Spent the Best Days of My Life in Spiti Valley!

As a travel photographer all my trips are unplanned. I head out with just a destination in my mind⁠—I don’t plan my route or anything else. Sometimes it makes the trip difficult, a lot of times I found out there was an easier route or a better way to do it, but its okay… all of those were experiences, and we travel to collect them, so no regrets.

My favorite destination in India has always been Spiti Valley. Spiti’s stunning landscape makes me wish to spend my retirement days there⁠—In a small local house with a burning tandoor (local Himachali fire setup)

In October 2019 I went on a solo trip to Spiti Valley and spent a few weeks there.

Rohtang Pass was open, so I took the local bus from Kullu to Kaza (Spiti). Rohtang Pass is an unmatched beauty, however, after Rohtang, the road gets bumpy and dusty because of the geography. The person sitting next to me in the bus was a tourist from Delhi, and he told me about Chandrataal Lake. That was the first time I was hearing about this lake. He also told me that every year the lake is accessible for only a few months, which got me more interested and I decided to join him. 

Around 2 pm we reached a place called Batal. From there the lake was around 10 km away. With some local help we got a carrier jeep going to Chandrataal and jumped right in. The jeep was returning to a camp near the lake after their weekly purchases. As soon as we reached, we joined a camp, parked our bags and started trekking to the Chandrataal Lake. The lake was 3 km away from the camp, and was really beautiful with all the greenery and blue water. I’ll never forget that day! I spent a lot of time freezing in the cold winds and capturing the landscape. Even the night was dreamy. I witnessed about a billion stars.

The next day I continued my journey to Spiti Valley, and reached Kaza by 6 pm. Days in Spiti ends mostly by 9 pm. After that it becomes hard to find people and food on the streets. So I took a room and had my food and took a good rest. Kaza is the main city in Spiti. You can find almost all necessities including rental bikes in Kaza. But Kaza wasn’t on my mind. I wanted to explore and spend my days in some of the small villages. The next day I decided to go to Hikkim Village. It’s one of the main tourist attractions in Spiti Valley because the highest post office in the world sits here. But, that wasn’t my point of interest at all. I wanted to see what’s beyond the post office.

There was only one bus to Hikkim, and it broke down. The next option was to take a shared cab, but there was no specific time for that too. They’ll go when the cab fills. I never wanted to waste my day waiting for the cab to fill, so I decided to walk. It was nearly 17 km from Kaza to Hikkim. Soon I realized it was a poor decision. My judgment was wrong, but my mind was strong. With a lot of struggle and rest breaks I almost reached Hikkim by evening. Then luckily a solo travelling gentleman from Mumbai with an SUV helped me with the last few kilometers.

As soon as I reached Hikkim I talked to some locals and I found myself a home. I never wanted to be a ‘tourist’ there. So I was looking for a regular local house. And luckily a family took me. That was the end of their harvesting season and people were busy with their grain works. They told me that nobody was taking tourists during that season because they had other jobs to do, but since I’m alone, I won’t be a burden. Kunga, the smallest child in the house welcomed me with a cup of tea.

I spent almost a week in Hikkim, explored and got familiar with most of the people during my stay. I explored every corner of the village and met almost everybody. The headmaster of Hikkim School was more than happy to see me in the school. He told me that very few people would come inside this village, and it made me really happy to be one of those few. I even had lunch with the teachers and kids as a guest there. Most people who visit Hikkim are there for the post office, and they go back after posting a few postcards. But I’m glad I went inside and stayed for few days. I collected a lot of memories and fossils from the village. Since the fossil village (Komik) is located nearby, its possible to find fossils in Hikkim too, but you really need to look for it. The highest restaurant in the world belongs to the Komic village I went there on my last day to have a cup of seabuckthorn tea (a local fruit from Spiti). I also didn’t forget to visit the Budha Statue of Langza.

After my stay in Hikkim, I went to Losar village. Losar was more modern as compared to Hikkim and was easily accessible. Mobile networks were also accessible there. Just like Hikkim I got myself a home in Losar too. I spent the next week there by exploring and doing all the local activities—plucking seabuckthorn berries was my favorite.

I took a lot of photographs during my stay, including portraits, landscapes and everything else that I found interesting. Also, I collected a lot of postal addresses to send a copy of peoples photographs. In the last week I went to Kaza and got myself a bike to explore some roads⁠—my camera stores some restless rides.

And that was the end of the trip! After spending some peaceful weeks in the mountains I went back to my home in Kerala with a bagful of experiences.