Trip II Revisiting Spiti Valley with $$ Dreams!

My second trip to Spiti was the summer before I came to the US. I had already reached that phase where my life revolved around "leaving for the US", the bisleri drinking and thinking in $ had already begun! After lot of fighting over who's coming and why G, P and I decided to stop trying to convience the non enthu ones of the group, buy a tent and just go for it. It was July 2003, raining like crazy in delhi and ma was as usual giving her last minute dose of emotional blackmailing "I won;t be able to sleep at night, taking a bus in the monsoons to a place like Manali is not safe. Freedom ke license baniyo na (don't treat the freedom we give u as a license to do what u want to !!!) And as usual we didnt listen. Poor Ma, what did she do to deserve such loony daughters! (tho I secretly feel she likes sending us off on this mad adventures and just pretends to be all Ma-ish for society sake!)

We boarded our usual Lhasa Travels cheapy bus to Manali in the evening with rucksack full of TP, tuna, beans, ham and gin (what priorities)! G was too excited to let any of us even nap so we chatted till dawn when we reached the little dhaba on the foothills. I have such fond memories of that tiny place right next to a sewer! That's when the air starts getting frigid and we always reach it just when the sky starts turning red and the sweet sweet tea tastes so good (especially witha gold flake!!!) UMMMMM Now I miss my friends and the winters in India...EEP

The half finished inn near the bridge seemed abandoned so we chose a fancier Hotel next doors and got the honeymoon suite - full of big mirrors and a BIG bed!! What a waste of all the gimmicks on 3 "no sex" friends (Ref: Last trip to Spiti the Israeli girl next doors was appalled that 4 of us were what she called "no sex" friends on a platonic hike!). Ofcouse we started the trip with some snitzel (is that what's it called?) and yummy Tomato soup in Hotel Manalsu. We were stocking up on all good food since the hike promised just tins of cold meat. Our first stop was Batal and Chandratal lake. I know I;ve already talked a little bit about this - let me check in the archives, nah that trip deserves a post to itself.

They are two ways to reach Chandratal - one is the sane route thru' Batal, longer but just one waterfall-y stretch that can get anywhere near tricky. But ofcourse the two boys with me had to prove their machismo right there and then so we chose the insane route thru Kumsum Pass. Incidentally, Kumsum temple is quite fascinating, there is this sticky rock and people have to ask for a wish and stick a coin on the rock. And the saying goes "If you have a pure heart the coin sticks and your wish comes true!". Umm I think I forced mine to stick by holding it down for 5 minutes!
The hike for the first 2 hours was quite a cakewalk - I was almost gloating at my adventurous spirit. The boys had been left far behind by Braveheart me mainly cos their nicotine lined lungs could not take the pure mountain air and to top that they were taking swigs from the gin bottle! While waiting for them I had become friendly with a shephard and we had a long emotional converstaion on the "degrading morality of city life and people (read me) vs. the simple generosity of rural people (i.e people like him). He turned out to be a savior on the last bit of the trip so...



About a mile from where Mr Shephard and I sat and gossiped, started the deadly route. The first mile was a road broad enough for just one foot and that too at a wierd angle threatening to push that foot down to the river bed a zillion feet below. I get hysterical just walking down steep steps so you can imagine what I did when i reached that part of the hike. Yup, I went hysterical - crying, shaking, legs turning to jelly - most disgusting behavior! Thankfully Mr Shephard decided to help out the "mean witch from the city", he practically carried me over the treacherous parts. Not to say the boys were any better, by the way. The next turn was a 90 degress fall of rocks - I have no idea how anyone did that walking straight up but to us it seemed even impossible to scramble down. So our savior had to go up and down three times first carrying me down, hauling hefty G and then semi carrying skinnier P! He must have been rolling his eyes at us all the time wondering why we bothered to get off our SUVs!


Well, we did reach the lake after 5 hours of insanity and it actually seemed worth it - the lake was deep blue and still and the mountains surrounding it were of bizarre colors - some deep brown, some rocky, some white with snow and one with some green vegetation.. ooooohhhhh it was a breathtaking view! We were like robots by then but had to pitch the tent before it got dark - so we did, right next to the lake.

Chandratal is a glacial lake surrounded by snow covered mountains so you can imagine how cold it got at night. Cold meat from tins sounded too horrible so we dragged ourselves to the black tent man about a 6 inute walk from where we had pitched our tent. Trust me, that walk was the freeziest possible - my ears and hands nearly fell off. So this enterprising man from Delhi had pitched his big black tent sticked with a few sleeping bags, lots of chocolates, tea, biscuits, coke(!) and daal chaawal. Ofocurse he charged 10 times the actual price but no one cared!


Next morning I woke up with the sunrise (don't think I could have slept much with the donkeys braying and G snoring and my toes frost bitten)and the lake (which I could touch by just reaching out of my tent flap) has turned a toatlly different color - a mix of green and red. It was totally still and the reflections of the mountains made it look like some surreal painting.
Most of our days there we spent just admiring the lake, walking around it, me singing songs with my feet in the water, drinking tea and eating chocolates, laughing at donkeys and being surrounded by sheep.... what else do you need from life!