Kinnaur Travelogue

Planning.
Day-0-Delhi-Shimla.
Day-1- Shimla-Sarahan.
Day-2- Sarahan- Kamru-Sangla.
Day-2- Sangla- Chitkul
Day -3- Chitkul- Sangla-Chandigarh-Gurgaon.

Pics- Picasa Link

Miscellaneous:
1. We were lucky not to face any land-slides. Land slides can throw plans into dis-array. Therefore keep atleast 1 day as buffer in your plan.
2. Below are some contact numbers i gathered for stay, though i didnt use them much.

Place	Hotel Name	Contact No
Kalpa, H.P	Parvati Guest House	Govind Sharma- 9805375215
Kalpa, H.P	Hotel Shivalik	9418342999
Kalpa, H.P	Hotel Ashoka	9418696177, 9418707077
Kalpa, H.P	Hotel Royal Voyages	9418051773
Kalpa, H.P	Monal Residency	01786 226117, 98169 59989
Sangla, H.P	Madhu Guest house	9418423842
Sangla, H.P	Prakash Guest House	9418275062, 01786-242218
Chitkul	Thakur Guest House	01786-244320, 244275, 9418274192

I think i gave enough details in this blog for a newbie to plan his Kinnaur trip. As they say, Happy Kinnauring..

Day 3 & Day4-Chitkul- Rakcham-Sangla-Chandigarh-Gurgaon

Next day we woke up around 9:00 A.M and had our breakfast at the Thakur Guest House/Dhaba. Aloo parantha was good. Then we had the option of waiting till 01:00 P.M for the bus to Sangla. After some discussion, we decided that we will start trekking with our bags and go as much as possible and then when we are down, get into a jeep or the bus that comes by. This decision proved to be very good as we had amazing views of Baspa valley while trekking down from Chitkul to Rakcham. By the way dont confuse Karcham and Rakcham. Karcham is a place where JP is building dam that comes between Jeori-Sangla. Rakcham is a place midway between Sangla and Chitkul. Some people stay at Rakcham also instead of staying in Sangla or Chitkul.
We walked around 7-8 kms and were tried. Then we got into the back of a jeep and for the next 20-30 minutes we were standing on the back of a jeep which was travelling at a height of 3400 metres. Its an amazing ride almost equivalent to getting a helicopter view of the Baspa valley. We got down at Sangla and i was suprised by the driver who refused to take any money from us. I wondered to myself thinking - Who Say's You Need Money To Travel? All You Need Is A Desire, Some Guts & The Humanity Still Left In The World :).
We had momo's as our lunch in Sangla and then we found out that there is a bus to Chandigarh at evening 5:30. I cancelled my Shimla-Delhi volvo bus ticket online. There is only one net-cafe in Sangla that charges Rs.40/- per hour :). We got into the bus and were lucky to get seats. Travelling night in a bus in hills has its advantage - since you cant see much outside you will not get frightened by the dangerous roads you are going through :). We reached Chandigarh at 7:00 A.M next day and then caught another bus and i reached Gurgaon by 2:00 P.M. Thus my first trip to Kinnaur was completed on a high.

Sangla-Chitkul

After getting down at Sangla, we found that the last bus to Chitkul left. So we tried to check with the jeep guys and they were quoting Rs.250/ and also it started to rain. Since we were damn hungry, we thought we will have lunch first and then decide if we should go to Chitkul or stay in Sangla itself for that day.We were having lunch at a small restaurant in Sangla and then again i was lucky to hear someone telling our restaurant hostess that 'he is going to chitkul'. I ran to him and asked if he could take us also. Bingo, he agreed and he also waited till we finished our lunch.

The jeep ride to Chitkul was amazing with some beautiful views. From his conversation, we kind of guessed that the guy is some government engineer responsible for that area. Our guess was confirmed when he took us to Chitkul PWD Guest house and arranged our accomodation in Chitkul.
The PWD Guest house is just at the entrance of Chitkul village only. Its a nice place to stay. Also there are few other stay options in Chitkul like Thakur Guest house etc. Since it was off-season, i think we were the only travellers who stayed in Chitkul that night. The PWD Guest house has 2 normal rooms and 1 VIP room. For non-himachalis, the normal room rent is Rs.200/- + Geyser - Rs.10/- + Blankets - Rs.10/- and electricity charges - Rs.2/- :)
Though it was getting late (around 5:30 P.M), we thought of doing the walk to the last check-post. This is not a trek and is just a plain walk. It took around one and half hour to and fro as i was taking my time clicking pics. While returning i chatted with village women who were in groups. They told that they were returning from some temple/place where they offered prayers as its a 'Janmashtami'. After coming back, our care-taker told that he cannot arrange dinner in PWD house and advised us to try a new restaurant in Chitkul. I think its name is some 'seeshmahal'. We got wet while coming back in the rain and also i dared to put my bare feet in the small stream that's coming from the melting snow. The feet were numb in just 3-4 seconds. We returned back to the room and slept after shivering for some time.

Day-2: Sarahan-Kamru-Sangla

I read in the book 'The Secret' that the Universe will set up things for you, if you wish something very much. Got an experience of this! Last night at the hotel we ran into a conversation with a German Couple regarding the best place to go - Is it Kalpa or Sangla/Chitkul? When we told that we need to go by bus, they were gracious enough to offer that we can travel with them. This gesture from them made our trip less hectic and also we reached Delhi ahead of our plan. They were going to Kalpa and we decided to go to Chitkul, so they told that they can drop us at Sangla as they planned to visit Kamru Fort also which is just near Sangla.

The reasons we chose Chitkul/Sangla over Kalpa are- A local in Sarahan advised that Kalpa is also similar to Sarahan with views of a different mountain range, Kinner Kailash where as Sangla/Chitkul is a 'valley'. Also 'Chitkul' has this tag of last village on Indo-Tibet border and if we do a trip to Lahaul & Spiti (my next target :)) it will be via Kalpa only. We left Sarahan at 9:00 A.M. and the ride was awesome. After around 15 kms from Jeori, Shimla district ends and Kinnaur starts. The road will definitely test your guts. Luckily there were no land slides and we reached Sangla with no issues. The Karcham, Wangto road is in a very bad condition due to the ongoining JP Hydro Dam construction and power plants. Below are some pictures. You can see the Sutlez river in full flow.



Our German host, Dr.Hermann is a Geography professor whose area of work is South-East Asia. We had an excellent conversation with him during our journey. We were a little bit embarrassed at times with his knowledge of India. He told that he visited India almost 25 times till now and he visited the mountains of Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan also. We discussed about the ecological damage JP Hydro is causing and about the locals fight against it. I too felt bad that the Sangla Valley is being spoiled so that some one in Gurgaon or Delhi can run his Air Conditioner. No wonder our P.M. is right regarding the N-Deal, we need clean energy badly.

Around 01:00 P.M we reached Sangla and we headed for Kamru Fort. It is at a height of 2600m and the fort is one of the oldest forts in Himachal. Kamru was the centre of kings of Bushar. The location of this fort is breathtaking. As per local tradition we need to cover our head and tie a thread/knot around waist to enter into the temple. The temple houses Lord Buddha and Kamakhya. Its said that the Kamakhya idol is brought from Kamakhya temple, Guwahati. Below are some pics of this amazing place:


After coming down from Kamru, we got off at Sangla and the German couple proceeded to Kalpa.