Spending a Night Among the Clouds – Komic Monastery, Spiti Valley

Himachali locals say that I should be given a permanent citizenship in Himachal Pradesh! And when it comes to Lahaul & Spiti, my love knows no bounds. I’ve been guilty of not making individual blog posts on the high altitude villages of Spiti Valley but its never too late to start and I begin with Komic…

Spiti Valley in Winter : A Travel Guide

Winter Spiti Travel Guide Websites, blogs and travel guides on the internet might make one believe Spiti valley is inaccessible in the winters. For the adventurous soul, this might turn out to be the best time to visit Spitis. There are hardly any tourists around and one can have all of Spiti to themselves. Winter…

Travel to Spiti Valley in the Winter

The human mind sure works in an inexplicable manner! I have just stepped into my home in Jaipur; back after spending more than 2 weeks travelling to remote regions in wintry Ladakh and Spiti is on my lips. Incidentally, I was lucky to travel to Spiti in the winter of 2016 (after having travelled numerous times in the summers). As more and more…

Top Ten Spiti Experiences

If you are the sort that doesn’t ‘do’ destinations but believes in leaving a piece of you behind in every place you visit – then let me take you on a journey of life-changing experiences in the high altitude wonderland of Spiti Valley. 1. Drink chhang (local barley beer) in a mug in the remote village of…

A glimpse of Spiti in winter

‘You will die in the cold’, say my friends. With temperatures falling to -40 degrees celsius, winter travel to Spiti is unheard of! There are no flights and hence no escape route, in case something goes wrong. It is hard enough in the summers; I know after my various long sojourns to this ‘middle land.’…

Chandrataal Lake and a Night at Chandra Dhaba, Batal

Altitude Mountain Sickness (AMS) had already resulted in me being alone after just having entered Spiti from Kinnaur. A stroll in Chitkul at 3450m had caused breathlessness to my co-travellers and the short walk to Nako Lake had proven disastrous. The check post officer in Sumdo complicated matters further by asking them ‘Why have you…

A Comprehensive Travel Guide to Spiti Valley

Somewhere close to the Tibetan border, lies a land only a few know about, and even fewer visit. Rudyard Kipling has described Spiti Valley as ‘A world within a world’. It is perhaps the most peaceful, and one of the least populated areas in India. Spiti lies on the Tibetan plateau and has an average…