Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ATXqLCGtais4xDkp6
After my trek in Kashmir, I flew down to the city of Chandigarh (more on this city at the end of this post), met my dad (who flew into Chennai to spend a few weeks in India) and my aunt, and then started our road trip in the mountain state of Himachal Pradesh. We drove about 5 hours on this first day to the hill station city of Shimla. After the British moved the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, Delhi became the winter capital of the Raj while Shimla was the summer capital. Shimla itself reminded me of another colonial hill station settlement, Darjeeling, in West Bengal. Tons of bakeries, a very European architectural style for the buildings, tons of those wood-frame buildings you get in English towns. Pretty cool vibe and fun to walk around for half a day, but honestly nothing more than that.
The next day, we drove from Shimla to the town of Batseri, which was in the Kinnaur province of Himachal Pradesh. The entire drive was split between the Shimla and Kinnaur provinces. This was an OK day – tons of rolling green hills which most people would find incredibly beautiful and scenic, but I am not most people. I need my desolate and unforgiving environments, so I found this day pretty “meh” overall. The following day, we drove by the nearby town of Sangla, which had a cool old Hindu/Buddhist temple and fort complex, and then went to the town of Kalpa. More of the same of the previous day scenery wise, but we did finally get to see more and more snow-capped mountains. We were still at a fairly low elevation – around 3000 meters – so was still amidst the greenery, so again, scenery was simply decent and nothing more for me. On the way to Kalpa, we had to stop at the town of Reckong Peo so my dad and I could get a military pass called an Inner Line Permit. The next day, we were going to finally ascend to the alpine desert, on what is a part of the Tibetan Plateau. A portion of that day would be through territory that China claims for Tibet, so all non-Indian citizens required this Inner Line Permit to enter the area. It was however basically a formality to apply for, costing ~5 USD and taking about half an hour to get.
This fourth day is when the trip really started to get interesting. As we went up in elevation and entered the Tibetan Plateau, the landscape quickly shifted from lush greenery to dry and rocky. I started to get major Tajikistan vibes here, especially from the initial part of my Tajikistan roadtrip where we were driving right alongside the Afghan border. Just dry, rocky canyon and mountain walls at high elevation with a beautiful flowing river below the cliffside of the road. The clear highlight of our day here was our first Tibetan monastery, the Nako Monastery. There were these really cool ~1000 year old paintings inside the temple (of course, no photos allowed because only God knows why).
Honestly, there’s just something about the whole Tibetan Buddhism vibe that really resonates with me aesthetically. I think a big part of it was that I was a huuuuge gamer back in High School (I literally did like 15 minutes of work a day at home so I had a ton of time to kill), and one of the most formative games for me was Uncharted 2 on the PS3. It’s basically an Indiana Jones video game and takes place in these fictional Buddhist monasteries and temples in the Himalayas. But anyways, because of that game I think I have always been fascinated by Tibetan architecture (stark white walls and square buildings) especially when placed in the dramatic valleys and plateaus and mountains of Tibet. Likewise, I have always been fascinated by Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags and Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels. But only in these landscapes, as I feel like they just fit together perfectly. I think this sort of weird fascination I have with Tibetan Mountain Buddhism is why I always found the Buddhist stuff in southeast Asia, and even Sri Lanka and India (think Ajanta caves) somewhat underwhelming. Nepal is an interesting case here, because while it is still mountains and Tibetan Buddhism as opposed to the stuff you see in southeast Asia, the landscapes that I saw were far too green and verdant so I found it underwhelming. Like I said, I need that desolate environment. I think that the starkness just adds more beauty to the Tibetan Buddhist architecture and culture.
Anyways, after Nako Monastery, we finally entered the Lahaul and Spiti region (which was the entire purpose of the trip) before crashing in the town of Tabo. The following morning, we entered the Tabo Monastery, which is the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. The artwork here was simply superb. Just amazing paintings all around. There were a few 1k+ year old paintings of monks that really reminded me of like old Christian paintings of monks. Likewise, a lot of the artwork (both here and in all the other monasteries) were quite macabre with prominent death scenes…sort of reminded me of some of the more gruesome art that Steve and I saw in the Meteora monasteries in Greece. But in general, the Tibetan Buddhist style art is very cool – distinctly a Chinese flavor yet quite unique, with very expressive figures and demons hanging out in beautiful fields with soaring mountains in the background (with a very minimal Renaissance-style perspective painting here). And I just love all the demonic figures that are painted here – reminded me a ton of my favorite Hindu demon motifs from some ancient temples as well.
After Tabo, we drove onto the Dhankar Monastery. This one had a very Ladakh feel, with the white box buildings all perched upon a cliff that looked just so photogenic from the distance. And up close, you could see all these beautiful prayer flags fluttering in the wind with these ginormous Himalayan mountains off in the distance (we were probably close to 3500+ meters in elevation at this point). Again, more cool art here, though Tabo and Nako were definitely the highlights of the trip in terms of monastery art. But as we drove onwards towards our next stop, the Kungri Monastery in Pin Valley, the landscapes got more and more dramatic, with a beautiful gushing river in the middle creating a valley that seperated the dry mountains on both sides. Sometimes, this valley would become massive and you would see a weakened river meandering through left and right of this giant dry valley…it reminded me so much of the Wakhan Corridor that separated Tajikistan and Afghanistan in the easternmost stretch of that border road before we cut up north to the Tibetan Plateau of Tajikistan. Just such a mind-blowingly beautiful scenic sight. I don’t think any words, or photos, or videos can convey just how majestically grand the landscapes here in the Tibetan Plateau are…it really puts you, and all of humanity in perspective. Anyways, the Kungri Monastery was a modern monastery, so very gaudy with the bright colors and everything, but we caught a monk chanting session, which was interesting to say the least. Definitely not the most melodic given that I am used to Western musical conventions and scales, but certainly something that grew on me with time.
We then spent the night in Rangrik, a small town just outside the main Spiti hub of Kaza. The night skies here were absolutely fantastic. I would still say the best skies I have seen have been in Kilimanjaro, my Galapagos liveaboard, and then Wadi Rum, but the skies here were definitely more impressive than what I saw in my Kashmir trek or during my Bolivia altiplano tour, both of where I took really good photos. Needless to say, the sky pics I got (especially the one of the Milky Way rainbow up top) were beautiful. I could probably still tweak my photo settings a bit to optimize my night photos (more crisp and less blur), but the past 3 cases where I have been able to take night photos since learning how to do so correctly (Bolivia, Kashmir, and now Spiti), the weather has been literally below freezing each of the nights I tried, so it was too cold for me to bother toggling with minor adjustments, especially since I was happy with the pics.
The next day was one of the highlights. Though to be fair, each day was honestly progressively better and better in terms of the stunning landscapes. We first went to the town of Langza, at around 4500 meters of elevation. There was this really cool modern Buddha statue facing a dramatic snow-capped mountain landscape, which was a very cool photo spot. Even beyond that, this entire area was more like Ladakh and the last leg of my Tajikistan roadtrip, as we were driving on these high, 4000+ meter plateaus. Just vast, flat expanse with towering, snowcapped mountains popping all around us. And the cherry on top were these picturesque Tibetan towns with their snow-white box buildings scattered on the dry terrain. While in Langza, my dad and I (my aunt is 70 and did not want to do this high altitude excursion) had these two cousins, aged 19 and 12, lead us on an expedition in a stream near the village to hunt for 150 million+ year old ammonite fossils. And it was super easy to find these fossils…at a certain point my dad and I were able to find them easily as well. But these kids found like 20+ fossils and we wound up taking 8 or 9 of them, including some giant (easily a few pounds and about the size of my sister’s small face) ones with perfect spiral patterns. I just thought it was amazing, finding these almost perfectly intact fossils that were from when India was an island, before it collided with Asia to create the Himalayas. Just such a cool and unique thing to find and keep, those kids were honestly the best. We tipped them about the equivalent of 20 USD each and they were shocked…it’s honestly kind of sad (in the worst way, not being sarcastic here) how much such a meager amount for us meant to them. But just such nice people…they could have fossil hunted for hours but I had to tell them it was time to turn back since my aunt was waiting in the car and my dad was getting tired from the hike up the stream.
After some more beautiful plateau driving after Langza, we eventually went to what was probably the most picturesque spot of the whole trip, the Key Monastery. Much like Mont St. Michel in Normandy, this was a very Minas Tirith setup from the distance, a cake-like monastery/fortress/town. The monastery itself was a tad underwhelming (we definitely peaked earlier in the trip with Nako and Tabo), but the hike afterwards to get the viewpoint was awesome. The downhill sucked – steep rocky sections that were legitimately dangerously slippery. My dad and aunt did not do the hike, and this was the first ever hike I have done in my life that did not have a trail on the Maps.Me app. But it was a perfect view with the Key Monastery in front of a vast riverbed valley, and towering, dry mountains behind the valley. Again, really just such an epic and grand view that, in the best way possible, makes you feel small and insignificant and unimportant. And I love these dry mountain views where you can see every contour and ridgeline on the mountain. It just reminds me of math so much (I guess that is the math major in me).
The penultimate day, we drove to the hill station town of Manali to end the trip. This was a 14 hour slog of a day on what was some of the worst roads I have ever driven in my life. We first drove over to Chandratal Lake, which is this beautiful alpine lake with colorful hills and mountains ringing it – almost like Rainbow Mountain in Peru. On the way here, we stopped at about 4600 meters at the Kunzum La Pass, which had this really amazing view of prayer flags galor and three giant stupas with a towering mountain right behind them. Just such a stereotypical Tibetan viewpoint, I loved it. After the lake was where the fun began…literally driving over pure broken boulders and rocks at maybe 10 km/hour if we were lucky. We had left the Lahaul and Spiti region and quite literally as soon as we did, the landscapes reverted back to how it was at the beginning of the trip, with more green rolling hills (reminded me of the Scottish highlands) and mountains in the distance, as we slowly but surely dropped in elevation. The end of Kinnaur and the entire Spiti region had some of the best landscapes I have ever seen – up there with Ladakh and Tajikistan – while the rest of the trip (Shimla, most of Kinnaur, and post Spiti to Manali) was sort of the generic beauty that, because I have traveled so much, I honestly don’t appreciate as much as I should. But we eventually slogged our way to Manali super late, ate dinner and crashed.
The next day was another 10 hour drive to Chandigarh for the airport, where we dropped from 2000 meters to sea level. Chandigarh is probably one of the most unique cities I have ever been to. It is designated as a Union Territory, so it is not a state – along with New Delhi (like every other global capital, not a state), Ladakh, Kashmir, Pondicherry, and the distant islands of Andaman to the east and Lakshwadeep to the west. It’s interestingly also the capital of two bordering states, Punjab and Harayana. It is a planned city designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in the 50s. We unfortunately could not see the buildings that he designed – they are all in the Capitol Complex – because that closed at 5pm and we arrived at 6. But just driving around the city was fascinating. Crazy green city with tree cover everywhere – the closest green streets I have seen in a city before is probably the French Concession in Shanghai. But it was fascinating to see – every “block” of the city was a square kilometer, and had futuristic names like “Sector 27”. Within each block it was more like an Indian city, with narrow roads and stalls and restaurants and etc. Just such an interestingly designed city – the only flaw is that there should be tram lines connecting all of these sectors.
The following day we flew back out to Chennai. I’ll be spending a week here to hang out with my dad (and then grandma after my dad flies back to NY), see some relatives, and finish up my grad school apps (the 3 European schools only opened their applications on Oct 1). Then will be flying to Uttarakhand to see Rishikesh for a day (specifically the ashram where the Beatles spent time in the 60s), and then do one more week-long Himalayan trek.
Speaking of Uttarakhand…I am genuinely curious how that trek landscape will compare to Spiti. I think I can safely say that Spiti is in a holy trinity with Ladakh and Tajikistan as my all-time favorite landscapes, just due to the starkness and the vastness of it all. Obviously it is super similar to Ladakh – Spiti literally means “the land inbetween” in Tibetan, and refers to the land between India and Tibet (ie Ladakh). While Spiti is a part of the Tibetan plateau like Ladakh is, it is much more river valley based than plateau based. But much like Ladakh, you have the Tibetan culture, Tibetan architecture, Tibetan cuisine, etc. It’s not quite as Tibetan as Ladakh is – definitely more ethnic “North Indians”, for lack of a better term, who live in Spiti. But you had things like momos and butter tea, and prayer flags and prayer wheels (though the wheels were more prominent in Ladakh), the white buildings, the stark landscapes, the soaring mountains, etc. And it was also shockingly similar to Tajikistan – especially the plateau parts with the snowcapped mountains literally all around your road, and even the dry and expansive riverbed drives in both areas.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of my favorite landscapes – these 3 and Bolivia – are all high altitude deserts with mountains. Speaking of the Andes…I found that Peru’s 4000+ meter areas were honestly a bit too green for me, while Bolivia was certainly more stark. Bolivia was awesome, don’t get me wrong, but I think it is still a smidge behind Tajikistan/Ladakh/Spiti for me.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised at how much my dad and aunt enjoyed this, given they are older (dad is 60 and aunt is 70) and how adventurous of a trip this was. The roads were of course precarious at times, but thankfully no near-death experiences like in Tajikistan. And like Ladakh, portions of the road (especially by the Chinese border with Tibet) were in tip-top shape because of the military presence, maintained by the Border Roads Organization, or BRO. Again, like Ladakh, the BRO had some stupidly creative road signs that were memorable, like “Better to be Mr. Late than the Late Mr.” – regarding to how if you are dead, you are referred to as the “Late Mr. XYZ”.
Other random notes…this trip once again reminded me to the superiority of Indian chai. I straight up cannot enjoy bagged tea, but Indian chai, with its milk and spices, is just so, so good. There were a couple of crazy impressive tunnels carved through inside mountains that stretched for kilometers that were some of the most impressive feats of engineering that I have ever seen. And of course (don’t think I have written about this before), the colorful trucks of India. They are everywhere in the country but to me stuck out even more in this colorless and barren landscape.
Given how much I loved Spiti, Ladakh, and Tajikistan, I am super excited for the landscapes of Afghanistan (let alone the culture, historic sights, and general sense of visiting post-conflict). Likewise, I feel like I would looooove portions of Pakistan, especially Pakistani Kashmir. Really this whole stretch of Tibet, to the Tibetan Plateau of North India, to the Tibetan Plateau of NE Pakistan and Tajikistan, to the high altitude deserts of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, I think is probably my single favorite place on Earth (besides Black Rock City, but that goes without saying). There is just something magical about being in such an unforgiving and difficult landscape, and to me it really makes you appreciate humanity when you see how insignificant we are. It’s a shame China is closed for the forseeable future, but I would do anything to take an extended trip across Tibet (let alone the rest of the country…China is the only place besides India where I think I could easily spend up to a year or more traveling around) once they eventually open up…this might be tough once I am back in the real world but that is a later problem.