4th day: Key Monastry, Hikkim, Kibber, Chicham
This day we all were so excited about the places we are going to visit. First we visited a small village calledLangza, there was a statue of Buddha overlooking the valley. By the time we reach there it started to snow, the first snowfall experience of my life. I was on cloud nine and started dancing in the snow. We traveled in May during peak summer and we were surprised by the snow and Sambith told us its due to exceptionally long winter.

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Then we headed to the world’s highest village with road, Komic village. Komic is the most panoramic village of spiti valley at a height of 18000 ft. As sipping sea buck thorn tea in the world’s highest restaurant I felt so lucky to be alive. I felt proud about myself that I choose to come to Spiti to see these wonders. Next stop was Hikkim, which is famous for the world’s highest Post Office. Sambhit and Disha gave 3 postcards to each one of us the previous day and you can also buy more in Kaza if you want. We had written our postcards in the previous night. Me and my husband wrote letters to each others parents and we didn’t know addresses of our beloved’s so we decided to write to each others and made a deal to not read the letter until it reaches our home. It was really a best experience, the name world’s highest Post Office itself gives a thrill. I felt gratitude about the post master general for serving in such a unpredictable weather. No matter rain or shine every morning at 9 o’clock the post master collects the post and takes it to Kaza by bicycle.
And there we met a man who is in his 50’s who had come all the way from Singapore and peddled his way in bicycle to hikkim from Shimla. We were just surprised by his adventure.

Mini Tripod with Mount Compatible with All Mobile Phones

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Then we went to Kibber, the highest motor-able village in the world but it started snowing heavily and our driver took a stroll around the village. It is a small village. I felt bad for not spending more time in Kibber. Later we went to the Key Monastry, a Tibetian Buddhist monastery located on the top of the hill. It is the biggest monastery of Spiti region and a religious training center for Lamas. The scenic landscape of the monastery attracts the tourists. It started snowing and we couldn’t stay longer to enjoy the beauty of the monastery. The next stop is the highest bridge in Asia, the Chicham bridge build at the height of 13596 ft connects the two villages Chicham and Kibber. The road to chicham was slippery due to snowfall and I was holding my husband’s hand till we reach the hotel. It was scary yet electrifying experience. On the way to Chicham bridge we spotted Ibex, Sambith told us that we are so lucky because it is exceptional to see Ibex so close to humans in the summers. It started snowing heavily when we reach the bridge so we clicked some pictures and also it was freezing cold so we came back to the hotel. Things will be things but experiences will last you a lifetime. When we started our journey to Spiti at the Bangalore airport my husband ushered in my ears that “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”. And that moment I truly understand the meaning of it.
Will you dare to look down from 13596 ft highest bridge? I don’t think so.

5th day: Kaza to Pin valley, Tabo
We started early in the morning from Kaza to a hidden gem Pin Valley. It is largely popular for its Pin Valley National Park. The road to Pin Valley was not that good, it was bumpy, untarred road and the Pin river flows right next to you. First we visited Kungri monastry. View of the Pin Valley from this monastery is very beautiful. Next stop is the last village on the Indian side of Indo-Tibetan border is Mud village. The village has a beautiful landscape as the Pin river flows next to the village turning the landscape into lush green. The villagers grow peas and potatoes in their farms. We met some beautiful children coming back from school, posing to our cameras with their innocent smile and greeting us ‘Julley‘.

Then we started our journey to Tabo, a small town with a panoramic view. Inside this old monastery there are so many wall paintings and mud statues. This little town is surrounded by the mountains on both the sides. First we visited the monastery and then we went on small hike to the mountain to see the caves, these caves are the natural habitats of locals back then and you can see the ashes of cooking and heating fires inside the cave. Hiking to the mountain is little difficult and I was so happy by seeing the beautiful view from the top. Spending time in there, among one of us talked about climbing the mountain to the top, a small mountain, we the 3 crazy people of the group me, Disha and Soumik started climbing the mountain against all of others warnings. It was slippery due to small rocks and also there is no support to hold, as I was concentrating on the slippery path a voice coming in the back constantly by my husband that Kavya be careful, are you crazy, go from this side blah blah, he is always scared of my craziness. As we climbed little we saw a rock looking like a tent inside it and has a beautiful view of Tabo and soumik even went to the top of the rock as me and Disha scared to go. We came back to hotel and the hotel has the beautiful seating arrangements where they serve food. The owner of the hotel has the collection of so many interesting ancestral things like some animals horns, an ancient musical instrument like guitar and so on. We spend our night sitting there and we had good dinner and also we tasted butter tea but I didn’t like it much. Tabo has the beautiful night sky view told sambith but also Tabo weather is unpredictable. Unlucky us it was cloudy that day and as my husband is a photographer he stayed up whole night checking the weather because it was the last beautiful destination of the trip to capture the milky way.

6th day: Tabo to Kalpa
We started early in the morning as we had a long journey to Kalpa. On the way in a small village we ate a yummy parathas. My husband was little sad for missing the opportunity to capture night sky previous day but he started looking for photo-op and insisted me to put my head out of a window on our moving bus and captured a beautiful picture of me. Thank you for insisting me on taking pics in such a precarious circumstance. Still that photo gives me a feeling of being a bird. The journey was beautiful as all of us get along each other well, we played games, we laughed, when all the boys were sleeping we girls talked and laughed so much that until Debaprathim woke up and started making fun of our chatter. Debaprathim one of our team mate was very enthusiastic person and he and priya entertained all of us throughout the journey by their funny fights. We reached kalpa by the evening and again we went to roam the village and we had a yummy Maggie at the local restaurant and cheered up ourselves from the long journey. Eating Maggie with chai in the biting cold places has a thrill in itself.

7th day: Kalpa to Shimla
We went back to Shimla by the evening and I felt like back to the civilization. The journey was good I felt like a outstanding transformation from barren dessert to lush green forests, it’s felt like a different world by geographically in Shimla. As we were climbing down from the high altitudes to the low I got a headache and felt nausea in the journey but thankfully it was not that intense I came to normal quickly.

8th day:
We had a one more day to explore Shimla and we walked in the mall road, visited a Gaiety heritage cultural complex which takes you to the amazing architecture of British Era. The Victorian theater in the complex attracts the tourist with its cultural prominence. We explored few cafes in the mall road and tasted different street foods. In the night we bid our good bye to the group and left Shimla with a heavy heart. Inside I felt like can’t we go back and sink in those mountains for longer.

The panoramic landscape of Spiti Valley makes you to visit again. Its the best destination for adventure seekers, bike raiders and also any kind of travel enthusiasts. Its brings you the excitement, exploration to people lives and adventure in you. While travelling you will see other peoples lives, their culture and what they have to deal with on a daily basis. And through travelling you will come to know there are many bigger problems than your and travelling widens your perspective in many ways. So step out of the box travel as much as you can and most importantly be a responsible traveler. You only live once, live fully.

‘I think the best souvenir you can take from travelling are good pictures, memories and experiences’.