Spectacular Spiti

Back from the high mountains and just trying to get back to the workings of the modern world . Phone , Internet , TV and cacophony all around .

A few weeks back I was wondering where to head out for a couple of weeks and as luck would have it came across a volunteering activity from Spiti EchoSphere.

Just the perfect job I thought to do some work and also spend sometime around the mountains. I had fond memories of backpacking across this area few years back and lots of adventures then and my spirits were high again.

So with my leave of absence of granted and air tickets booked I headed to New Delhi when the entire nation was debating the Lok Pal bill and when Anna Hazare would break his fast. With a fleeting stop at my uncles place for lunch, I took the night bus to Manali. Reached Manali early next morning thanks to the driver thinking he was navigating an airplane and checked into a hotel. Manali had changed quite a bit since my last visit (resembled the mess just like in most cities) , with roads dug up and construction all around the main mall road. However, the great green pine trees and the river flowing was just the beginning for more to come. That evening meetup with two other volunteers for dinner and I connected back with folks since this would be the last mobile connectivity for the next few weeks, and we were setup for the 3am jeep to Kaaza.

Kaza(Altitude 12,500 feet), the main town of Lahual Spiti is just 200kms from Manali and Kunzum Pass (Altitude 14,931 ft) is the entrance pass to the Spiti Valley from Lahaul. We started the tough journey at 3am to beat the traffic at Rani Nalla and within few hours our jeep had to be pushed , pulled with ropes but finally its air filter gave way. An emergency call had to made to the mechanic down below and we waited at the Rani Nala for 5hrs before help came and fixed it in 5minutes.

It wasn't the first time on the mountains for me so I just went with the flow but the rest of the folks were getting a little shaken by the state of roads and the journey itself. But all the mountain people including driver were calm ,no harsh words or anger about waiting that long, i guess its part of their daily life as compared to the road rage one sees in the cities. We did find some piping hot Maggi and Parathas at the dhaba on the way. and were at Kaaza finally that night , after 19hours :) Thankfully we found dinner there since the driver had made a call and after a much needed shower hit the bed.

Met up with Ishita the next morning and came to know about her company and the great work they were doing in Spiti and then we headed to the Ki Monastery(Altitude 13,668 feet). The Ki gompa is the biggest monastery in Spiti .The monastery has about 300 lamas from the age of 6 to 80 and its a tradition in every Buddhist family to send their second son to the monastery else huge fines need to be incurred. The monks of this Buddhist sect are refrained from having a family and have fairly strict rules. Spiti is an arid desert up in the Himalayas and the only means of getting any green vegetables is what comes in from Simla/Manali which is way too expensive and perishable as well. In winters , most of it is cut of from rest of India and temperature drops to -30 degree centigrade. The green house project that we were going to start would help provide vegetables to the monks all year round.

The first day was spent acclimatizing at that altitude and just soaking up the sun and the great mountains. We were three of us on this project helped by Sonam our local guide and a few local folks. We started off building mud bricks the first few days which was a bit of work and loads of fun. Once I got the hang of making bricks I was on auto pilot mode. The lamas were extremely friendly and would provide hot tea every few hours and hot home cooked food for lunch and dinner. As we were working on bricks some others helped build the base of the greenhouse with rocks since snow and water had to be curtailed. The person from Delhi left in three days , so it was me and Angelina another volunteer from Singapore.

There is something about the mountains that calms everyone down. Its harsh terrain and its the survival of the fittest . Everybody works hard to earn their living to just make ends meet. Its also about the religion maybe the Buddhist influence , Spiti has majority of Buddhist (Tibetan origin). There is no newspaper and few houses in the village have access to TV and BSNL home, however up in the Monastery we were disconnected and detached from the world outside.

The mud bricks had to dry-up and so for three days in between we ventured out for some high altitude trekking and I must say I was a little apprehensive when we set off. At that altitude my ipod gave way , the camera shutter malfunctioned and I had to open it manually (fingers) every time a picture had to be taken. Our trek was across the high villages of Langza-Hikkim-Komic-Demul-Dhankar.

 We took a jeep to Langza (Altitude 14435 feet). Langza is a village with just 33 houses and with a population of 135 people. The walk across the mountains is surely breathtaking but does takes ones breath away. We crossed a couple of steep inclines and one had to gasp for oxygen and our lungs were surely functioning at maximum capacity.

We stopped at Hikkim village (Altitude 15,500 feet)  for chai at Sonam's in law's place which also was the highest post office in the world . The route from Langza to Komic is favourite place to hunt for fossils and we did come across a few. 

We then continued onto Komic(Altitude 14,800 feet) and visited the monastery there and then went to a homestay. Sonam took out the packed food and the residents of the house brought in some hot tea . After some rest and walking around the village , it was getting cold cameback inside and helped make momo's for dinner and surely did get a good night's sleep.

The next morning we trekked to Demul(Altitude 14,300 feet). Another tough day of walking 14-15kms at the altitude but definitely worth the hard work, beautiful mountain ranges on display . The houses there have ladders where one climbs onto the roof and then goes down using another ladder. Good home cooked for lunch and dinner and after a good night's sleep , I wokeup really early and walked around the village. There are about 50 odd houses and all look similar. On the way back I got lost rather climbed onto couple of wrong houses but people are really friendly and instead of being upset at me intruding in they invited me over for hot tea.  The rest of the day was spent exploring the village more and then gearing up next day to take the share jeep to Dhankar monastery.

Dhankar(Altitude 12774 feet) has a monastery that's more than 1000 years old and perched up in the high mountains.

We then got back to Ki Monastery and started work on building the Greenhouse walls , then adding hay/grass for insulation. The monks in the kitchen as usually made us the delicous food (dal,rice and on somedays tibetan bread, noodles etc). I took pitched in and made huge number of parathas for breakfast on last 2 days since they weren't skilled at that and they were thrilled.

I was also able to help fix the printer that was malfunctioning . It was an old dekstop and printer that they use to generate letters and it felt good to get it up and running. I wasn't sure I would be be able to fix it initally, with no internet or driver CD available but an hours work on it finally paidoff.

The next day we were hardpressed for time and volla some young monks from the Gompa were called into help and the pace surely picked up.  The next days were spent painting the inside and outside walls and doing the finishing touches as the roof was also added. It felt good to complete the project in a small way.

The journey back started at 3am again and as we ventured out of the monastery we spotted a big snow leapoard which is a rare sight.  Surely a good few weeks up in the mountains .

Pictures here :
Greenhouse Building at Ki Monastery
Road Less Travel
Trekking around High Mountains