Himalayan Trek

On 13th July 2013, after finishing the Bhabha Pass trek at Mudh village we headed towards Dhankhar village, situated at an elevation of 13.300ft above the sea level. On the way we visited Kungri Monastery. Kungri Monastery is a Buddhist monastery of the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism in the Pin Valley in Lahul and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, northern India. Kungri is Spiti's second oldest monastery, built around 1330. Now they have built a new Monastery near to the old one.

Glimpse en route - Kungri Monastery.

That's the new Monastery at Kungri

And this is the old Monastery...

Inside the old monastery it was really a thrilling experience. There were lots and lots of books preserved. On festival days they take out and read. These are most of the sacred mantra books in Buddhism. It was just an amazing experience. One must visit these ancient monasteries.
By the time we reached Dhankhar village it was dark and there was no power. At Dhankhar also there are two Monasteries. At the entrance of the village the new monastery is situated. We decided to stay at the guest house of the monastery. It was quite cheap. We finished the dinner at nearby hotel and crashed into bed.

14th July Sunday: We got up quite late. After finishing the breakfast we headed towards Dhankhar lake, a steep ascend of few kilometers. Dhankhar lake is situated at an altitude of 14,549 feet. It was superb views on the way.

View of Dhankhar village en route Dhankhar lake

a Gompa near to Dhankhar lake

Many of us were little depressed that the lake had only 10% of it's water. But most of us took a round. We sat for a while and took few amazing photographs. We got down by 11:30 AM and straightway headed towards Dhankhar Monastery.

...the Dhankhar Monastery..

on the way to Dhankhar monastery..

The entrance of Dhankhar monastery

We went top of the monastery, it was made of 90% mountain and the rest brick construction

inside the Monastery, we climbed there..

View from the top

This was the original old monastery..

was feeling like into the Heaven...

at left the ruins of the palace..

It was myself and Premji who went for a total touring of the monastery. He found one of his relatives there. She offered us a really nice tea. We had some momos one the way return to the guest house. And it was the time when team decided to get divided. Uttam, Govind and Sudhir decided to depart for Manali and the rest continued. After finishing our lunch we left Dhankhar and headed towards Lalung village, situated at an altitude of 14,875 feet.

..it was an awesome view of Lalung village...on the way to the village

@ 4:50 we were at Lalung, visited the Lalung Monastery and soon the team departed

We asked the driver Sachin to come to Comic after one day to pick us from there.We got really a luxurious accommodation at the home stay. It was the house of brother-in-law of Premji. I would say really cozy and highly comfortable was this home stay.

This cutie pie (daughter of Premji's brother in law) fall asleep in my lap, she was so comfortable and peaceful as she know me from ages... (Photo courtesy: Sabu Paul)

We enjoyed and relaxed rest of the evening. There were two Israeli citizens there. They were on their way to Dhankhar by foot. They halted for that night at the same home stay. Food was really awesome. I still remember the menu, palak ka sabji, rajma daal, roti and rice. Palaks were freshly cut. And after sumptuous dinner we retired to the bed.

15th July Monday: We were felling like to stay one more day there. But we were completely scheduled and wanted to finish the trek from Lalung to Demul to Comic at any cost.

@ 9 AM we were ready to march ahead... Premji's daughter in my lap..

Premji's daughters, the middle one (with red scarf) is the daughter of his brother in law

We stared the trek by 9:20 AM and halted at Premji's in law house and moved on. He wanted to take a long route to avoid the hanging bridge, which he thought was damaged due ti rain. But when we reach to his in laws house they told the bridge is repaired recently and can be crossed easily. We moved on.

Crossing the hanging bridge @ Lalung on the wau to Demul

After crossing this hanging bridge we started ascending on a trail. After some time the trail disappeared under a man made boulder slide. Due to road construction the trail was completely gone. We somehow crossed the slide area and went up and finally fond the trail. This trail continued towards a house. Premji interacted with one lady there about the route and we continued. It was a clear boulder road. We walked on that for about half an hour and crossed a river. The other side was complete ascend on a clear trail. It took us almost 2 hours for us to scale this ascend. En route it was astonishing view.

@ 2 PM we were about to reach to Demul village

Most of us were mentally tired. They found this trek more boring because of steep ascend and not have any green view. But pro trekkers who never set any expectations enjoyed.

and after few more ascend we were there at Demul village at an altitude of 14,300 feet (4,360 meters)

At Demul, in co-operation with Eco Sphere - http://www.spitiecosphere.com (a NGO working towards maintaining this heaven) villagers have created an association where every villager would be given chance to earn through eco tourism. In a single year only 2-3 selected houses would provide accommodation and food facility to the tourists. And next year they change. The fund they collect is spent for various social activities like conservation, organic farming and other areas. Eco Sphere's contribution towards this is greatly appreciable. I never expected such a beautiful and superb accommodation on such high altitude trans Himalayan villages. It was just heaven for me. When I was planning for this particular trek, I was wondering weather we will get at least a shaded place to stay. But the facilities they provide are beyond imagination. From bed to cushion to blanket to pillow everything were there. Interiors are also great. Top of that food was also superb.
We roamed around the place and enjoyed the beauty of these mountains, interacted with villagers and tried to capture some shades of those beautiful moments.

Mountain ranges around Demul and the cultivation land. The main crop is peas and barley

On the terrace of the house where we stayed. There was a ladder to come up.

the kitchen

An elderly women working at the field, i followed her..

This dog was accompanying her..

a Yak

The dusk @ Demul

16th July, Tuesday: This was the most laziest day in our entire trekking. We got up quite late. Our destination was Comic, where from the vehicle was arranged to pick us up to Kaza. We did not take anything for lunch as we were told can have lunch after reaching Kaza. The route was quite easy. We trekked through valleys with rocks and boulders around.

One top

first view of Comic village

After crossing this top, we walked little more ahead and then got a road (not a tar but mountain road) and went ahead.

We reached Comic at 3 PM and finally we completed the trek as per schedule

At comic village it was the Monastery, guest house and very few houses, that it. We visited the monastery and quickly boarded the vehicle to move towards Kaza.

Comic village

The Monastery

the guest house

En route Kaza

That's the Kaza town from top, on the way Comic to Kaza at an elevation of 3,650 metres (11,980 ft)

Spiti River and other streams at Kaza.....

After reaching Kaza, we checked in the hotel quickly and had lunch with daal, rice and omelet. We were quite late and hardly anything was available. We spent rested in the hotel and went out for a roma. Kaza was a like coming back to the city life full of dust, pollution, crowd and mess around.
We had a nice dinner at a restaurant named Buddha. We had a late dinner.

The trip continued...

17th July, Wednesday: We got up at 7:30/8 AM and went to the same hotel for breakfast. Our breakfast was like last time eating.

Breakfast at Kaza

We were scheduled to leave for touring around. The first village we went is named Tashigaung.

On the way

At Tashigaung/tashigang Monastery

The village - Tashigaung

On the way we spent few joyous moments with school children who were on a picnic.

Our driver Sachin took us to a beautiful place on the way to Kibber village.

GETTE village

Gette is said to be the highest inhabited village in Asia. Its located in the Lahual and Spitu district very near to Ki Monastery. Its altitude is approx. 4270m. Our next destination was KIbber village.

En route Kibber

We went to that top Gompa

View of Key Monastery from the top

Key Monastery from the top

Kibber village

Chechan Village

The bridge under construction for past 10 years to connect Kibber and Chechan village.

Key Monastery

En route Kaza

Kaza Monastery

And the day ended with beautiful memories of these remote high altitude villages, Gompas and Monasteries. It was great to learn how they live and enjoy the life in a very simple way. Its just unbeatable.

18th July, Thursday: Slowly we were going towards the end of our journey. This day we were scheduled to go visit Chandrataal lake and reach manali.

Kunzum La

This stone attracts coin. If u r able to stick it for the first time its considered great..

En route Chandratal Lake

Chandratal Lake

It was superb experience to take a walk around the lake.
From Chandratal Lake we headed to Batal and halted for lunch. And then left toward Manali.

A vehicle got struck on the way

We reached Manali via Rothank pass. It was raining and roads were full of land slide. Thanks to our driver Sachin brought us safely to Manali. We reached Manali at mid night.

19th July, Friday: It was the last day of the trip. We visited Gurdwara at Manikaran and Vashisht temple.