|
My regular lunch from the dhaba in Kasmiri gate |
My first
destination on the way to Spiti valley was Shimla which is around 10 hrs of
journey from Delhi. From ISBT you could get buses to almost all the neighbouring
states of Delhi. I had already booked a ticket for the 12.30 bus to Shimla
through Himachal Pradesh Road Corporation’s online site. I specifically booked
a side seat. In the bus I met Ramesh
Kumar, a Nepali who was about my age. He was a construction worker currently
working in Gujarat and going to Shimla
to meet his elder sister who stayed with her husband. I told him I was going to
Reckong Peo from Shimla and he said he was also on the same route so we could
go together. I must confess my Hindi is not very good as it’s not my mother
tongue and I only speak Hindi whenever I came to North India on tours. So many
times I had to use sign language to communicate with him because he didn’t
speak English.
I was hoping to
get some rest finally since my first attempt failed, but again I was wrong. It
was the hot climate which troubled me this time. May end is the hot summer time
at its peak in North India and the bus ride through the wide NH1 made it worse.
The seats were burning with hotness. I was advised to get an AC bus but at noon
there was no AC bus available to Shimla. So my advice is that if you travel to
Shimla from Delhi during summer time and no AC buses are available in your
journey time, take an AC bus to Chandigarh and then take a bus to Shimla from
there. At that time I didn’t know that all the buses to Shimla go through
Chandigarh.
The bus passed
Karnal, Panipat, Ambala- places that I had studied in the history class, and
finally reached Chandigarh around 5.45. Ramesh and I became really good friends
by that time. He bought me food every time some local vendors got into the bus.
I refused it first time but he kept on insisting. So when we reached Chandigarh
I bought him a sandwich. I asked Ramesh whether his village was affected by the
recent earthquake which hit Nepal and he said everyone was fine in his home. In
Chandigarh, the bus went to the Sector 43 bus stand from where you could catch
buses which go only to the northern side of India (Himachal, Punjab, Jammu
& Kashmir). If it is a bus which goes only up to Chandigarh, it will not go
to Sector 43 but instead it goes to Sector 17 and then you may need to catch a
city bus to get to Sector 43 in order to catch the Shimla bus. I learned all
these things on my return journey to Delhi only. After half an hour’s halt at
the bus station, we resumed our journey to Shimla.
On the way to
Shimla you pass a place called Kalka from where the famous Shimla toy train
route starts. I was earlier thinking of taking this toy train but there was no
train available in the evening so I changed my plans. From Kalka, the road
started to climb up. From here onwards you are entering the world of never
ending journey through twisted and curved mountain roads... You could see the
toy train rail line passing through the sideways of the road at many places.
Soon we passed Solan and I had the first glimpse of Shimla town high above.
Glazed with lights the town looked like a group of tiny flashy birds.
Finally
at 10.30 we reached Shimla. The bus halted at the old bus stand. I was planning
to get a room and stay overnight there and start early morning to Reckong Peo
(locally known as just Peo) which was my next destination. But Ramesh said it
was better to keep going, as we could get a bus to Peo and thus avoid staying
in Shimla which could be really costly. I guess he didn’t have much money and
his limited time constraints made him say that. But I was really tired and
preferred to stay there and call it a day. I asked a guy at the bus stand about
the room rates here and he said it could be around Rs
3000 for a decent room since it was tourist season. His response made me change
my mind and follow Ramesh’s advice. We asked a shop owner about the
availability of a bus to Peo at night and he said it could come at any time. So
we waited. But the wait was too long. We asked a few more people and each of
them gave different answers. Some said there were no buses at night and some
said we must get to the new bus stand in order to get the bus. I was totally
confused what to do.
It was almost midnight and the bus stand was getting
deserted. We met two young boys with a drunken old man who were going to Peo.
They said they were walking to the new bus stand which was about 4 km from there
and we could join them if we wanted. I turned to Ramesh for his opinion but he
was on a call with his sister. He then handed over the phone to me as she
wanted to talk with me. I honestly had
no idea which language she spoke… Hindi or Nepali. All I said was ‘ok accha
theek hai’. I handed over the phone to him. After the call I felt that he was
more confused than me. What he said next I won’t forget in my life. He said his sister told him that it was not
safe to stand alone at the bus stand at this time because people might even cut
your throats in order to rob you!! I asked-- what the hell did you just say?! “Some
people may even kill you in order to rob you,” he explained with hand gesture.
I felt my head was spinning. I looked around and all the people standing there
seemed to stare at me. That is it, I had had enough. I am going to get a room
here and stay overnight. I asked a guy who was sitting beside a shop to arrange
a room. He immediately called his friend who said it would be Rs 500 for a bed
but only one was left so we would have to share it. I didn’t bother to look for
any other solution. I agreed and they took us to the room. They guided us
through some really smutty dark alleys beside the bus stand. I looked back at
Ramesh who was following me with fearful eyes. He kept on whispering to me not
to trust those guys as they could cheat us. I must say here that the walk to
the room from the bus stand was one of the scariest moments in my life. I didn’t
know whom to trust. We stopped in front of some old building and my jaw dropped
as he opened the room.
It was a dormitory and there were at least 20 people
sleeping there and the bed he was talking about was too hard for even a single
guy to sleep. But we had no other choice. Before they went back they said they
would come back the next day at 4 in the morning to wake us up since we had to
get the early bus to Peo. I went to use the toilet, a guy with 36 inch waist
line would probably get stuck between the doors, it was that tiny. I would
rather not speak about the condition of the toilet. I went back to the bed,
Ramesh and I somehow managed to fit on the bed and went to sleep. The loud
snoring coming from some other bed didn’t even bother me because my tiredness
put me into deep sleep within minutes. There I was sleeping on a single bed with
a Nepali guy, whom I had met just a few hours ago!
It always makes
me laugh whenever I think about that night. I don’t know why I was paranoid to
that extent, but honestly I was scared to death that night.
Day 2
We woke up at
4am hearing the alarm but both of us didn’t get up until a guy came knocking at
the door. We had to move the bed in order to open the door. He asked us why we
hadn’t left yet if we wanted to catch the bus to Peo. I had no idea who he was
or how he came to know about our plan, anyway we didn’t waste much time. I
didn’t even brush my teeth because I never wanted to go back to that toilet. It
was early in the morning but the light had come up early. We went straight to
the bus stand and asked a few people about the bus timing. Just like last night
we got different answers. In the end a police officer said we should either go
to the new bus stand or one other place (I don’t remember its name) and
suggested it was better to go to the latter since it was nearer. So we took a
cab and went there. A few people were already waiting there for the bus which
they said would arrive at 6 am. While we
were waiting I was thinking of all the incidents which happened last
night. I had a lot of doubts in my mind
whether I could do this trip all alone but after all the things that happened
last night I thought I could survive anything!
The bus arrived
at sharp 6 am. It was coming from Haridwar and was jam packed. I bought the
ticket to Peo and Ramesh bought for ‘Autti’ where his sister’s house was
located. The rush inside the bus was getting less as we travelled further and I
managed to get a seat after 30 minutes. Around 8 am we reached ‘Autti’. The
driver stopped the bus for a 30 min tea break. Ramesh called his sister and
asked her to come there. We had breakfast from a nearby restaurant even though
Ramesh insisted he didn’t want. I asked him why he asked his sister to come there
instead of going to her house directly. Ramesh said he didn’t go to her house
ever since he had a fight with his brother- in- law last year. So he was going
to talk to her for some time and then go straight back to Delhi and then to Gujarat
since he had only two days off! Now I knew why he didn’t want to stay in
Shimla, he had a really tight schedule. I felt really awful about it. It must
be so hard for him to travel half way through the country to just see his
sister and spend a few minutes with her. I gave him some chocolates that I had
bought last night, for his sister’s children. We hugged each other and said
goodbye as the bus started. I had spent hardly a day with him but it still
makes me really sad when I think about the moment we said goodbye.
|
An umbrella by the nature. Somewhere in Hindustan Tibetan Highway. Sutlej on the left side |
The driver
rushed though the roads which snaked across the valley. I felt lonely. The guys
sitting near me were sleeping and I had no one to talk to. When I boarded the
bus I had noticed two guys who were about the same age as me sitting in front
but they were sleeping earlier. I guessed they were also travelling like me,
seeing the camera which one fellow was holding. But then they awoke and one
fellow came and stood beside me. I asked him whether they were heading towards
Peo and he said yes, pointing to his friends who were sitting behind me. I was
relieved that I got company till Peo. He was surprised to know that I was
coming from Kerala, which is the southernmost State of India, to Spiti all
alone. He said this loudly to his friends behind me and suddenly one of his
friends poked me from behind and asked “naatil evideya?” (Where are you from in
Kerala? -in Malayalam)! It was like Indian film stuff!! . And that’s how I met
Vasudev. It is usually said in light humor that wherever you go, you would find
a Malayalee and it is generally true. I was so relieved when I heard Malayalam
being spoken. Vasu introduced his friends Jayesh, Jay and Abhimanyu all coming
from Mumbai and working in the media industry. Vasu is a Mumbai Malayalee
basically from Trichur, Kerala. He and his friends liked to travel on mountain
areas just like me. We talked about our adventures from the past and it didn’t take
long for me to become friends with them.
|
The Mumbai gang - Vasudev, Abhimanyu, Jayesh, Jay |
Around noon the
bus reached Rampur and it stopped for a 15 minutes break. From the bus stand we
saw the river Sutlej for the first time. Before this trip I had looked up the
map of Himachal Pradesh and found that much of the road that I had to travel
passed by the side of the Sutlej. The road from Shimla to Peo is known as the
‘Hindustan Tibetan Highway’, one of the most treacherous roads in the world. I
have seen a lot of stunning pictures of it on the internet and a few scenes
from the Bollywood movie ‘Highway’ which was shot there.
|
The iconic tunnel of the famous Hindustan Tibetan Highway |
Jay and Abhimanyu
shifted their seat to the front near the driver, who was wearing sunglasses (I
shall tell the story of it later) and started chatting with him. I looked at
Sutlej, she was all muddy and flowing like mad.
I guess may be somewhere on top of the Himalayas near the Manasarovar
where it originates, it must be raining very hard. We stopped at a place called
Jeori for lunch and after 30 minutes of break, we resumed our journey.
Somewhere between Peo and Jeori we stopped in front of a Sikh temple. It seemed
they were having some celebration and everyone was given free kesari(dessert),
chana and some drink. I must say that it tasted really great. Soon we left and
I saw the first glimpse of the world famous snowcapped Himalayan mountains in
the distance which was Kinnaur Kailash range by the way. Though I knew I was
going to spend a number of days on these mountains and that this was not the
best position to take pictures, yet I became so excited that I started clicking
photos even as we were travelling. Such is the influence the Himalayas has on
me.
|
The first glimpse of the world famous snow capped Himalayas! |
The road was
really narrow at many places and we had to take reverse for some distance
whenever a big vehicle came from the opposite side. In the whole journey we wasted
nearly an hour doing this alone. As we travelled further we got a full stretch
view of the Kinnaur Kailash range. Finally the bus reached Peo around 4.30.
The Mumbai team’s
initial plan was to do the Kinnaur trekking but soon they realized it was
closed due to snowfall. So they decided to stay at Peo and look for some other
plans. My plan was to go to Kalpa, hardly 10 km from Peo, which is quieter and more
beautiful than Peo from the information that I found on the internet. When they
heard my plan they also agreed to come with me. We took the 5 pm bus to Kalpa,
which was the last one for the day since it was Sunday. The local people here
in the Kinnaur region, both male and female, wear a special type of hat of
green and grey color. Along the way there was some regional music playing
inside the bus. It was very rhythmic but all I understood was that they kept on
singing ‘Rekkaang Peo’ which is the actual pronunciation. Peo has its own song.
Cool!
It took hardly
30 minutes to reach Kalpa. Kalpa was the former capital of Kinnaur district
which later shifted to Peo. Jay, Abhi and Jayesh went to look for a room as
soon as we got down from the bus while Vasu and I went on a different way. We didn’t
have to go long, we found a small guest house on top and luckily they had 2
rooms available for just Rs 600 each. The view from the room was absolutely
spectacular which you cannot see anywhere else in the world. The Kinnaur Kailash
range looked like a big white gate in front of us.
|
Couldn't ask for a better spot. View from our room in Kalpa |
We kept our luggage there
and went down to inform others. Soon all of them came to the room and put their
things down. We heard some music coming from the Tibetan temple down in the
distance and decided to visit it before it closed. Vasu and I went together
first while the other guys were freshening themselves up. We reached the
temple. There were lots of prayer wheels surrounding the temple. We walked
around the temple turning those wheels. The typical Tibetan prayer music coming
from the temple and the chilled atmosphere made us feel that we weren’t in
India any more but in Tibet itself. Spiti and Peo are known as ‘little Tibet’
but I guess ‘little India’ would be more apt!! We also visited a Hindu temple
nearby. You could see the vast valley
from the balcony of the temple which is just awesome and I wished I could stay there for my entire life.
After that both
of us went to a small restaurant to have some veg momos while the other guys
also joined us. It was 7 pm in the evening but the daylight hadn’t gone at all.
It was in the middle of the year and also because of its geographical location
this place became dark only after 8 p.m. For a guy who lived closer to the
equatorial line, all this was a wonder. We decided to go back to the room but
Jay said they should order food then because it would take a while to prepare.
Here in these mountain areas they only made food as per order, so everything
would be all fresh and hot. We went to another restaurant and Jayesh suggested
to me to order something Tibetan. I ordered a chowmeen which is a kind of
Tibetan/Chinese noodle. He ordered a tupaka. We went back to the room to charge
our cell phones and cameras and came back after an hour. But the food was not
ready yet and also there were some foreigners sitting inside the restaurant, so
we all waited outside. Darkness had
spread everywhere by then. Nobody was there except for us and the guys inside
the restaurant. It seemed that Kalpa went to sleep very early. The caretaker of our room Mr.Thotharam
informed us that we could go trekking to a village on top of Kalpa when Jayesh
asked him about the local sights. We had seen the snow covered mountain top earlier while coming in the bus,
so they all were so excited about going there. Before I came to Spiti I had
checked the weather forecast and so I told them that there were chances of
snowfall for the next two days. The guys were so happy to hear this, because
they all wanted to see the snowfall. But I had seen plenty of it in my last
trip during the Gangotri Gaumukh trekking. I told them about my Gangotri
adventure, how I saw the moving satellites and Milky Way and all. While I was
talking, the power supply went off and it was totally dark everywhere like an
omen. I immediately looked up to the sky to see the Milky Way but it wasn’t
visible much. But I saw a few moving satellites and I showed them to my friends
and all of them were astonished on seeing the sight. They never knew we could
see them with naked eyes. You could see the moving satellites on these remote
places as there is very less light pollution on a clear sky. They shine like
stars because of the light reflecting from the solar panel and also move
constantly round the earth. I think I have become an expert in spotting it.
|
Wonder what she is praying for. At the Tibetan temple in Kalpa |
While we were
talking, Jay was busy feeding the stray dogs with biscuits that he had bought. We
then talked about our journey of that day and then only I came to know about
our bus driver’s story. It turned out that he wasn’t wearing those sunglasses
for style. He had an eye surgery a few days before and he practically couldn’t
see with his left eye for a few weeks and hence the sunglass to protect it. Jay
said that at one point he even put his head outside through the window to check
whether the tires were all on the road while turning some sharp curves!! We
laughed so much thinking about it. The food was ready at last and we all went
inside. The power hadn’t come yet so we had to light up candles for light. The
chowmeen tasted a little bit salty. I remembered my uncle once saying the real
Chinese food tasted a little too salty for our liking. The food there didn’t
taste like what we got in the so called Chinese restaurants back home. Jay
shared his tupka with me. Tupka is a kind of noodles with lot of water in it.
It was really great to have a candle light dinner on that cold night.
We headed back
to the room after finishing dinner and I was already thinking of the next day’s
plan. Those guys were planning to do trekking the next day and then go to Spiti
the day after that. Actually their plans were similar to mine but they had one
day extra. I thought a little adjustment in my plan could match with theirs but
I decided not to do it. Even though I felt really comfortable with them, travelling
alone has its own perks. I had confidence by then that I could do the rest of
my trip alone. Also there were chances that I might get friendly with some
other guys in the rest of my trip!! So I said that I was going to leave the next
day for Tabo which was my next pit stop. I asked Thotharam how to get to Peo in
the morning from Kalpa. I knew the bus to Kaza is at 7 am so I had to reach at
least by 6 am to book the seats. But he said there were no buses to Peo from Kalpa
until 9 am. He then suggested a different plan- to get the 11 am bus to Nako
which would reach Nako by evening and stay there and the next day go to Kaza by
taking the afternoon bus. So for that I might have to skip Tabo. I was really
confused what do to on the next day because Nako wasn’t in my plan initially.
After a few minutes Jayesh came to the room and said that he had talked to
Thotharam and he suggested that I could walk to Peo early in the morning like a
lot of foreigners do rather than taking a bus or cab. I thought that was a good
idea and decided to go for it. I kept the alarm for 4 am and went to sleep.
Day 3
I woke up early in the morning. If I were to
get the Kaza bus I should leave the room at least by 5 am. I snoozed the alarm
for 1 hr and went back to sleep since I felt lazy to get up so early. When I
woke up at 5 am, I could hear the rains outside. It was so cold inside the room
even though I had put a heavy blanket on top of me. Walking all the way to Peo
in this weather seemed suicidal. I decided to go for the plan B (Nako) so that
I could get some more time to sleep. Finally we all woke up after 8 am and realized
there was no power. I washed my face and we all went outside. It was really cloudy
outside and drizzling also. The mountains were only partially visible. There
was a Belgian guy near our room who also came outside to check the weather. I told Jayesh that if it was raining here,
then there were chances of snowfall on the top of Kalpa where they were
planning to do trekking. Jayesh and Vasu were so excited on hearing this. While
we were talking, Thotharam came and said it was better to leave then to catch
the Peo bus. I thanked him for suggesting Nako, said good bye to all, hoping we
all could catch up later somewhere in Spiti valley and left the room. I had
hardly spent a day with him but we had really become good friends. Vasu
accompanied me to the bus stop.The bus arrived at 9 am sharp. We had one last hug and then I boarded the bus.
|
Reckong Peo bus station. |
There
I was all alone again. But I was sure
something unexpected would happen any time, wondering with whom I was going to
end up by the evening. I enquired about the Nako bus when I reached the Peo bus
stand. It was around 11.30 but the booking counter hadn’t opened yet. I went to
an ATM counter nearby to get some cash as I was afraid there won’t be any ATM
available as I went up towards Spiti. I had some food and came back to the
counter which had opened by that time. I specifically asked for a right window
seat and got it. The bus took off finally and after some distance it reached
near the river Sutlej. As I travelled further I saw several sign boards saying
‘You are travelling through one of the most treacherous roads in the world’ and
I couldn’t agree more. The condition of the road was quite dangerous at many
areas. You would become sacred by looking at the side of the mountains near the
side of the road. It was not green as one could see from Shimla to Peo but
instead it was all sharp rocks bulging towards the edges of the roads. I started
listening to music but didn’t close my eyes for a second even though I was
really tired because I didn’t want to miss out anything. You never knew what was
going to come up next after each turn around the corner.
|
Here the bridges not just connects roads but the civilizations itself |
The bus stopped for
lunch at a place called Spillow, a small town. I talked to a local man while
having lunch in the restaurant. I told him I was coming from Kerala alone. Here
is the interesting thing, these people see many foreigners both male and female
travelling alone there knowing nothing but English yet it didn’t surprise them
a bit. But as soon as they realized that you were an Indian especially from the
South travelling there alone, they found it hard to believe! I noticed this
reaction every time I mentioned it to the people I met there. He told me there
was nothing to worry about there,as the people there were really nice and
helpful which was true every bit as I learnt from my own experience.
We left Spillow
after a half an hour halt. If you have ‘Airtel’ mobile connection it was better
to make all your calls before leaving Spillow because there won’t be any
network further from that point. After we passed some distance, the bus stopped
and I looked outside to see why it had stopped. The road ahead of us was
blocked due to a landslide. I went near it to check the condition. The road was
completely blocked as some very large heavy rocks had fallen from the top of the mountains.
|
Road block! BRO cleaning up the landslides near Spillow |
I realized it would take hours to clear the road so I went back
to the bus. While I was walking back, I saw a lady running back in to the bus, and
then I looked up and saw some small pebbles coming from the top of the mountain
and hitting the bus. I immediately ran back in to the bus. There were some sign
boards along the road warning about these falling stones. They said ‘watch out
for the shooting stones’ and I wondered earlier why they were called ‘shooting
stones’ instead of ‘falling stones’, but now I understood why. They fell so
fast from the top like someone was firing a bullet from up there! A small stone
falling at that speed could really hurt if it hit you.
I didn’t feel
like talking to anyone in the bus and moreover most of them were sleeping.
There was a Lama sitting behind me but he was reading a book so I thought not
to disturb him. I slept for almost an hour inside the bus and when I woke up I
decided to go check out what was happening with the landslide situation. The
roads there are maintained by BRO (Border Roads Organization). They came
immediately whenever a landslide occurred and cleared it fast with big
bulldozers and all. One officer stopped me from going further as I was walking
towards the rocks. He warned me to stay back because they had drilled down the
rocks and put some dynamites inside it in order to blast it. One guy who was
sitting on top of the rock ran towards us after he lighted up the dynamites.
Everyone gathered around there waited with anticipation to see what would
happen next. The rock shattered into small pieces with a loud explosion and the
sound echoed through the valley of Sutlej. BRO cleared the roads immediately
after that and we resumed our journey.
|
The never ending journey through the twisted roads.. |
We passed a
village called Pooh/Puh. I knew this place from the movie ‘Highway’ which I had
mentioned earlier. It was this tiny place which had sparked my ambition to come
here. As we travelled further I saw a bridge cutting across the river Sutlej
and I noticed a river joining with it from the left side. It must be the famous
river ‘Spiti’. Sutlej was all muddy but Spiti had more clear water. Good bye
dirty Sutlej , see you back in a few days and hello Spiti!
|
Spiti(on the left) merge with Sutlej at Ka |
If you went straight
instead of taking the bridge you would reach the Indo - China border which was
hardly 10 kms from there. Looking at the map in my phone I learned that the
place was called Ka (The name of the snake from the Jungle Book J )! The change of
scenery from Ka was unexpectedly breathtaking. The bus immediately began to
travel through a steep road and the sides of the mountains on either side made you
feel like you were travelling through the ‘Great Grand Canyon’. The sides
looked like some painter had brushed that whole area with some big brush or
something! I had never seen anything like that before. As if that wasn’t enough,
the views dramatically changed as we climbed up further. How could I describe
the surroundings there- let me say if you looked around there and compared it with some photo which the NASA’s
Mars rover ‘Curiosity’ had taken from the Martian surface, you could never
differentiate them! The land there didn’t look similar to anything that you saw
not only in India but in the whole world! All you could see is a lot of reddish
mountains with no sight of vegetation at all till the horizon. The only thing
that made you feel you were still on the earth was the snow capped Himalayan mountains on the right side.
|
Where am I, at the Martian land?! |
The river Spiti wasn’t visible by then. From Ka it was
better to sit on the left side of the bus which provided more scenery.I sat on the bus wondering what all I am going to see more on this strange land...