Lazy Sunday Photo- Taken at Best Western Resort, Manesar

Both were not impressed by my antics with the camera!

Day 3- Manali to Kaza

Spiti Trip, Day 1- Delhi to Manali

Spiti Trip, Day 2- At Manali
Practical Information about Home Stay Trek in Spiti
Pictures from Spiti
A Note on Acclimatization

So, at Manali I set the alarm clock to 3.45 and soon fell asleep. It felt as if the alarm went almost the next moment. I got up first, gulped Avomine (anti-nausea medicine for motion sickness on hill roads) and let the others sleep while I captured the wash room. Soon, it was the turn of the others to gulp Avomine and get ready.

The lazy bones made it 4.30 by the time we left. We walked to the bus stand and located the Kaza bus and found ourself three seats. We were given the start time of 5.00 am but the bus moved at 5.30, though at that hour 5 or 5.30 hardly makes any difference.I wake up like a dead fish in the mornings.

We Stopped for Tea at Rohtang Pass, near Manali

I was wide awake till we stopped for tea at Rohtang Pass around 7.30 in the morning. At that hour the place was empty but otherwise it is known for attracting huge crowds. Had a nice cup of tea in the chilly weather and soon the driver gave his customary honk to let us know that he was about to start again. By now the Avomine was taking its effect and I was getting zonked. Yet I remember opening my eyes at Gramphu and I was stuck by its beauty. But I was too sleepy to take out the camera and take a picture on the moving bus.

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Batal- Our Lunch Point

The only time I properly opened my eyes on this was to eat food at Batal. The rice and rajma
tasted heavenly and the tea after it was just what I needed. However, once again the bus started moving and I became aware of myself at Losar, another beautiful village and another stop for tea, some hours later.

I also remember Kunzun-La vaguely and I took a hazy picture too. I became quite awake at Rangrik, and that is quite close to Kaza. Sesha told us that at some point a well built (probably intoxicated too) man boarded the bus and refused to pay his fare and made quite a ruckus. He says, after looking at the man's built the conductor and the driver let the ticket issue pass. Well, I slept through all this.

Finally, around 4.00 in the evening nearly 11 hours after we boarded the bus, we were at Kaza. We saw two hotels quote close to the bus stand and checked in at the first one (Delley Hotel) and it was quite OK. We always promise ourselves that we will explore a lot of hotels before we check in. But the reality that almost always we check into the first acceptable option because we have no energy left.

Later, we went for a cup of coffee and soon had food and once again called it a day.


Other related posts-

Spiti Trip, Day 1- Delhi to Manali

Spiti Trip, Day 2- At Manali

Practical Information about Home Stay Trek in Spiti
Pictures from Spiti
A Note on Acclimatization

Oktatabyebye.Com- Taking Second Chances

Yak at Changu Lake, Sikkim, One of my Entries

Remember Oktatabyebye.com? Well, they are holding a photography contest this time. I know, I know, I am a hopeless photographer (who have managed to visit some beautiful places) and people with better skills would do wonder to the places I have been. But I decided to take a second chance with them. Here are all my entries for the contest.

Well, they have a complected judging system this time, but there is a well defined process in place. The only hitch is that you have to be registered to vote. And anyway, as I said, I am a hopeless photographer, so after finishing this post I am going to forget this contest. And I don't need much help. The classes start next week and I teach three days a week. And no, I am not complaining, I have seen much worse.

Lazy Sunday Photo- On the Way to Demul, Spiti, India

Wild Rosebush is Quite Commonly Found in the Spiti Region. I took this picture on the way to Demul, Spiti.

Spiti Trip, Day 2- At Manali

Spiti Trip, Day 1- Delhi to Manali
Practical Information about Home Stay Trek in Spiti
Pictures from Spiti

So, we finally reached Manali after 20 long hours of starting from Delhi (that account is available from the first link above) once again on a private bus.

The first thing we needed to find was a hotel. We wanted to try our luck at Sunshine Guest House in Manali as it was recommended at Indiamike. Sesha offered that we take an auto (that means he was too tired, otherwise it is always on foot) to the place. However, on reaching there we found it was completely booked.

Sesha once again asked us to guard the rucksacks while he would find us a room. So, off he went and quite quickly returned and walked us to D'Chatel (picture below). When he started paying for our room (he just loves lousy hotel rooms) I was quite surprised that he took out multiple 500 rupees notes to pay. The room was large, had an extra bed for Dilip (my nephew) and I guess it was Sesha's way of saying he was sorry he dragged us through 20 hour Delhi-Manali ordeal.

D'Chatel at Manali

The room was just fine at Rs 1500 and the next thing to hunt for was food. The hotel had a restaurant called Mom's Kitchen and we wanted to grab something quickly. With hindsight I can say we were lucky that the restaurant was not serving lunch at 4.00 in the evening. The people at the hotel pointed out the Shanti Dhaba and we had an excellent late lunch there, of course followed by tea.

The Shanti Dhaba

After lunch, it was time to book tickets for Kaza. We were not sure if the buses had started plying on Manali-Kaza route but our first stop for inquiry was the government bus stand. We were in good luck and buses were running and we bought three tickets for the next day 5.30 am bus.

Cars at Rohtang Pass- Manali

After the booking the bus ticket we were free to roam around but we are not very fond of Manali. It is just way too crowded in the season. And anyway we were too tired to do much. So, we came back to the hotel. Dilip and I had another tea session. Then for dinner Dilip and Sesha decided to have dinner at Mom's kitchen ignoring my advice against it. Well, the food was very ordinary and quite overpriced. The patron too was acting quite pricey and we did not enjoy the meal at all.

After the meal, it was time to read our books (all three of us were reading different books) and set the alarm in my mobile for 3.45 am.


Other posts related to Spiti

Spiti Trip, Day 1- Delhi to Manali
Practical Information about Home Stay Trek in Spiti
Pictures from Spiti

How Does a Typical Home Stay at Spiti (Himachal Pradesh, India) Look Like?

This video has the partial answer. How I wish I had moved the camera gently and not with the jerky movements that will probably give you a headache. The video was taken at Langza, our first day at the Spiti trek. The first room where there are a lot of people is typical of a living room/dining area and the second room is where we would sleep. Usually, all the rooms would have a view. I would often be glued to one of the windows with a book in hand.

PS. Not writing about day 2 as could not find time. I wonder what I do with my days!

Lazy Sunday Photo- Chocho Khang Nilda, Langza, Spiti

Another View of Chocho Khang Nilda at sunset from Langza, Spiti

Those Who Trek ...

... not always like it. I found this well written account of Jamie about his trekking experience of the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. He says-

When most trekkers get to Jomsom, our nominee’s starting point, they’ve already been trekking for two weeks and they’ve just crossed the 17,000 feet+ Thorung La. They normally complete the Jomsom stage in about 4 days. Our bloke took a week.

His legs simply don’t work any more.

Bits of him ache that he previously didn’t even know existed.

Even I have wondered on so many treks that why do all my vacations involve walking from morning to evening and then trying to relax so that I can walk some more the next day. But then I think trekking defies logic! After every trek, I look ahead for trekking some more.

PS. I saw the reference to Jamie's post first at Indiamike on a thread discussing how to get your significant other let you trek!

PPS. Cross posted at Blogharti too.

Spiti Trip, Day 1- Delhi to Manali

The Lousy Private Bus that we Took from Delhi to Manali

After delaying for sometime, I have finally started writing my Spiti trip account. This time, I thought I will record it one day at a time. There are two reasons for this, first, if done at one go, the post becomes too long. And two, there are no travel plans for a long time now, as July is the more heavy semester for me, so I have to make do with my past travels for a long time.

I still very clear remember my excitement that Friday when we were about to head to Kaza. I had taken care of all the office work by Thursday and I was really restless on that Friday, it felt like 3.00 pm will never come. Even indulging in my favorite sport of teasing my colleagues who were not taking a vacation brought little respite.

We hired a taxi to ISBT and left home by 4.30, hoping to reach Manali early in the morning. Dilip (my nephew) asked the cab driver to put a 'Deep Purple' cassette on the player and that is what I listened all the way to ISBT. I keep asking him why he likes to listen to Ghara Bagnee (that is Deep Purple in Hindi) and he acts irritated and makes cute faces.

After reaching ISBT we had two options, to take an ordinary bus leaving immediately (5.30 pm) and reach Manali by 9.30 in the morning or to take a deluxe bus that started at 8.30 at the night. Dilip and Sesha dumped their rucksacks and said they will go and get the 8.30 bus tickets. I sat down with my novel guarding the rucksacks and waiting for their return.

When these two returned after 15 minutes they had a completely new plan! They wanted to take a private bus at 6.00 pm that would reach Manali at 6.00 in the morning. I was not at all keen but I was outvoted by two to one.

We walked with the private agent to the bus. It was a sleeper bus but we had normal push back seats. The bus did not move at all by six. I had started grumbling but then I did not want to spoil everybody's mood by doing so excessively. The bus started moving at 6.45 and just kept on going from here to there to pick up more passengers within Delhi. At 8.30 in the night it came back to same place from where we had started! By this time we all had realized that we were in for a very long trip to Manali.

By 9.30 at night we were still at the outskirts of Delhi. The bus would stop every 5 minutes and wait for passengers as they still had a few vacant seats. Many people inside were really getting desperate and vocal by now. Some shouted that they were given the starting time of 4.30 pm and yet at 10 in night we were still barely outside Delhi.

Anyway, around 10 at night, the bus finally started moving and by 11.30 we were at Karnal and stopped for dinner. After that, I feel asleep, hoping that we would wake up in Manali.

At around 3.30 at night the bus had a flat tire. We got out and thankfully the weather was pleasant, with lot of lightening. Meanwhile, they were trying to change the tire and after 25 minutes of struggling, they decided they have to move the bus a little ahead as it was standing on a slope and that was causing problems. We were somewhere in Punjab and still very far away from Manali. When we started off sometime later we were just not sure of anything anymore. The bus made a few more unscheduled stops for reasons best understood to the driver and the conductor only.

We finally reached Manali at 2.00 in the afternoon, completely exhausted and 20 hours after we had boarded the bus for a journey that takes 15 hours at the most. Sesha tried to make it up to us by finding a big lavish room in a comparatively expensive hotel without any such demands from our side.



Account of some of our other Bus/Road Journeys-

Mandi to Delhi on a Private Vovlo that we had to ditch mid-way

Delhi to the Tunnel at Aut in a Government Volvo Bus

Manali to Leh Road Journey

Off Topic- Hai na bolo bolo,, Well these are Lyrics of a Hindi Song

This is my niece singing a Hindi song, Hai na bolo bolo...

And I am down with cold, this lousy weather combined with power fluctuations ...

But let me see if I can do one more post today.

A Bus Full of People and Yet None had a Clue

She boarded the Chandigarh to Delhi bus with three small kids, the smallest just a few months old. A man with two bags helped her find a seat on the bus, right in front of us. The women herself was so young, looked just like a teenager. At the most she must have been in her early twenties and yet there were three children with her.

She occupied two of the three seats in front of us and later one guy sat next to the kids. No one else tried to move the children and occupy that seat. Sometime into the journey, the conductor started giving tickets, and he started from the back. We paid for three tickets and told him one of us is sitting in the front (my nephew, Dilip). Then he moved to the row ahead of us.

He advised the young girl to buy two tickets so the kids could travel in some comfort. The girl said she wanted only one ticket and she would take the kids off the seat if someone else wanted the seat. She asked for a ticket to Delhi and gave some money. The conductor shouted “Dilli ka kiraya 135 rupaye hai, 70 nahin!” (A ticket to Delhi costs 135 rupees, not 70). She replied in a barely audible voice, “mere paas itne hi hain” (I have only 70 rupees). The conductor was hassled and said “tum abhi ye paise rakh lo, mein baad mein dekhta hun kya karen, aakhir bacchon ko bhuka nahin maaroge naa” (you keep this money and I will see what I can do, after all you have to feed the kids too). Later he had doubts and said you probably have money and are not giving it? She again stated very quietly that she had no more money. The conductor moved away.

All of us within the earshot were surprised and almost all the eyes were on her. She just kept hers’ down. A few stops later, a ‘branded shirt’ entered the bus. He spotted the children and immediately told the man sitting next to them to move the kids as he wanted the seat. The man told her to ask the lady as they were not with him. ‘Branded shirt’ showed some surprise but asked the girl to take the kids off the seat and took it.

There were a few people standing in the aisle and among them was a young college going couple. The kids being squeezed in one seat started crying one after another. The young college girl brought some fruits and told the other young girl to feed it to the kids. After a while all of them started falling asleep and the girl with the kids was falling on the branded shirt’s shoulders, half occupying his seat.

We were nearing Ambala city now and the conductor came to the girl with the kids. He gave her 20 rupees and said why don’t you get down at Ambala and take a train from there? The girl said yes in a whisper. The ‘branded shirt’ looked jolted! As he had come later, he had no idea of the situation. I was whispering to Sesha that let us her pay for her fare. Before we could do anything, an ‘unbranded shirt’ sitting next to Sesha, took out money and gave it to the conductor asking him to use it for the fare and let the girl and the kids travel. People from behind us also offered to pay for her fare. The conductor returned all the money and just let her travel. A few seconds later, the ‘branded shirt’ quietly got up leaving the seat for the children.

We stopped at Pipli for dinner. When we all came back, the conductor had brought some food for her and the kids and a bottle of cold water. I heard a lot of laughter while they were having the meal. And of course later, they all promptly fell asleep.

As we were nearing ISBT (New Delhi bus stand) the conductor woke her up saying, “Dilli aane wala hai” (we are nearing Delhi). The two of the youngest kids refused to wake up. When the bus stopped at ISBT, she asked my husband, “Ye bus aage jaayege kya” (Will this bus go further). With a horror it dawned on me that she was probably coming for the first time to Delhi and had no one here. Sesha said, “haan yahi Dilli bus station hai” (yes, this is the Delhi bus stand). She had two bags and three children and looked like a child herself. She forgot something on the seat. The bus stopped and Sesha got down to give it back to her.

A bus full of well meaning people and none of us had a clue as to what more to do. And how damn inadequate our well meaning gestures were. A few minutes later, the bus took a turn near a bridge and under the bridge there were at least 50 people sleeping out in the open.

All of us were quite upset for a few days. We raked our brains as to what should we have done. I was thinking of finding about some NGOs who could be contacted in such a situation. Then when Sesha went to Ujjwal Niketan to teach the violin to the kids, the sister who runs it said we should have given her number to the young girl. I am never going to forget this. And I will often curse myself as to why it didn't occur to me on my own.

One Last Diversion before I set to Write the Spiti Account

Sunset at Komik, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India

Afterreading so much on photography forums about sunrise and sunset being ideal times for photography, I was very keen to utilize that time for clicking at least a few pictures. The picture above is from the second day of our trek. I was quite tired and Komik was anyway the highest village on the trek. But come sunset, and I ran with my camera to a place nearby from where many peaks were visible. It required a small steep walk but I did manage to do it. And when Dilip (my nephew) say these pictures on the camera diplay, he was like oh! what a glorious sunset!

PS. Sorry for still not being able to write the concrete account, actually I have a lot of stories to share but I wonder where all my time is going!

Hardly a Week and the Memories of Spiti are Already Fading

View from Dhankar, Spiti, India

I know life has treated me really kindly and I really have no right to crib but one week into the plains and all these beautiful memories of Spiti have already started to fade, sigh... I realized it with a start today when I was worrying about trifles, like a perceived slight when probably none was intended, a little of this and a little of that. And how easy it is to forget that just a week before I was in the paradise!

More on Spiti

Pictures from Spiti

Practical Information about Home Stay Trek in Spiti

Fujifilm Photographer of the Year- Cathal McNaughton

I read about Cathal McNaughton's work at the BBC website. He has been declared the Fujifilm photographer of the year. Two of his work really had my jaws hanging. One because of this unusual approach and two because of the number of shots he took to get a perfect picture.

Another Account of Prashar Lake

Prashar lake, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India

I know I should be talking about Spiti, but just before going on vacation I had found this wonderful account of Prashar lake trek by Saroj and I have to share it with you. Have a look.

It must have been an hour of continuous ascent and nothing seemed in sight. There were no signs for direction as well. I could not sight any water spring flowing down the steep path and repented having left the water bottle at home. We sat down for 2 minutes and started waling again, up, up and up. The dense trees had made the entire place shady and dark and the only sign of the light was the rays peeping dimly from behind the trees. Looking down would make my head swirl and I preferred to walk and look up. But where was the Parashar Lake. We were seriously assailed with doubt that we might not have lost the way.

Lazy Sunday Photo- Hikkim Village, Spiti, India

A View of Hikkim Village, Spiti, India

Acclimatize, Acclimatize and Acclimatize

Chhang- the Local Beer

Spiti is a high altitude region. Kaza, the base of the trek we did this time is situated at 3660 meters. The starting point of the trek is Langza and we were dropped there in a jeep. Langza is at the height of 4400 meters. Langza is beautiful and Chocho Khang Nilda (the mountain below) is a befitting backdrop. You can imagine if we went a little berserk at Langza.

Chocho Khang Nilda (translation: Chocho is princess, Khang is mountain, Nilda is sun facing) at Langza

I head started feeling a slight headache almost within half an hour of reaching there. Still, we had to go to the Gompa and see the fossils at a short distance of a kilometer or two. Sesha and Dilip (my elder nephew) wanted to visit a near by lake too. Our guide Anjan told us it is dry but those two still wanted to go.

A Fossil near Langza- Evidence of Sea Life

After looking at a few fossils I decide to drop out of the lake plan. I was feeling really tired and weird. I told the gang that I would wait for them at the Gompa and headed that way. It was quite windy and I crawled under the staircases of the Gompa to keep the wind out. After quite sometime, Sesha and Anjan came back and Dilip had went back to our home stay. We saw the Gompa leisurely and headed back.

A while later it started. Sesha started complaining of nausea. And soon enough, he started throwing up. It was still evening and we hoped it will stop. He skipped the dinner and went to sleep. At midnight I awoke suddenly and saw Sesha munching on a chocolate cookie. Relieved I thought he is feeling better. But a while later he started throwing up again, anything and everything, including water.

After the fourth time, I was really scared. After all, it feels like being in the middle of nowhere and the last thing I would like is to see Sesha getting really sick. All those horror stories of AMS (acute mountain sickness) started playing in my head. He was much calmer and said if it doesn't stop by the morning maybe he will go back and Dilip and I could complete the trek. Not a merry thought at all. I had started wondering if Ecosphere had a cancellation policy!

I was also reminded of our Ladakh trip where we tried to trek through Markha Valley but had to turn back after three days because I had a badly upset stomach that showed no sings of getting better. I said to Sesha that it seems our high altitude trek attempts are jinxed. Anyway, he took two Avomines, vomited both, and finally went to sleep. He feel asleep quickly and I was a lot relieved. Because even my head was aching furiously at night and I was not sure if I could take a sleepless night without falling sick myself.

In the morning, it was another day, bright and beautiful. Sesha was much better and the nausea of the night had completely vanished. He was raring to go. And here we are after completing the trek.

Moral of the story- don't take the altitude lightly, even if we are feeling fit and fine. If you are not used to it, treat it with a lot of respect.

Oh! and Dilip slept peacefully through the night, never even turning in his sleep!

Practical Information about the Home Stay Trek in Spiti

Magnificent Spiti- A View from Dhankar

I am still not getting my blogging flow and some people have asked for practical information about this trek. I will try to compile it here.

Delhi to Manali 570 km (by so called deluxe bus, private, don't ask me how we ended in one, yet again) tickets cost around 560 rupees per person. It took us bloody 20 hours to cover this distance but that is a blog post in itself.

Night stay at Manali, lots of hotels available for all budgets. This time we splurged a bit.

Manali to Kaza, 200 KM (Government Bus, Starts around 5 am from Government Manali Bus Stand, tickets can be bought the evening before) Tickets cost around 150 rupees per person. A seat in private taxi costs around Rs 1000 per person or so I am told. Booking an entire taxi would cost even more. It took us 11 hours to reach Kaza and the return trip took us around 13 hours. The route is beautiful.

Stay at Kaza- At Rs 400 per night we had a good room.

We trekked through an NGO called Ecosphere (Muse) and you can find the trek route and other details from this excellent thread at Indiamike. I promise I will do each day of the trek as a separate post.

For six days Ecosphere charged us Rs 5900 per person. This included all the meals, taxi where required and the home stay cost. I felt they gave us a good price.

I hope this will be of some help to those who want to head that way. Do let me know if I have missed on something that I should have added.

Pictures from Spiti- Warning there are Way too Many!

So if you want to look at just two, here are they below, for the rest visit my Spiti page at Picasa.

View Near Komik, Spiti

Sunset at Komik

Two Pictures from Spiti

Till I upload more ...

Update- More Spiti Pictures here.

Dhankar Lake, Spiti, India

Chocho Khang Nilda at Sunset, Langza, Spiti

I am Back from Spiti

A Signboard in Kaza, Spiti

I am back and bone tired. Vacations are always nice. While I wish I too were as quick as the board says, it will take me a few days to get back to regular blogging.