Spiti- A Reverie That Broke Into a Reality

Asia » India » Punjab » Chandigarh
July 20th 2015

Published: September 9th 2015

I thought Ladakh was my dream destination all this while until I discovered Spiti. After spending just a day in Spiti, I realised that it was on its way to making it onto my Bucket List. It so happened that sometime last year post my Ladakh trip in August, I had bumped into my gym buddy on the train while traveling to Chandigarh from New Delhi (I call it serendipity now and you'd know why). So ironically, we ended up sitting together which seemed more like a magnetic pull because she's just as much a travel buff as I am. The conversation took an interesting turn and we got talking about Spiti. She told me how hard and challenging it was to get to Kaza i.e. the capital of Spiti and that it's one of the most toughest and badass terrain to pit yourself up against irregardless of the mode of transport. That was enough for me to slip back into a state of Wanderlust. In between, lot of travels happened for me to places like Kerala, Goa and Pondicherry but I had such irresistible longing to go back to high mountains to get my soul entangled with the pristine nature. With each passing day, I found myself increasingly consumed with the thoughts of Spiti and the daunting roads kept haunting me each day and night until I could take it no more.

You think you can handle the serrated moonscape, untamed landscapes and its chemistry with the floating clouds, mirage like villages, water and gravel filled roads which stare thousands of feet down into a turquoise-grey ribbon of the Spiti River and the deafening silence of the valley that can eat you up? Then take my word, this is 'the' place for you. You have to see it to believe it. It would be a sin to not visit this lesser known world which is a world within a world. It's downright heavenly and almost godly. Tucked away from the civilisation, Spiti not only boasts of enormously big mountains that reach out to clear deep blue skies but the hearts of the people living there is just as big. The extremely warm and unassuming Spitians exude so much vibrance and positivity that it makes you realise how small we are. Their humbleness and affection can put you to shame. That is what differentiates us from them and makes you fall in love with the place and its people even more. Not convinced yet? So sit back and get ready to immerse yourself in this journey of a lifetime and I promise you'll be struck by the infinite charm of Spiti seamlessly. So here's how it all began-

In June this year, after I got back from Pondicherry in May, I decided to look for some Spiti valley tours. I ran a random google search soon thereafter and I came across this local Spiti Valley tour operator by the name of Spiti Holiday Adventure (I bet just after reading the first paragraph above, you’ll most definitely want to look this up http://spitiholidayadventure.com/). So I finally zeroed in on this tour operator after going through and looking up a few more. The primary reason why I chose this particular travel company is that the founder of Spiti Holiday Adventure (Mr Ramesh Lotey) is a Spitian dedicated to organising and arranging exclusive Spiti tours and treks. The point is if you're seeking an authentic, non-commercial experience to any place, then no travel company could get you a better feel and taste of a place than the one from that place itself. I looked no further and got my seat booked. The best part of it all was that this time as compared to the last time when I did Ladakh, I had no convincing my folks to do. There were no apprehensions and rejections whatsoever. So, it went off pretty smoothly and that just made it all the more exciting. But one thing that remained constant and took another level this time around was my incorrigible wanderlust.

So after I booked my seat on the tour, I asked a couple of friends around if they'd be interested in doing this with me but all of them backed out due to professional commitments but one. As luck would have it, one of my school buddies instantly expressed an interest and agreed. But what was amusing was that this tour which were to have a maximum of six people in one batch commencing on July 5,couldn't get filled up by the end of June for whatever reasons best known to these guys. So that got us a little perturbed and furious and we started to wonder if the tour would actually take place or not. However, much to our relief, Mr Ramesh assured us that the tour would be taking place on the scheduled date as per the itinerary irregardless of the number of people.

My impatience had begun to swell up even though I hadn't a clue about what I was going to witness. I was much more relaxed and composed this time around and I knew exactly what stuff I wanted to pack. Turned out, it was the just two of us in the batch. Initially, we were sulking at the thought of having no fellow traveller with us because you end up meeting some interesting people along the way and get to make friends out of a few but right on the first day of our long arduous journey to Spiti, we realised that it has been indeed a blessing in disguise having no one to share the space in the car with. I remember in my previous trip to Ladakh, we used to be six people in the same car, sitting all crammed up and trying to scooch to make some space for the other that it became a hassle. So, this time around, we sat lavishly in the car and so did our backpacks.

At last, the day arrived. On July 3, we set off on our journey with an overnight Indo Canadian bus to Manali from Chandigarh. We had purposefully kept an entire day for some relaxation and leisure in Manali before the actual journey on the morning of the 5. As per the scheduled time of the bus, we arrived in Manali around nine in the morning and headed straight to our hotel. Dead tired as we were (I was unable to catch a wink in the bus), we hurried to our room, flicked our backpacks across the chair and crashed out. The remaining half of the day we spent walking around the old town in Manali, savouring sinful chocolate cake by the river and the evening, exploring various cafes and small eateries. They were very quirkily done up with unconventional abstract settings having a nice vibe to them amidst the mountains. I was quite taken in by surprise by a few of them because they could easily give some of the shacks in Goa a run for their money.

We were so rejuvenated by the time we got back to the hotel in the night that the journey next morning wasn't freaking us out at all. We were completely at ease and excited, completely unaware about what was going to unfold the next day.

The next morning our driver for the entire span of the tour picked us up from our hotel in the morning around seven and we took off on yet another mystical experience. Follow the rest of my journey in my next post.

Spiti- A Reverie That Broke Into a Reality

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