Sangla Valley: Part 2 (Shimla - Sangla - Trek Preparation)

Justifying "a road through the mountains" :)

We started for Sangla at early morning..Something must have happened to the driver Jitoo..Possibly broken heart..At very early morning he began to play some sad old songs. But he was married :p It took us some time to settle down. Soon we were out of Shimla. Sangla is around 220 km from Shimla. The characteristics of the road, NH 22 to Sangla which is also known as Hindustan Tibet road, will not be new to those who have been to Himalaya before, but still attractive enough forcing travelers to ride there again and again...Rough, narrow, curvy with blind turns, accompanied by river sometimes on right, sometimes on left..hair-raising steep climb sometimes..literally making way through mountains..but constantly delivering breathtaking scenic views of the valleys, lovely towns in those valleys, jungles of pine trees, frequently changing ridges one after another, taking close to the destination..This road has everything.

Road to Sangla after Karchham..

On the way, one may visit popular tourist destinations like Kufri, Fagu, immediately after leaving Shimla..We had no such plans..We were heading to Sangla on the same day, on a road, situated above Sutlej valley till Narkanda. Then the road descended to Sutlej valley and became hot and dusty. But soon it again ascended sharply. At Karchham, which happens to be some 20 km from Sangla and a place where Sutlej meets her tributary Baspa, we broke away from NH 22 and Sutlej, continuing our journey on a very steep and narrow road which has to be one of the most thrilling and heart-stopping roads I have ever seen. Till we got used to this stunning climb, along Baspa river, carrying crystal clear water, suddenly we were welcomed with wide and open valley, verdant Deodar trees, distant snow-capped peaks of Kinner Kailash..That was our entry to the most charming valley of Himachal Pradesh! Sangla valley! And soon we entered beautifully placed Sangla village..If you are going by public transport, then there is only one direct bus to Sangla from Shimla, but for Karchham, buses are plied much frequently..From Karchham, NH 22 further leads you to Kalpa, beyond that to Tibet border..This is a part of the route of an amazing circuit that goes through Kalpa, Tabo, Kaza in Spiti valley, Rohtang Pass and then to Manali.

It was 5 in the evening when we reached Sangla..White icy snow peaks had turned golden in dying sun rays. Air was windy. Still weather was amazingly pleasant that I really didn't feel any tiresome signs of 10 hours of mountainous ride. We immediately set out for hotel hunt. Remember Sangla is a very small village and away from all hustle and bustle that one could find in popular tourist places..Professional tourism is yet to touch this part. So a very small number of hotels are available there. Luckily we managed to find a good hotel, Baspa Guest House. Sangla gets Bengalis as their major part of tourists. In fact, some hotels have named themselves in Bengali :)

Spiti valley circuit (One of my future expeditions)
F: Shimla, B: Kalpa, C: Tabo,
D: Rohtang Pass, E: Manali.

After getting fresh, we started inquiring about arrangements needed  to be made for Sangla Kanda trek that we were planning to start immediately the next day (which could have been a wrong decision, about which I will share in the next part). The next 3 days in Sangla would be splitting with the first 2 days for trek and third day for Chitkul. Normally Sangla Kanda trek is done in 3 days, comprising of 10 km of ascent from 2860 m to 4000 m and 14 km of climbing down. But due to stringent time constraints, we had to do it in 2 days. We were totally unaware of planning of a multi-day trek. After a lot of confusion and discussion in late evening with 2-3 people those arrange treks, we decided to start on the next day at 9AM. Sangla is such a small town that when I contacted to one trek arranger and then talked to another person in a span of 15 minutes, the latter knew that I had met with earlier person :p There are only two options available for the trek. First, hire mules to carry appurtenances needed for 2 days trek, like things needed for cooking, tents, which is a cheaper option..The person carrying mules also acts as your guide throughout the trek (initially we decided to go with this option with a thrill to cook by ourselves :)). If you don't want to cook, you will need to take a cook along with you. Second option is to hire porters and a guide. Hiring porters makes this option costlier than the previous one since the number of persons increases and so the necessary things. In our case, the first option was a difficult one. We needed to get mules immediately for the next morning. We needed to buy food items. Trekking demands only minimum things to be carried. So food choice should be proper. At high altitude of 3500 m, red rice cooks faster than normal rice. Carrying plenty of Maggie is a great option..Light in weight and sufficient to feed your tummy. Also, butter helps to keep one warm in chilly weather. Chocolates are tasty and excellent in providing a lot of calories. Of course cooking utensils are also to be carried and the most difficult thing was to gather all these things in the closing hours of village along with tents, sleeping bags. Tents, sleeping bags could be rented. But mule owner said that it would be difficult to arrange mules immediately for the next morning since they had just arrived from an another expedition. So we opted for the second option in which a person, Sunny Negi, was arranging everything needed for the trek and porters.

The first evening at Sangla :)

Happy B'day, Onky!

So finally settling all these things, we had a small walk through the village..We saw an amazing incident in a medical shop..The owner of the shop was fixing a broken tooth of a villager with some kind of glue!! And the tooth got fixed :-o Sangla goes to sleep quite early..We also returned to the hotel with a plan for games of cards :p Onkar had birthday on the next day..So a surprised high altitude birthday bash happened. But a normal cake became nicely decorated chocolates :) And at twelve O'clock, sleepy Onkar got a birthday song sung for him on a beautiful night, at an amazing place, located remotely somewhere in Great Himalaya :) A gift for the birthday! We called off for the day, with a plan to start trekking next day..But a twist was waiting! Let's meet the twist in the next part :) 

Some Numerical Statistics: 

1) Hotel Baspa Guest House: Can be booked online, but run time booking will be much cheaper. Got 2 family suites (4 bedded ) Rs. 1000/- each.
2) Other hotels: Rates are between Rs. 300/- to Rs. 500/- depending on bargaining skill, for a double bedded room. Some luxury tents are also available outside Sangla.
3) Renting tents: Rs. 400/- per night per tent
4) Renting sleeping bags: Rs. 25 per night per person
5) Mule charges: Rs. 400/- per mule per day
6) Porter charges: Rs. 200-300 per porter per day