7th June 2011, 21:14
| #16 | |||||
| BHPian  Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
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| Re: "Alone!!! You're Kidding!" A Gypsy week to Spiti Valley Quote:
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Cheers! Hriday | |||||
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7th June 2011, 22:57
| #17 |
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9th June 2011, 00:52
| #18 |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
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| Drive to Nako 24th May, 2011 Sarahan It was 7:30 am in the morning when I get out of the bed. Yesterday, I planned to leave by this time! After getting ready to leave I took out camera to get few more snaps. The famous Bhima Kali Mandir:  Snow capped mountains:  By 8:30 I started my journey, I hope Zuki won’t disappoint me this time. The road till Bawanagar is very good, after that road become bad to worse. Road widening is going on in that section. Welcome to Kinnaur!  Some good concrete road.  JP group has got two power projects on muddy Sutlej river on-going: 1000MW Karchham Wangtoo and 300MW Baspa II project. So, bad road is mainly because of dam construction works. For a better tomorrow, this much inconvenience doesn’t count. 3 military gypsys are convoying, I also join the party. Crossing a overflowing nala:  Bumpy dusty road:  Everytime I got a better road section, I got mesmerized by beauty of Himachal.  Shongtong Bridge:  By 12:00pm I arrived at Powari, the HP power pump got no Petrol, so I decided to fill my tank at Recong Peo. After crossing Powari, there is a uphill diversion on the left to Recong Peo, the road is quite narrow and broken in parts. By 12:30 I was at Recong Peo, it is last place where I can get ATM (the ATM at Kaza normally out of service), I had my lunch with thukpa (a Tibetian soup noodle dish). I filled up full tank+15litres of extra petrol into jerry can. By 1:30pm I resumed by journey to Nako. A view from DC office Recong Peo:  Beautiful vista:  Rear view used up for scenery rather than seeing vehicle:  Sutlej river with Snow capped mountain as background:  A wooden bridge over a Waterfall:  Rock falling blocked the road:  Awesome landscape with Zuki parked on side:  Occassional excellent road patch!  The gate at Spellow say it’s 25kms to Pooh!  Point bar (a geological term used for deposition on curves on a river) of Muddy Sutlej river:  A zig-zag road full of blind turns!  Beauty that can neither expressed in words nor photographs!  A road goes to it!   After crossing Pooh, the road started climbing leaving the river bed and all of a sudden the whole landscape changed! Vegetation become less and less, welcome to cold desert! I could not stopped myself from stopping and clicking!    A road to Heaven on the earth:  Zuki standing high!  The road ahead!  A tributary to Sutlej river.  By 5:50pm I arrived at Nako, GPS showing an elevation of 3620m; for first time I am going to stay over 3500m AMSL. I checked into a hotel for 400bucks and ordered a cup of tea! Contd... |
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9th June 2011, 04:09
| #19 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Gurgaon
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9th June 2011, 09:52
| #20 |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
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Thanked: 171 Times
| A lovely Evening at Nako A lovely Evening at Nako, Kinnaur After finishing my cup of tea, it’s time to explore the village. A view from my hotel room:  Nako has got a lake and monastery. It was around 5mins walk to the Lake. The sun was getting golden yellow and I got captivated by the view from lake.  The reflection of snow peak mountain:  A home next to mountains!  I explored inside the village and lost my way somewhere, until a villager guided me to monastery! Inside the village:  Furry mountain goats:  Nako monastery:  Prayer wheels:  Stupa:  View from monastery, car going down the curves with lights on:  By 8:00 I was back to hotel and had my dinner with my favorite chicken momo.  No airtel network, so no facebooking, just processed a few photographs and hit the bed. Cheers! Hriday |
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9th June 2011, 14:14
| #21 |
| BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: "Alone!!! You're Kidding!" A Gypsy week to Spiti Valley Fantastic pics and great journey Hriday. Nako photos are superb especially the monastery and the lake. Thanks for sharing and hooked to this thread now.  |
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9th June 2011, 14:34
| #22 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Mumbai
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9th June 2011, 19:50
| #23 |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Bangalore
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9th June 2011, 22:52
| #24 |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
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| Drive to Sumdo, after a wonderful morning! 25th May, 2011 I bet, one don't need a alarm clock to wake up when the first sight of the day is appealing! Once again the panaromic view from my room dumbfounded me! The source of living of Nako depend on Apple and Pea cultivation. The apple of Nako has more demand because of higher altitude.  Before leaving Nako, I enquired about the Mailing, a frequent landslide point, which is just few kilometers away from Nako. As of now there is no landslide, so there shouldn't be any problem. I also need to transfer the petrol from jerry can to tank. I forgot to bring a funnel, so just cut a empty Slice 1litre bottle and bingo! Road is fantastic, till I reach Mailing, where the road is badly broken because of landslide. It is nice see to a earth mover stationed there, though there is no landslide today. Crossing Mailing Nala:  I think the frequent landslide in this area is due to highly deformed rock structure and the road is going right through it. Fractured rock blocks are hanging dangerously everywhere.   Throughout the drive there always the fear of getting tyre punctured, as the rocks lying on the road got really sharp edges, which can cut the rubber like razor! And getting a puncture is the last thing I want to face. After crossing Mailing, the road goes down to the valley, and the view it offer is just out of the world. In addition the road condition is simply awesome. Just after crossing Mailing, the quality can easily beat any road of gurgaon!  A panaromic view, I wonder how it will be after getting to Spiti valley!!!  Where the turn ahead leads to? Heaven?  A tough decision to move ahead when you got surrounded by such landscape  I am going down to there!  Zuki desperate to take down the slope and curves!  Go go go! I am suprised to see elctricity lines thorughout the journey!  Apart from scenic beauty, the geology of the photograph (source UCSB Earth science dept.): view to north of lower spiti valley. The light yellowish white sediments are fine-grained lacustrine deposits that were formed during a late Pleistocene intensified monsoon phase. At that time, a large landslide just downstream from where this image was taken, has dammed the Spiti river for several thousand years and resulted in lake-sediment deposits.  A dream road ahead to drive through windy sections!  Zuki my partner!  No words!  A home into the hills, I think had they higher up the walls, they won't had to make a roof!  There is check post at Chango, where one has to enter the car details and moved ahead. A security personal took a lift to Sumdo, there is some problem with BSNL tower here so he need to report from Sumdo. Down to valley!  Sultej river, meandering and cutting into hills!  Sumdo check post! I am planning to go to Kaurik from there! but I need to get the pass.  Welcome to Spiti!   Spiti-Sutlej confluence with the Spiti coming from the left side. The different colors of the rivers indicate the varying amounts of suspended sediment transported.  Another view of Sumdo. From Sumdo, one route goes to Kaurik, the check point of Indo-Tibetian border.  After giving my details at check-post, I enquired about getting pass to Kaurik. For a civilian it is not possible to get pass upto last check point, I have to come back from 3kms before the check post. So, I cancelled the idea of going to Kaurik! I forgot to say about a couple whom I met in Nako, also travelling to Spiti valley on a Thunderbird from Delhi. I really liked the way they prepared themsleves, they have got walkie connected to their helmets to commnicate between them! I met them again at Sumdo, actually they catch me up there. Am I driving slow? Whatever, how does it matter! It's about enjoying my ride  Wow! I am entering Spiti Valley now! To be contd... Cheers Hriday Last edited by hridayjyoti : 9th June 2011 at 23:21. Reason: Problem with attachment |
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9th June 2011, 23:45
| #25 | |||||
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
Posts: 139
Thanked: 171 Times
| Re: "Alone!!! You're Kidding!" A Gypsy week to Spiti Valley Quote:
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I would say long live team-BHP, not only travelogue section, Route/travel queries as well which helped to plan this trip. Quote:
 Cheers! Last edited by hridayjyoti : 9th June 2011 at 23:47. Reason: typing error | |||||
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10th June 2011, 10:25
| #26 |
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10th June 2011, 10:35
| #27 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
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| Re: "Alone!!! You're Kidding!" A Gypsy week to Spiti Valley Quote:
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10th June 2011, 14:33
| #28 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Hyderabad
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10th June 2011, 22:30
| #29 |
| BHPian  Join Date: May 2011 Location: New Delhi , Gurgaon & Chandigarh
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10th June 2011, 22:43
| #30 |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Gurgaon
Posts: 139
Thanked: 171 Times
| Entering Spiti Valley Sumdo to Tabo: Travelling with Monks! After deciding against going to Kaurik, I resumed my voyage to Spiti from Sumdo at 10:15am. Welcome to Spiti Valley. There is road going up on the right side of photo which goes to Kaurik.  The road looked quite good.  I am going to pay a visit at Giu village where a mummy of Monk is preserved. 3 guys asked for a lift, having a local company will prevent me from missing a road to Giu. They wanted to go to Hoorling, I told them that I am heading to Giu, they said it's OK, they will go down on the diversion to Giu. The guy sitting in the front even wanted to join me to Giu. He is actually monk, work in Dehradun, coming home in vacation! I never thought monks goes on vacation. Also, he is dressed up like a dude! After driving about 2kms from Sumdo, I arrived at the diversion to Giu Village. Welcome gate to Giu:  The other 2 guys got down and we started our journey to Giu. We have just drove 200ms into the road, and we got problem! Rocks are falling ahead, so the road is blocked! Now what, reverse; Giu trip prospond, I will try to make it while going back. The road is too narrow to take a turn, I had to reverse all the way down to the Gate! And thank got I got a navigator with me! Giu cancelled, now I am heading to Tabo. The road turned into a dirt track, but it is ok, better than my expectation. Photographers delight! Red sandstone!  These rock formations just reminded of the last year trip to Nevada!  The road was quite narrow, many a place I have to stop to give pass to the coming vehicle. I am going down, so the car has the right go first!  The monk told me the story of the mummy of Giu, "the mummy was found when army personal are making the road to Giu. They saw blood coming out of the ground when they were cutting into the rocks. So, they excavated and found the mummy of the monk!" The monk is studying in a monastery of Dehradun, in summer they get a leave for two months and come home. Now, he is going to Hurling to meet his friends. By 10:45am I arrived at Hurling. Hurling is much greener with lots apple cultivations.  I dropped off the guys and 2 more monk asked for lift to Tabo, I never mind giving a lift to locals as I can get some insight of the place. Also, with monks around I will get a wild card entry to Tabo monastery. I was about the start, when the monk i just dropped off took a ride again, this time to Tabo. In fact, the friend he wanted to catch up; happened to just jumped into my gypsy!The guy who sat on the co-passenger seat is more chatty than others and I liked that. They are heading to Tabo for a cricket match! Yes, cricket match. There is Cricket Premier league happening at Tabo, where teams from entire Spiti Valley is participating. They are going as cheerleader boys for Hurling! They also let me know about the results of IPL semi-finals which made me happy! Chennai into finals and also Mumbai into qualifiers defeating KKR. Double bonaza! Now, I want the Chennai Vs B'lore final! Dirt track continues!  As Giu dropped, I have ample of time to reach Kaza, so I took a break when and wherever I wanted! A waterfall coming from melting ice  Thats me with the dude monk from Dehradun  One more pic with dude, Zuki badly needs a wash! Looking very sad.  Trust me, the sky was much more inky blue than what the photo suggests! Problem is, if I try to get the sky colour, the photo will be underexposed.  The Himachal govt is doing an excellent job giving local a chance to work! As employees they have to work for 100days per year. Road blocked, the supply tractor dropping rock boulders!  I utilised the waiting time to click some snap: A bridge across Spiti river. The monk said the river on the other side comes under Kinnaur District, so the people over there need to go to Recong Peo for any administrative work.  The monk who wears a Ferrari Cap!  Beautiful vista  Spiti river bed. I saw some tractor down there, I would have like to do some off-roading down there! Off-roading alone in such terrain wont be good idea!  Dirt track and gypsy! A deadly combination  Effect of Devastating flood!  This view will turn greenish in coming months  Some cruising section!   Smooth slopes, potential of skiing in winters?  Stupa: Trademark of Spiti  It is 11:45am on the clock and we are entering Tabo  Welcome to Tabo  Keep quiet, I can hear the sound of live commentary of cricket match! Cheers! |
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