Blogs from Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, Asia

Raw Himalchal: Follow the Mighty Rivers We both are travel- and adventure-freaks. Driving is Aakash's passion. When we bought the Maruti Swift (diesel), we were so happy with the vehicle's performance and power that we decided to undertake a road trip to Ladakh. But since Aakash had already been on a road trip to Ladakh, we altered the itinerary and fixed Spiti Valley as the primary destination of our road trip. We completed the trip successfully in 18 days , covering about 6300 km. Our route was: Pune - Ahmedabad - Udaipur - Delhi - Chandigarh - Shimla - Sarahan - Sangla - Tabo - Kaza - Kunzum Pass - Keylong - Sarchu - Leh - Kargil - Sri Nagar - Jammu - Pathankot - Jalandhar - Delhi - Udaipur - Pune. Out of the approx. ... read more

Here is a short video taken by my Canadian good friend Mark Takefman. We were on our month long trip from Delhi to Leh back through Spiti Valley. This was just one of a number of "challenges" we faced on the so-called roads. Mind you - there were wonderful roads too - freshly paved wide winding beautiful roads. But there were also shit roads (or non-roads!) where you had to just 'gun' it through - keep your nerve - and hope for the best. This one was a stretch of river bed really - the video does not really show the large stones on the river floor! There were also mud (knee deep) roads on Rohtang Pass (on a switchback straight - so if you dropped over the side you were done for! A long way ... read more

In September this year (2010), Mark Takefman (my biker mate) and I visited what I now call the Great Himalayan Bike Odyssey, riding our Royal Enfield Bullets from Delhi to Leh and back via Spiti Valley. In our second week we were staying in Kibber, a village parked high on the northern side of Spiti Valley, which claimed to be the highest habituated village in: where? The world? Asia? I can’t remember exactly (Mark?), but it was perched up high! And the little and cute looking village of Chicham seen in the distance simply beckoned us for a visit - on foot because we had just had a very long ride the day before from Keylong over some very rough roads (and needed to rest our butts as well as stretch the old bodies – sorry, ... read more

Dnes to bol nas posledny den v Kaze. Nakoniec sme sa rano rozhodli, ze este vyjdeme k ruinam old monastery a do Ki pojdeme az zajtra. Oproti vcerajsku to bol celkom v pohode vylet aj ked prevysenie bolo asi rovnake. Len ta vzdialenost bola o kus mensia. Cesta bola na jednom mieste zasypana a akurat sa ju snazili trosku dobrodruznym sposobom zase sprejazdnit buldozerom. Nejak sme to ale preliezli a konecne sa nam naskytol pohlad aj do udolia za skalnou hradbou nad mestom. Napodiv bolo krasne zelene s malou dedinkou uprostred. Za nim sa uz ale tycila dalsia skalna hradba a za nou nenapadne vykukalo nieco, co urcite nemalo pod 7000 metrov. :-) Ruiny klastora boli sice male ale bol odtial pekny vyhlad a cele to posobilo malebne, tak sme tam zostali hodinku oddychovat a obratili ... read more

Zazraky sa deju, sme v Kaze a maju tu internet! Je to mensi zazrak, lebo tu momentalne nejde ani len elektrika a v celom meste je tma. Este ze tu maju generator. :-) Ale tak ideme od zaciatku. Rano o siedmej sme stepovali pred hotelom a cakali nas shared taxi. Trvalo to polhodku ale nakoniec prisla nejaka podozriva dodavka bez poznavacich znaciek neurciteho typu. Nase prve pochybnosti boli ale rychlo zahnane, lebo to co to auto dokazalo cestou je neuveritelne. Cesta bola este o dost horsia ako sme cakali. Casti boli zavalene, od Manali kopa blata, na druhej strane zase ziaden asfalt, len kamene a prach. Vacsinu cesty na jednej strane hlboky zraz a na druhej skalna stena. Za vsetko hovori ze cela cesta trvala desat hodin a bolo to len 200km. Sme ale celkom radi ... read more

Early Spring Visit to Spectacular Spiti Valley Part One:- Getting There We began our journey from Shimla, summer seat of the British during the Raj days. It was a journey that would take us to the far reaches of the Indian Himalayas bordering on Tibet, to a little known valley called Spiti. I became obsessed with Spiti after seeing pictures and hearing stories from my mountain friends: They would talk of a place which was so isolated it took 2 days to reach and was impassable during much of the long winter which would last up to 8 months of the year. They spoke of a high altitude desert, with extreme weather conditions where the sun is so close it burns you in minutes what would take hours of sunlight at sea level. They told of ... read more