The Amazing Spiti Valley Jeep Trip

Who could resist? Six days of being driven through the beautiful Spiti valley by a very consciencious driver, getting taken to interesting buddhist monasteries and gompas along the way, and maybe the most important thing, getting out of Manali...

Possibly the best way to document this incredible journey that we shared with Jamie, Ben and Ellie is to show you a photo diary of each day, along with a little description. Enjoy.


Day One - Manali to Kaza

We set off bright and way too early from Manali on the 20th of June with loads and loads of snacks for our trip: crisps, masala twisties, 1.5 kilos of yaks' cheese and some crackers, about 6 litres of water each, 3 bottles of vodka, 1 bottle of whisky, and lots of mixers.

Our happy troupe consists of Ben, Ellie, Jamie, Tim and myself, with our capable driver Ramesh behind the wheel. Manali is in the Kullu valley, and to get to the Spiti valley, you need to go over two high passes: Rohtang pass (3970m) and Kunzum pass (4551m). We also drove past the Bara Shigri glacier - literally "big glacier" in Spitian dialect (that sounds like what Australians would call it, doesn't it?), which is the longest glacier in the world at 12km long.

The view along the Kullu valley.

We were held up by seas of goats and sheep along the way...

... and many, many trucks.

"Horn Please!"

We were seriously trying Ramesh's patience by constantly asking him to stop the car so we could take
photos of all the road signs (more examples at the end of this post for your enjoyment). The roads
were terribly maintained around the Rohtang pass... there was a lot of
inconvenience, but at least they apologised for it.

A common sight on the Rohtang pass: Indian families driving up there to see snow for the very first time, then
they build shrines out of snow and have snow ball fights, then they eat grilled corn on the cob (and throw
the cob out the window onto the snow).

Tim with a mixture of clean and dirty snow as the backdrop on the Rohtang pass.

Photo opportunity on the other side of the Rohtang pass.

The Kunzum pass is far enough away from Manali to be peaceful.

Me in front of the gompa on top of the Kunzum pass. Ramesh took a silk scarf from this site
for good luck... he assures us it's not stealing.

The view above one of the two food stall at Batal.

From the balcony at our guest house in Kaza.

Day Two - Ki Monastery and Kibber Village (stay in Kaza)

On our second day we set off from Kaza on a day trip to Ki and Kibber one person short, as poor Ellie was suffering from altitude sickness and could hardly stand.

The first stop was Ki monastery (4,116m), which is the repository of rare Thangka paintings and texts. The new hall was occupied by several chanting monks so we couldn't enter, but another monk kindly opened up the old part of the monastery for us, and even served us some chai. This section of the monastery had recently been blessed by the Dalai Lama on it's 1,000th year of operation.

Kibber has the slightly subdued title of the 'highest permanently inhabited village in the world... with a motorable road... and electricity'. At 4205m above sea level, it is bloody high, and we found it difficult walking up the hilly paths. All the houses looked very Tibetan with their thick, white washed mud brick walls.

The Spiti river cuts through the valley and completely fills the flood plain at the right time of year...

... it looked beautiful whilst we were there.

Ki monastery, perched on top of a small hill, is often featured on postcards for the Spiti valley.

A close up view of Ki monastery.

One of the many beautiful teaching paintings in the outer foyer of Ki monastery. A monk briefly explained
that it's a story about respecting your elders (in this instance, the duck).

Kibber village with their Tibetan-style houses was great fun to walk around, albiet very slowly.

The houses were grouped together on the side of a hill.

The view from half way up Kibber village... we couldn't make it up the whole way due to the altitude.

One of the many prayer flags waving in the breeze in Kibber village.

Day Three - Langza and Comik monastery (stay in Kaza)

On our third day, Ellie was still feeling under the weather and this time Ben stayed back in Kaza with her, whilst Jamie, Tim and I ventured out on a day trip to Langza and Comik.

The drive to Langza provided some spectacular scenery of the surrounding mountain ranges in all their glory. Langza itself was a very small village and had a hill-top Buddha over-looking the amazing scenery. There were also lots of incredibly ancient fossils to be found in the area... we even found some fossilised sea shells at over four thousand metres! If we found it difficult to walk around in Kibber, it was almost prohibitively so in Langza, and we had to pause for breathe ever couple of metres ascent.

Comik monastery is just a short distance from Langza and is home to another very old monastery (for men only) which we visited. Bizarrely, it was home to a stuffed snow leopard which hung macarbly in the monastery doorway. The friendly monks served us some chai and gave us each a red or yellow blessed string to wear around our wrists.

Beautiful Langza village with the snow dusted mountains as a backdrop.

The village was difficult to walk around due to the altitude... even on relatively flat ground. The difference
between this and the previous photograph is me pausing to catch my breath.

The hill-top Buddha over looks Langza.

The houses in Langza were also built in the simple Tibetan style.

We loved driving through the beautiful mountains.

Two of the friendly monks outside Comik monastery.

The tiny village of Comik.

Day Four - Kungri monastery and Dhankar monastery
(stay in Tabo)

The whole troupe left Kaza early on this morning to head down the Pin valley to see the Kungri monastery (built in 1330 AD). Kungri monastery has some beautiful and vivid buddhist teaching paintings inside the new monastery section, and part of the complex is devoted to early schooling for young children from the area. Whilst we were at Kungri, the children were in the middle of an English lesson and we spent about half an hour talking with them and generally disrupting the lesson.

On the way back down the Pin valley, we stopped off at a rickety wooden bridge that crosses the Pin river, so we could experience just how cold the water actually was.

After coming out of the Pin valley, we hung a right down the Spiti valley again and headed towards Dhankar. Dhankar monastery (3890m) is set on top of a ridge and used to be a castle of the Spiti ruler, Nano. It's now the repository of buddhist scriptures but is rarely visited compared to Ki, even though it has an arguably much more dramatic setting.

The scenery along the Pin valley was very dramatic.

An adorable little donkey walking along the road. I love their fuzzy disproportionately large heads.

The Pin river freezes over in winter and most of the Pin valley will be blanketed by ice and snow.

The new section of Kungri monastery with it's beautiful interior paintings.

Ellie testing out the freezing water. None of us brought our bathers unfortunately.

The Pin valley is supposed to be home to many Siberian Ibex and some Snow Leopards.
We didn't see any, but we weren't that disappointed... or that surprised.

The very rickety wooden bridge. Mental note: don't try and cross a rope bridge when someone
else is already walking on it. Very scary.

Approaching Dhankar village and monastery.

It's position on the ridge line is perfect for it's previous incarnations as a
fort and a castle.

Dhankar with it's incredible background of mountains.

The village of Dhankar is spread out below the monastery. Ben wants to live here... I can see why.

The view from the top of the monastery.

Protecting omens supporting the prayer flags.

A rare opportunity where we were able to take photos inside the monastery. This is the often seen
buddhist painting of the cycle of life. 'Om mani padme hum' - may all sentient beings be happy.
The snake, bird and pig in the inner circle represent characteristics that one has to give up to achieve enlightenment.

Jamie with an offering.

The monks use these masks as part of their ceremonial dances.

The ancient buddhist texts are carefully stored in these boxes at Dhankar.

Day Five - Tabo monastery to Losar (stay in Losar)

Tabo monastery is over one thousand years old (built in 996 AD) and is a UNESCO world heritage site due to it's exquisite wall paintings. It's the largest monastic complex in Spiti valley, with the old section comprising of nine temples, chortens, a monks chamber and a nuns chamber. When we arrived, a monk gave us a tour of the complex (in a clockwise direction, of course) none of which we could take photos of.

That night we stayed in Losar and watched some of the World Cup. This is also when we found out that Australia had got through to the next round - yay!

Giving the Hull from England a run for it's money is this version we drove through in
the Spiti valley. This man went on to babble something in Spitian dialect to us, which
Ramesh translated as, "everything is possible".

We all found this sign hilarious... much to Ramesh's confusion. Tim later explained it to him.

The chortens at the Tabo monastery were covered with rocks engraved with the buddhist
prayer, om mani padme hum.

Day Six - Losar to Manali via Chandertal Lake

Our last day of the jeep trip was mainly spent driving back to Manali, although we did stop off at Chandertal lake. At over 4,000m it's one of the highest lakes in the world, and Ben wanted to fish in it. I left the camera in the car, so we don't have any photos unfortunately.

Instead I thought I would include all the photos of crazy road signs we saw leading up to the Rohtang pass. It reminded me of the Australian equivalent, "Drink drive: bloody idiot".