A Three Days Trip to Spiti Valley Himanchal

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – 

Ibn Battuta 

To travel and explore new places gives us immense pleasure of gathering experiences and celebrating life. It’s a treat to witness various shades of this beautiful nature and meeting people from different lands, diverse cultures, languages and traditions. And, If you are a born Indian, you have certain additional privileges. 

A country with 780 languages, 29 states, variety of cuisines, music, rituals, expended from magnificent Himalayas to the enormous Indian Ocean and heavenly islands.

Inspired by the same, I decided to run away from the life practicing brownian motion in Delhi between home (away from family) to Office (away from life) to the soul healing hills of Spiti. Like all other working professionals, I was also eagerly waiting for the long weekend entering into our lives as the best gift ever. 😊  September 29^Th  was really special .🤗

So, here is a small detail about the trip – 

Travellers

RJ (thats me)

Umar Mansoory

Himanshu Yadav

Vivek Kashyap

Destination – Manali – Rohtang – Chandrataal

Plan A – NO Plan :D Plan B – No Plan :P  Plan C – No plan at all  :V

 It was a completely unplanned trip… We only did a little research about the place, route, and weather…Thats it!

Here is the travel story in it's rawest form–

 “Every story has a pre or post story, which hardly people remember or talk about,”

 unless it has something you can’t ignore…

On 28^th night I received a call from Himanshu saying (in extremely low voice) –

Yaar! Kahi aur chalein? Udaipur and mount Abu! our reserve destination…

I(surprised) - what happened?

Himanshu – dost ki gadi ka accident ho gaya kal… meri to fat rahi hai… (The bus in which my friend,Umar, booked his ticket, met with an accident yesterday and I am dead scared to go…)

Then my reply was – Dude!  There are people of our age, who had done surgical strike on terrorist camps that too inside a foreign land under drastic circumstances, and here you are… bloody scared to visit within your own country? 

This single statement charged him enough to be back on the track. :D

 So, after spending the whole day in office, our journey finally begun at evening 6 as we all met at ISBT Kashmiri gate, from where we took a bus to Manali.

Suggestion – If a weekend is arriving please… please make sure that you have a pre-booked ticket. Else, you must possess some seriously extra ordinary skills like us  😂

Delhi to Manali Journey distance – 536 km. NH – 44 (via Chandigarh) Time taken – (12 + 3) hrs

(Additional three hours for a halt to have dinner and two unwanted halts due to technical failure in the bus).

Day 1- Manali 

Manali Market View

We reached Manali by 12 noon on September 30^th. Butterflies already started flying inside our stomach with the first ray of the sun, that was peeping from behind the mountains. The astonishing beauty of nature was healing all our pain during the overnight farrata journey. A 9 km long tunnel on the way to Manali added spice to it… “Excitement was at peak, even higher than the mountains itself.”

In Manali our stay was sponsored by a Holiday Resort because, one of our friend & trip mate (Umar) is their diligent employee…  (See if you are the same lucky, else, you can easily find a number of stays in Manali within all price ranges).

In the evening, we went to explore the city. Hidimba Devi temple, which is situated at approximate 2.5 km distance from the main city Manali, is a beautiful abode of god. The temple is named after Hidimbi, Wife of Bhima (one of the five Pandavas as described in Mahabharat), she is believed to be the incarnation of Maa Kali and greatly worshiped in the region. The temple made by Raja Bahadur Singh in the year 1553 has become a major tourist attraction over the years because of its unique architecture and the popular belief.

What more you can find here…

Well! Localities holding furry rabbits in their lap, asking you to take a picture with them in return of a few pennies can be found easily around the temple premises or you can even try the colourful attire of Himanchali ladies and feel like one for the moment you take a click wearing those. A few swings and rides were also available there for kids… but, no one is going to stop you if you wanna try them … yeah!! 😊

Then after, we visited Manali local market, withdrew some more cash as there was zero possibility of ATM machines on the way to Chandratal. We enquired about booking rides to Rohtang and Chandrataal … and were shun after listening to the rates… transport providers were quite humble asking you to pay 8k to 15k for the round trips to Rohtang and Chandratal. But, we didn’t had enough budget as, it was month end for all 😁

 Manali main market place & I

My friends were almost convinced to skip the plan to go to Chandratal and visit Kasol instead. But, I am bit stubborn.😛 I took them to Roadways stn and enquired about all the buses going to Rohtang, Keylong and Kaza. We decided to take the first bus leaving Manali at 4:30 AM to reach Rohtang and switch the bus from Rohtang to reach Chandratal by taking the last(perhaps only) bus going to Kaza. They were really nice to sacrifice their sleep ☺️ Aur koi option tha bhi nahi …😂

 

Day 2- Rohtang & Chandratal 

 

There is a popular saying by Paulo Coelo – “When you want something entire universe conspires to help you achieving that …”

 The same happened to us. Though we secured seats inside the bus at early morning 4:30 but, luckily we got a private taxi within the same cost😉 and the journey commenced toward our dream destination Chandrataaaaaal…

The driver bhaiya Narendar told us so many secret stories related to lovers point, Ralang fall, Bheem ki Gada and a few others on the way to Rohtang. We reached Rohtang at 6:30 AM and I literally started jumping and shouting as I stepped down from the marshal.

It was awfully beautiful. Golden sunbeams were shining on the top of the Rohtang pass and we were all standing dumbstruck to witness the hypnotizing amalgamation of yin and yang… hmmmmmmmm 😊

Rohtang La (13050ft)

Vyas gufa, situated at the foothills of Rohtang la, where Muni Vyas did meditation for a long 12 years to attain salvation, will give you an igloo like feeling.

Vyas Gufa

Suggestion – Reach Rohtang at the morning time to get some perfect clicks in no disturbance; the place is heavily crowded in the evening.

The marshal dropped us at Gramfu. This is the point from where routes diverge for Keylong and Kaza. We waited for nearly one hour for the bus. Meanwhile, we met Joulia, our friend from Spain. A physiotherapist by profession and a traveller by choice. She was exploring the valley from last one month. It was indeed inspiring, perhaps because I could see my future in her :D Umar left us here due to some urgent work and Joulia got in.

HRTC, they have the best pilots must say

At 10 AM we boarded the bus for our next and final destination, which was Chandratal.

Surprisingly, most of the travellers inside the bus were going to the same, than the few, who were going Kaza. There were two small food and utility points Chatru and Batal on the way to Chandratal. Bus dropped us at Batal.

Famous Chacha-chachi dhaba and few more dhaba walas serve you delicious rajma-chawal. You can purchase woollen gloves and mufflers in case you forgot to keep. A satellite call facility is provided by ITBP here as no network connection is available.

We had two options, either doing a 14 km long trek from Batal to Chandratal or taking an open air ride in the private luggage loading truck (smaller one). We choose second option. 😎

It was an over the top feeling to reach the Chandratal base camp. We booked Tenzing Camp for our stay. Quickly had our trekking gears and started the trek to Chandratal with a gang of young boys of the same age & from the same place, Delhi. It was fun roaming here and there to find the lake… finally, managed to awake our sleeping minds and find the overwhelming beauty of Mother Nature.

Trek with the gang is always awesome

"After an approximate 7 km trek from the base camp we finally found her… silent, smiling, healing everyone’s soul… the divine and alluring lake Chandratal … safeguarded by the velvety purple mountains."

And there was I… All lost and feeling blessed to witness nature in its purest form.😊

The mesmerising lake Chandratal and Tiranga adding stars to its beauty

Chandratal temp – minus 11°C @ night on Nov 1^{st
Height from sea level - 14,100ft}

Suggestions –
1. Carry furry woollen cloths with you
2. Please ensure to book return taxi in advance from Camp site to Batal if you have no plans to do a return trek.

Day 3 - Back to Delhi

Next day morning we came down to Batal by local taxi and took another taxi from there to reach Manali, from where we had our return bus to Delhi.

You can catch the HRTC bus from Batal to Manali if you manage to reach Batal before morning 9.

So, with this, the much wanted, much awaited and much needed journey came to an end.

“Everything was Unplanned other than the destination and will to travel. I think this is the best way to explore…”

Bridge connecting Spiti to Manali

We plan a lot in life, and get disappointed if our plans don’t meet success the way we want. But, take risk and do plan unplanned trips. They give you the pleasure, you won’t find doing anything else. As, Mark Twain has also said –

“Years from now, we’ll be more disappointed by the things we didn’t do, than by those we did."

So, find your destination and let your soul be free... :)

Thanks for sharing your precious time with my words!

For more info you can comment below or write to me on joshiruchika410@gmail.com
 

See you soon with another travel story…