Spiti Valley – Aug 2016
It was a long awaited tour to Spiti Valley for a bunch of 20 full + 5 half members. I had already visited this remote, heavenly place in beautiful Himachal Pradesh (HP) state and it was a eager wait for Dhanashri, Sanskar & other friends to visit this one of the least populated regions in India, connecting India and Tibet.
Dates : 13th Aug to 21st Aug 2016
The route :
Mumbai – Delhi – (by Train) – Chandigad – Manali – Kaza – Manali – Chandigad (by tempo traveller) – Mumbai (by flight)
Members –
- Ulhas Bhabal
- Dipti Bhabal
- Asmi Bhabal
- Harish Chandak
- Samidha Chandak
- Rutu Chandak
- Dinesh Kothari
- Navya Kothari
- Kalyani Palnitkar
- Vishwas Tilak
- Mansi Tilak
- Siddharth Tilak
- Kiran Pachghade
- Ahana Pachghade
- Shishir Deshmukh
- Manoj Binhani
- Shridhar Pophali
- Dnyaneshwar Golhar
- Jyotsna Golhar
- Navjyot Golhar
- Sachin Whaval
- Dhanashri Avalaskar
- Sanskar Avalaskar
- Abhijit Avalaskar
- Manju Mohandas
Things to remember / cherish –
- Rashmi Pachghade & Santosh Gawli’s cancellation – We missed them
- Sachin Whaval’s last minute entry – After a lot of thoughts (mainly due to time crunch and his mom’s health issues) he booked tickets just a day before actual journey date. And a company of person like him was enjoyed by all
- Pehelwan Dhaba – Food at Pehelwan Dhaba enroute Chandigad from Delhi was nice. Jilebi was yummy 🙂 !
- Kaza stay – Hotel Spiti Valley – What a lovely hotel at a reasonable cost ! Mr. Tanzin – the owner – was helpful and so was his staff (Mr. Navneet, Mr. Shekhar)
- Demul Homestay – Of all the stays, Demul homestay was enjoyed the most by all (not so surprising at all 🙂 )
- Mr. Chhewang Dorje/ Lama – I had experienced him during his visit to Spiti valley in 2012 and he came handy this time as well. Such a lovely, helpful person he is !! Due to very bad attitude of earlier drivers – Mr. Sanjeev Kumar & Mr. Jatindar, it was decided to hire new tempo travelers. Lama was contacted and agreed to come along with us for the last 2 days. This turned out to be such an important and useful decision as all members felt relaxed. (Manoj Binhani, Sachin Whaval and I also had a homestay at Lama’s nice house 🙂 ).
- Chandrataal lake – Last minute change of plan – Considering the journey time from Kaza to Chandrataal lake to Manali, it was decided to have a stay at Chandrataal lake in a tent. We somehow could manage to get enough tents for all. Evening was extremely windy, cloudy and cold. next day morning everyone – including Mr & Mrs Tilak, Mr & Mrs Golhar- went to the lake. It was indeed good that senior citizens could visit beautiful lake.
- Singing session – For some reasons, we could not get enough time to sit together and have chitchat, singing until we reached Manali on our way back. It was such a wonderful session of singing till 2 am…. Ulhas, Dipti, Kalyani were fantastic 🙂 !! Siddharth, perhaps for the first time, spoke so much at a stretch by nicely singing 1 full song :-).
- In spite of a demanding travel schedule, throughout the tour, all the 5 kids – Rutu, Asmi, Navya, Ahana, Sanskar – were fantastic. No health problem at all. Even senior citizens – Mr & Mrs Tilak, Mr & Mrs Golhar were very good.
Hotels & rates :
Manali –
Hotel Samrat – +919816403093/ +919816174281/ 01902-252356/ 01902-250556- Good, clean rooms, walkable distance from Mall road – Rs. 700/ – only stay
Kaza –
Hotel Spiti Valley – Mr. Tanzin Rabgay – +919418927312 / 01906-222312 – Good, clean rooms, opposite Kaza Monastery – Rs. 1400/ – only stay
Demul –
Homestay (Rs. 600/ person – Stay + Food)
Chandigad –
Hotel Re-Birth – Walkable distance from Chandigad railway station – Rs. 1400/ – only stay – Not ideal for a couple/family but Okay for a group
Transport :
Mr. Chhewang Dorje a.k.a Lama – +919459228584/ +918988188824 (Only for Manali – Kaza – Manali) – Extremely calm, cool, helping person to have with you. The only drawback is he operates only from Manali. So, arrange for separate transport till Manali and leave the rest transportation facility to Mr. Chhewang.
Things to note :
- Chandrataal lake stay in a tent can indeed be
Photographs :
