On the "scariest road" in India to Spiti

I rushed out of the hotel at 5.30 in the early morning, so that I would have an hour spare before the bus departs at 6.30, and of course, I would definitely get a seat from Rekong Peo to Tabo (the bus goes as far as Kaza, but I wanted to stop at Tabo first). Walking up hill with backpack on your back at this 7,500ft height on the day that your body was not quite adjusted was a pain. I thought I was early for the bus but as soon as I reached the bus station, it was already crowded. Yes, as I guessed, the seats were sold. Overbooked!!! The ticket guy (very nice) told me that I could get a 12.30 bus to Nako but again, I would need to come here at 10.00 to wait for the seat. My heart dropped as I didn't want to delay even a day, my traveling time was limited. Michael, a retired Canadian NGO who came to teach computer in Spiti every year (for 3 months each), walked towards me and offered a choice of sharing Jeep to Tabo. Definitely, I said. There would be total 5 foreigners (including me) getting a jeep up to Tabo with an hour stop in Nako to see old painting in the monastery. We paid 1,000 Rupees each and at that time I thought it was good price (poor me!). The driver got another 4 local people plus one kid to sit at the back of the Jeep, and actually charged all of them less than 1,500 Rupees all the way to Kaza. Well, that's the price of the local, I thought. Two people in the front seat, four people in the middle seat, and four +1 people at the back seat. I thought we looked quite full, but seeing other Jeeps on the road, there were like 12 people jammed in the whole vehicle!

The driver and his Jeep with all our backpacks fit on the roof. 

We stopped for the first Inner Line Permit checking at Akpa (the bridge sign in the map), we were going towards the right according to the map.

Real road trip, real experience!

The Jeep departed around 6.30 and made the first stop at Akpa for handing the inner line permit document (by yourself). The officer (looks like soldier) just asked your age and wrote down your name/destination, etc in his book. Then, we made the first proper stop at Spillow (or sometimes Sapilo) for breakfast at around 8.30. The breakfast was simple but delicious. We all had omelette and fried Prantha with onion, and hot Chai. I didn't have idea as well of what to order. If I came on my own, I would still be on the bus having my chocolate bar (or crisp) while waiting for other locals! 

We continued to Nako, which should take around 2 or 2.30hrs only, but it's not as planned... While we were heading up hill on the sharp turn, a small car came towards us! Oh NO.... BANG, we crashed!!!! Very hard as well. The other driver looked very angry at first (very very angry) because he also had customers in his car, but our driver just looked worried and stunned. I saw his small car got quite damaged at the front part but our Jeep was stronger, so it didn't look much different from what it was. But then, we all noticed green liquid flowing out underneath the engine. Oh dear! The Jeep's radiator severely leaked and the engine fan was totally destroyed in pieces. That means, we wouldn't be able to continue at all because this was the ride up hill and it's almost impossible for the vehicle to run without radiator!!! When the other car's driver saw what happened with us, he got calmer and quietly left (with anger). For all of us, including the driver, didn't really know what to do. Other foreigners in the Jeep thought about hitchhiking to nearby Nako village (which should be only an hour away) without paying. To be honest, I felt bad to leave the driver and his car behind. Perhaps that's very Buddhist thing -compassion! While I was feeling quite hesitated of what I should do together with having a positive feelings that "we will go together", there were other Jeeps stopped by to help and have a look all the time. I felt pretty good actually because this was not expecting picture to see. People are so kind, both drivers and passengers. They walked down their Jeep and came to our car wanting to help. The driver tried filling water in but there was basically no use because it was leaking. I told myself that at least, we were all super lucky that the driver didn't try to get away from that small car by turning his car towards the cliff!

This was actually the second stop to fill the water, and you can see green liquid was leaking all the time.

Most of the road condition was worse than this. Accident without loss is probably the best of luck.

In the end (after around an hour passed), the driver confirmed us that there was no serious problem and he was going to try reaching the nearest village. He drove very slowly and kept checking the heat gauge all the time. We stopped at the first small village to let the engine cool down and brought a piece of cloth to block the leakage for the time being. Finally, we arrived at another small town, only 6km down from Nako, and found a road-side garage. It was just a very local garage that you would never thought that broken radiator and fan would be fixed. We had a little snacks while waiting for around two hours but when we walked back to the Jeep, all were fixed like magic! 

Local garage where there was miracle! (actually it's his skills!)

Trying to get some lunch but only snacks available while waiting.

Nako Monastery and its lovely village

We headed to Nako immediately and made a visit to an old Nako Monastery before getting into the village centre. Nako is at 3660metres height and that's why it is advisable to stop overnight at Rekong Peo to adjust your body. The monastery was very lovely and painted in pinkish red colour (instead of whitewashed like other typical Tibetan building). There were mural paintings and sculptures inside that you need to ask the Lama to show you. We spent half an hour there and walked down the road into the village to have proper lunch and meet with our driver. Nako is a lovely village and is full of wooden farmhouses surrounded orchards. Most tourists break the trip here and it's quite a good place though. Village lies around the sacred lake with high mountain setting in the background giving such terrific view. You would notice that Kinnauri farmhouses were no longer in sight and from now on, you would see only Tibetan mud houses. We continued to our destination, Tabo, without any problems (but quite tired from the delay) but made a stop for Inner Line Permit checkpoint at Sumdo. This time, it was a proper military office that photography was strictly prohibited. It was just simple process, only showing the document to the officer and waited, and it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. We finally arrived at Tabo almost 18.00.

Monastery in Nako, such a view!

Old Nako Monastery, with beautiful mural paintings inside

Walking through lovely farmhouses of Nako to the village centre.

Nako village and its sacred lake.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NakoIndia.jpg

The most fascinating and impressive place - Tabo

Tabo is well-known for Tabo Monastery, the Adobe Monastery built in year 996. Within the compound, there are 9 temples, 23 chortens, monks residence, and guests rest house. Inside all temples are old mural paintings dated back to 10th and 13th century, but old impressive sculptures can be found in the main temple (at the front) only.  You are free to walk around the whole compound since early morning but the Lama will be there to show you each room from around 10.00. There is no entrance fee but you are requested to make some donation for the construction of new Dalai Lama's residence in Tabo. The monastery also offers accommodation right by the front gate but I chose to stay at Maitreya Guesthouse, few metres away, where you can easily have the BEST Masala Chai, Chowmine, veg & mushroom momo, cheese omelette with Tibetan puffy bread! Yum!!!! Tabo is a my most favourite town, very good size, and I can say that this is probably the most impressive place to stay for me. You can linger at the monastery as long as you want and let the time goes by in this village. It's compact enough to walk around without getting too tired.Good choices of accommodation, nice local people, beautiful monastery, and magnificent scenery - what else would one needs?  

Farmhouse in Tabo area

Tabo Monastery, really worth a night in this town or even more!

Tabo Monastery

Tabo Monastery, old paintings are in these temples

New stupa of Tabo Monastery

Tourists resthouse runned by monastery, located right behind the gate

The charming village of Tabo 

This is Spiti - Dhankar and Kaza

I left Tabo in the following afternoon hoping to catch that 'same' ordinary bus from Rekong Peo to Kaza. The bus arrived around 15.30 and as soon as I saw it, I changed my mind. I could not carry my backpack on the back and stand all the way to Kaza, never ever! So, I walked back to the village and asked for private taxi. The taxi charged me 2,000 Rupees (the whole car) with a stop at Dhankar Gompa (monastery) on the way. It's not really "on the way" though because you needed to drive up hill on bad road for around 10 kms (another 30 minutes at least). Dhankar is located on high cliff and is home to hundreds Tibetan Buddhist monks. It was built as a Fort Monastery in the Central Tibetan pattern, similar to Ki Gompa. You can have a look at the small museum and walk inside the monastery too.

Dhankar Gompa, set on the cliff

Dhankar Gompa

Before getting too late, we continued to Kaza. The further north we went, the changing of scenery we saw. From green pine woods with snowcapped mountains in Kinnaur Valley, we were now in the middle of brown rugged mountains that gave different characteristic to the region. From wood and stone farmhouse among orchards in Kinnaur Valley, only whitewashed Tibetan houses set amidst crop lands could be seen. They are all beautiful in different ways.

Beautiful scenery along the route. I can definitely trade this tough journey with this view.

Rock formation changed the whole landscape as we entered Spiti

I finally arrived in Kaza almost 19.00 but it was still light outside. Kaza is like a hub (without any interesting sights to see in particular) that all travellers need to stop here in order to visit other villages or do the treks beyond. It is divided into old and new part of town. Bus stops at the old town and you wouldn't want to walk several kms to a neat new Kaza only to find a place to stay. Most travellers ended up staying in old Kaza eventhough there are not much to see. I personally enjoy browsing in the town's centre seeing different kinds of shops though. That's the charm of each village and town (no matter how it looks). Many people asked me about having nice cold Kingfisher in India. Well, that was what I expected (or even determined to do before I arrived here!) but it wasn't as easy going as that. Apart from extremely cold weather that stopped me from finding a bottle of nice cold beer to drink, it was not easy to find it at all! You have to buy them at authorized "English Wine and Beer Shop, as most restaurants do not sell alcohol. 

Old Kaza town

Local shops in old Kaza

New Buddhist temple in new Kaza



Pretty dark for alcohol shop, but if you need it, it's tempting!

The weather in Kaza was extremely cold and the air was so thin with the elevation at almost 12,000ft above the sea level. I could hardly breathe and that was terrible because I had to walk around finding a place to stay. Most looking good places were closed since it's not tourist seasons at all. This area is not popular during Winter (December to April) because it is too cold to go trekking and all the roads from here are closed. May is like the starting tourist season of this region. Nevertheless, since it still snowed in April this year, you could still expect a nasty chill and minus zero during the night here. I ended up staying in a lovely family-run guesthouse called Bodhi guesthouse. The family was very nice but the room itself was too cold to sleep comfortably. I could not really sleep at all as there was not enough oxygen and it was freezing for me that my head got very painful and dizzy. At that moment, I understood what it's like to have altitude sickness!

Cute family-run guesthouse, but it's too cold!

Ki Gompa, the reason for this tough trip!

So, next day I moved to Mandala Hotel only because I could not sleep well at the other place. Then, I rented a taxi for 1,500 Rupees to visit Ki Gompa and Kibber that are both located further north. Ki Gompa was built on the hill top at around 4,200 metres elevation. It is also home to hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks. Once you arrived at the monastery, a Lama would greet you by taking you in a reception room (more like a kitchen) and making you hot Chai. Then, he would take you inside some praying rooms to see old mural paintings, as well as climbing to the rooftop to enjoy the surrounding view. The visit is free, so you are free to give some donations to the monastery. I have to admit that the real reason I set off on this route is just only to see this place by my eyes. And it is worth the effort!

Unbeatable picture of Ki Gompa, this is what I have always longed for!

From the rooftop of Ki Gompa, stunning!

Hello Kibber, anybody there?

We continued to Kibber, a lovely small village of only hundred inhabitants. It is said to be the second highest village with road and electricity accessed in the world. It is located at 14,200ft height and is 16 km away from Kaza. The village is very cute and you can see several whitewashed farmhouses spread out on the mountain. There are couple of nice guesthouses to stay but at that time (off season again!) I could not even find a place to eat! Eventually, I met two Indian trekkers who invited me to have lunch  at the guesthouse they stayed. The lunch was simple for everybody to share, rice and dal, but it was good enough for a hungry stomach. You can basically walk through the whole village and spent couple of hours there if not considering an overnight stay. 

Entering Kibber village, local school with outdoor classroom, so cute!

The yellow building in the middle seemed like the only guesthouse with "guests".

Kibber village, with 14,200 ft elevation!

Local shared jeep, local price -  this is what is called "good deal"!

I planned to get a shared Jeep of any means back to Rekong Peo on the following day. The trick is that you just need to be at the bus station an hour or half an hour ahead of bus departure time. This means there will be other people who missed the bus and wanted to travel by shared jeep. I walked from the hotel (which is the closest and most decent hotel near the bus station) to the bus station at 6.30, one hour ahead of the bus time. There was no passengers at all and it was so much different from what I experienced at Rekong Peo that morning. This is probably because most locals travel up to Kaza for getting jobs (like construction, etc). As soon as I reached the bus station, a guy standing by his newe vehicle looked at me and asked "Rekong Peo? 300 Rupees per seat!". What? I thought I misheard but no, that's right - 300 Rupees only! So, you see now that the 1,000 Rupees per seat that I got in the first shared Jeep was not good at all. It's even too ridiculous to be true. This new driver didn't try to charge me overpriced for being a foreigner (and of course, I do look exactly a tourist!). There were only 6 people travelled this time in his Chevrolet Jeep (very new and nice) but the driver stopped where there were passengers awaiting. On and off, there were 9 passengers eventually.

This is how Kaza Bus Station looks and that's the bus I was supposed to catch to Rekong Peo.

We stopped at the Dhabha at Nako village's Helipad around 10.30 for 30 minutes or so. I had the most yummy fried prantha ever. It was served simple with dal (as usual) but the Prantha was stuffed with chilli powder. And it nicely gave me familiar "Thai taste" that I missed badly. We continued slowly along the high hills. He was a polite driver, carefully and slowly. However, something happened again! The rear tyre got cut by sharp rocks and went flat! Luckily he noticed that earlier. So, we had to stop by the cliff side to change it. Well, it wouldn't be fun if it was a smooth trip, right? Anyway, we finally arrived safely at Rekong Peo around 14.40 (total 7 hrs) and it was dark and showering unlike the first day I arrived here. 

A stop at roadside restaurant in Nako

Nice Chevy Jeep got flat tyre!

Word of advice: 
1. To avoid having altitude sickness, travel slowly from place to place. You never know how your body can adjust to the elevation because you are not travelling to the extremely high place right away and that always make people forget. So, walk slowly in these places as most of the paths are heading up hill. Drink a lot of water is the easiest solution!

2. You need to keep Inner Line Permit document safely, as you also need to go through the check point again on the way back.

3. This Hindu-Tibetan highway route is actually opened all year but the road condition might not be all smooth. Landslides occur several times and it can be too dangerous to travel on snowed or wet road. So, check the local news before planning the trip. The road beyond Spiti (Kaza) is closed between December to May, and normally opens again in June or even mid of June. During those months, it will be too cold to visit Spiti. June to September is actually tourist season. June is probably good time because it's the beginning of the season and the roads beyond Spiti are opened, so you don't need to travel back on the same route to Delhi. Most travellers do the loop trip by travelling onwards from Kaza to Keylong and Manali, and get direct VOLVO bus back to Delhi.

4. Tap water condition of Spiti (especially in Kaza) is not that good. Perhaps you should consider brushing your teeth and washing your face with drinking water. For other towns, there is no problem.

Elevation (height above sea level): 
Rekong Peo - 7,513ft
Tabo - 10,760ft
Kaza - 11,980ft
Ki Gompa - 13,618ft
Kibber - 14,200ft