Right
then. So it was just me and my friend Amit and our enthusiasm when we began our
journey to the farthest town in India (Himachal Side) on Friday, 8th
November 2013. We started in the evening at about 4PM from Noida (Near Delhi) and
drove for about 5 hours on our respective bikes before taking our first halt at
Chandigarh – The gateway to some of the most heavenly places in Himachal. After
having a filling (and much deserved) dinner, we headed out to Shimla. The drive
to our next destination was about 4.5 hours and needless to mention, it was a
chilly experience. To make matters worse, just about 10 KMs before our guest
house in Shimla (booked for INR 100 per night) a german shepherd halted us and
from what it looked like, he did not want us to be around!!! My friend
thankfully used his – Sickle to shoo the dogggggggg away and we moved ahead. We
checked in to the guest house at about 2 AM in the morning and fainted to
glory, only to wake up early in the morning as we had even better plans.
Day
2: The plan was to move to Chail first, we did not stay there though, but the
town was scenic and the views were serene. We decided to hit the world’s
highest polo ground which is located in Chail and said hello to the Maharaja of
Chail at his Palace (Ofcourse I am kidding, we just visited the palace). It
took us about 3 hours from Shimla to Chail and after about 4 hours and a lunch
we decided to head back to Shimla and camped for the night (in the same guest
house) since Day 3 was the most important day for us.
Day
3: The day! We had plans to move to Chitkul – About 250 KMs from Shimla and 3450
feet above the sea level. This is the last town in India and is near Sangla.
The population of Sangla is about 650-700 and the nearest river is Baspa.
Coming back to our travel, we started in the morning at around 8 AM after
having a decent breakfast and drove on the Sutlej river-side for not less than
150 KMs before hitting the tough terrain. We reached Chitkul at about 6 PM in
the evening and no points for guessing, the town was already asleep. We decided
to knock some doors and ask for an accommodation or hotel but just before we
took a step ahead the wanabe models in us instructed us to click a few pictures
and we had to obey. An old pahadi man came to us and asked if we had a place to
stay. Trust me, in the given circumstances, he was nothing less than a god’s
gift to us, especially when he offered us to stay in the PWD guest house in
Chitkul.
The
guest house however had its own share of problems to offer to us. There was
extremely low voltage (hence really dim lights), the water pipelines were
frozen – did I mention the temperature was -3 degree celcius? If this wasn’t all,
there was no key to lock the rooms and we were expected to get our on own water
for bath (and other important things) from the river Baspa (flowing right
across). Last but not the least, we were the only people staying in the
property – quite a situation to watch this horror movie, Amityville huh?
Day
4: We decided to explore the local area and riversise, some photography and our
lunch before we headed out to Shimla again through the adventurous yet
extremely scenic roads. We took a halt at Shimla (in the same guest house) and
next morning we returned back to our home (never felt bad than this though).
We
drove for about 1600 KMs during these 5 days and halted at 5 cities. Some of
the stuff that we packed with us were, lots of dry-fruits, sickles, first aid
kits, sprouts, milks and fruits (we kept buying them on the way), electric
kettle, mats.
What
this trip made me feel was simply hungry for more – on that note, signing off J
Cheers
Arshi
