Yes, it is, The Road Trip..
We got an amazing driver, his name was Vijay. He is one of the best drivers one can ever come across n believe me you need a good driver in this area as the roads are horrible.
Day 1: Nothing much to do in Manali..Hadimba Temple, Manu Temple and couple of other temples, hot water spring, and some shopping
Day 2: Started at 5:15 a.m towards Rothang Pass. There was traffic on hill section. Beautiful view from there.When we stopped for breakfast, all of us managed to buy some warm clothes to try and keep us warm. These remained on us till the end of our road trip :)
We had lunch at Batal. This place as the rest of the places had an amazing view and has a memorial for the Women Trekking team who died in flash floods there. A silent river behind the small hotel, surrounded with mountains with different textures. Simply awesome place. Very humble people served us food and we hogged like we had not eaten for days..
Then we headed towards Chandrataal lake.(One of the most beautiful lakes there). From a certain point, we had to trek to the lake and its 4km trek but takes about 3 hrs to go. It was really difficult as there was very less oxygen because of such high altitude. We reached the lake only by 4pm.
From there, we went to a town called Kaza. Its about 6hr drive from the lake trek starting point. There are no other villages or towns in between to stay. This is the only town you will find in those dry mountain area.
Stayed at Kaza, Spiti valley. Decent place agian.. cant ask for much there..
Shambhala Home stay, PH: 9418357592,94182000183
We spent a couple of days there as there are few nice places around in Spiti Valley.. Old monastries, mini Swiz and Ki Monestry, view point called Lakha/ Lahul.
Next day we started towards the 1000 yr old Monastery and headed towards Tabo and stayed there. Very calm and beautiful place. There is one monastery there too. Good accomodation and good food :)
Tashi Khangsar, Tabo. Phone: +919418817761
Next we headed towards a place called Nacho. The highest village, very difficult to breath for sure..There is a nice lake and some peas fields here..
From there we went to Kinnur. For the first time some greenery around... Nice place again... Stayed in hotel called Apple Pie.I dont have the details for this hotel.
From Kinnur we headed to Shimla. Can spend a day or more in Shimla.. nice place agian...
From shimla we went to chandigarh (cos there were heavy rains in delhi we didnt want to go there and stay) stayed in Chandigarh and visited stone park and a nice lake there. From there we headed back to Delhi and took flight to B'lore.
In all these things, one thing to remember is its very cold out there and have enough clothing like thermals etc.
More than places to see, the entire drive through such horrible roads and no roads at many place in the valleys is just awesome. The roads here definitely qualify for the most dangerous roads ever.
Its beautiful to know the lives of those monks who live there.. It was a very memorable trip!
And I finally manage to post this blog after a year and half after the most memorable trip of my life so far ! :)
