chandratal suddenly appeared down below, out of nowhere, beautiful and perfect as a painting. There were around 10 tents pitched on the banks of the lake. The only people were a group of Austrian tourists and 3 Israelis. And there were 2 local guys who rented out tents. We took a tent for rupees 400 for a night.
The water in the lake was this heavenly shade of blue, totally indescribable. It changes color as the day progresses, bluest when the sun is at its brightest. This place is totally out of the world, the impossible road leading to it, the tiring walk up, it all seems worthwhile for just a glimpse of this place. The water is sparkling and clear. There are no fishes here. No one knows if it freezes over in winter. The local boys who put up tents for rent here for 2 months each year tried putting trout in the lake but they didn’t seem to survive. They told us that the government was planning to stop letting tourists come to this place. In a way it is nice, because sooner than later human intervention will begin to spoil the beauty of this place, but honestly I wish that doesn’t happen soon, because I want to see this place at least once again before I die!
It became really windy and cold as the sun went down. Sattal is the only other place I ever saw as many stars, as I saw in the sky that night.
Chandratal
Day 7: Chandratal to Manali
Reflection at Chandratal
We woke up early in the morning at 5.30 a.m. expecting to see the sunrise, but what we see is the beautiful reflection of the mountains and the sky in the lake, which got clearer and better as the sun went up. We came to know that the Japanese couple we saw at Kunzum pass were actually headed for Chandratal, lost their way and reached the camp at 11.00 p.m. in the night. I wonder how they made it alive through that route in such darkness.
It was 7.30 a.m before we could stop staring and clicking pictures, because we were worried about our car we had left below and about driving back through the nightmare of a road! Driving back was worse and more difficult than coming and I had to get out of the car many times to push away rocks from the middle of the road, which could have damaged our car. Finally we got out of that place and drove on towards Batal. The road ahead was non-existent, only stones and rocks strewn around, there were no indications of a road, if it ever existed. We could clearly see roads that had been blocked by landslides. Streams flowing through the road every few metres made matters worse.
The last village before Rohtang Pass, Gramphoo, is the place where there is a diversion. The road to the right goes towards Keylong and further to Leh and the left goes to Rohtang Pass and Manali. We were told that the road here is very nice, but alas, 4 or 5 days ago there was a landslide here and the roads were very muddy and bad for long stretches. There were tourists at Rohtang Pass and the place was full of small dhabas, which make it look like a crowded city and you can’t help feeling sorry about how commercialized everything has become.
I secretly feel nice about the fact that Chandratal is so difficult to reach!!
Finally at around 6.00 p.m. we reached Manali. We see the HPTDC hotel “Beas”, but we intend to stay at a hotel we stayed at, 2 years ago, for our honeymoon.
We intended to stay in Manali for 2 days before heading for Delhi.
Day 8: Manali
We went for a walk in the main market, and couldn't help noticing how similar it had become to any modern city. Smoke, dust, pollution, and the stench. The mall was as crowded and dirty as any Delhi market, and getting worse by the day. The callousness, with which people throw bottles and waste around, is unbelievable. The only saving grace is a quaint, small restaurant called “Chopsticks”. The décor (primarily red), the pictures of the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist gods, and the dim lights all contribute to giving it an indescribable old world charm. We spent the whole day at that place sipping rhododendron and kiwi wine and heavenly Tibetan soups. Its amazing just to sit at such a place and watch the activity outside as the sun goes down, the number of people in the market increasing as evening approaches and decreasing as the night progresses. It is rare for us to just sit around doing nothing… or rather doing something that we so love! We left at night when we could take in no more soup or wine.
Day 9: Manali
We decided to go to old Manali. I had heard about and met many Israelis who came to this place and like it so much that they just stayed on. The money that these people bring to this place is probably the principle source of income for the locals. Almost all people here can understand Hebrew and most can even speak the language. We saw many shops with signs in no language other than Hebrew. There are foreigners all around and Israelis have become so much a part of this place that a lot of locals here have started living like them. They eat and think like Israelis, speak Hebrew, and date Israeli women.
We walk up to see the Hidimba temple. The houses and hotels here actually look like those in a hill town (as opposed to the areas around the mall,the new town, which look like those in any other city). The houses are quaint and pretty and the place is lush green with pines and other conifers. There are lots of houses that have been let out to tourists. Another way to earn money at a place where there aren’t many jobs. Again all these houses have apple trees laden with apples.
The temple has such an ancient look to it that you just can’t help liking it. It has horns of various animals hung from its outer walls. The very look of this place is different from the other temples we see elsewhere. A forest of conifers surrounds the whole area. There were many women in the temple premises trying to coerce tourists into getting pictures clicked in their local attire (The dress and the picture..all for 20 bucks.)
We came back to spend the day at our favourite “chopsticks.” I also wanted to see the church and the monastery, the direction board for which I had seen in the market, but I was too lazy to walk. So that gets left out for another time. Driving from Manali to Delhi seems like a cakewalk compared to the trip we just completed.
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