Spiti Valley

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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 a people who still adhered to the traditional ways of life, living in tiny hamlets and thousand year old monasteries.

Intrigued, I began preparing for this trip sometime ago and finally carried out my threats and went to Spiti during winter, or at least the last spurts of winter and the slow beginning of spring.

It was April 20th 2010 when we embarked from Shimla, reaching the first major village in Spiti 3 days later on the 23rd after stopping for our Inner Line Permits in the beautiful kinnauri town of Reckong Peo, last chance for internet and laundry before Spiti.

One thing I came to realize immediately was that the journey - the bouncy, rough ride along terrifyingly narrow roads perched on the edge of vertical cliffs, frequently obscured by landslides and requiring constant maintenance, alertness and the ability to overcome the ever present sense of danger and mortality - this journey was the destination.

We came to Spiti with a great guy named Lara Tsering who handled everything, got us into the valley early(in itself a mighty task) and found us accommodation on the fly in any village we went. He would be welcomed into the homes of the locals wherever we went as he was a very jovial and well liked guy with friends everywhere. Literally everyone in spiti has heard of Lara from Langcha!

I should make a note here about the accommodation: - in Spiti, there are few hotels, only a few guesthouses in Kaza or Tabo and Kibber maybe.
In the majority of the small villages, homestay rooms are the only accommodation available and easily the best value for money in terms of hospitality you will ever get in your life.
You stay with a local family and get a nice cozy atmosphere, entertaining and curious children to talk to, entirely way too much fresh homemade organic vegetarian food and just an awesome experience.
All of that for 20$ a night? Easily the best hotel experience I've ever had.

His friends and him are working together to make a new portal for the homestay providers to sell directly to customers from overseas. I don't know all the details but I guess it is like a hotel website with full ecommerce and bookings and reservation software, but the hotel rooms are spread out over 20+ villages and hamlets in Spiti.

Sounds pretty cool! The site is v2c.in standing for village-to-consumer, a direct link between high altitude himalayan villages with no electricity, running water, telephones or internet and the rest of the world. What a Wonderful Idea!

Anyway, if anyone wants to get in touch with Lara his website has a bunch of interesting info about his valley. He can be found at www.spitivalleytours.com or www.thehimalayanconnection.com and his new homestay reservations portal is v2c.in

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Photos

Hard working boys from the Border Roads Organization
BRO I love You