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

Sangla Valley: Part 1 (The Beginning..)

Himachal Pradesh (HP) is one of the states in India which is always bustling with flocks of tourists and travelers round the year..And why not? HP boasts of all five mountain ranges that comprise the mighty Himalaya, making it the best state in India for me.This great Himalaya is carved by Beas, Chenab, Sutlej and Ravi along with their innumerous tributaries to form resplendent and beautiful valleys like Kullu, Chamba, Kangra, Lahaul and Kinnaur. Elevation varies from some few hundred meters to some 7000 meters. It is the state where people live in houses built on impossible slopes of mountains, simultaneously in a hut at the bank of a river alone in solitude. It is the state where one hardly finds a road that stretches over a half kilometer without a bend. This treacherous but awesome terrain has got its own color because of diverse culture it possesses from pretty old monasteries and temples. Well to state awesomeness of this state from a traveler point of view, just put your finger anywhere on the map of HP with your eyes closed and literally go there without any hesitation because every place in HP has something incredible waiting to be known to you :)

I have been to HP once before October 2011..To Chamba and Dalhousie in March 2010..After making some great trips to some other places like Ladakh, Rajasthan and North East, I decided to go for the second expedition to HP. As I said earlier, any place in HP can be chosen blindly. But I didn't do that :p I came to know about Sangla valley, a part of Kinnaur valley from one of my friends, Nikhil Joshi. He said that this valley is relatively unknown and less visited by travelers, so still maintaining its raw charm. And till then, I was also completely oblivious of it. And so my destination for mid -semester recess of October got fixed! I love to go to the places which are relatively less known. After reaching there, I felt that many of the people visiting HP were also not aware of Sangla valley, looking at the number of tourists at Sangla and comparing it to the number of tourists visiting rest of HP.

So a call for a trip was made..Finally, eight enthusiastic people set off for Sangla..The plan was simple from October 1-October 8..I'll focus mainly on "Sangla" part of this trip in upcoming posts.

Itinerary:

A church at the ridge in Shimla :)

1) Meet at Delhi.

2) Shimla via Chandigarh.

3) Then Sangla (230 kms from Shimla).

4) A two days Sangla-Kanda trek (24kms) and Chitkul, a beautiful place near Sangla.

5) And if time permits, visit Kalpa.

The preparation for this trip was minimal. I booked Youth hostel at Shimla in advance, but that was unnecessary. First, hotel was not worth the money though it offers great view from balcony and second, no need to book hotels in advance for Shimla. We didn't book hotels for any other places. We had our first stay at meticulously planned Chandigarh with a late night visit to Sukhna lake. Next day we made our way to Shimla. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the tickets for trains for Shimla from Kalka. A train journey to Shimla from Kalka is highly recommended, but a road trip to Shimla is also equally recommended :p 

Road to Jakhu temple..

Our entry in Shimla was happened to be preparation for Sangla trek..Carrying a lot of luggage from lower part of the Shimla to the hotel at the upper part situated on the other side :p But our efforts were praised by unexpected rains, making weather soothing, soft and more pleasant. The visit to Jakhu temple tested our stamina on steep climb through mysterious trees, giving a feel of increased age :p  The best evening for me till now was waiting for us at the ridge where a fantastic military band lost in the fog, was playing amazing instrumentals on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti (October 2), which ultimately created moods for ballroom dance in an empty balcony :) The atmosphere at that time was so cheerful and enthralling that the evening cannot be erased from memories in whole life. The best part of Shimla is the ridge, with a magnificent church, free from any kind of vehicle traffic, allowing people to take hassle free walks :) The benches were there to sit and talk leisurely simultaneously enjoying pleasant surrounding. Photos in traditional dress were taken. A pizza night arrived in front of town hall..But everything of course cannot go smooth..We faced much difficulty to find a vehicle for Sangla for next day..Because of some cycling event, many of the vehicles were already booked..At late night, we finally managed a vehicle for whole 5 days ahead, Shimla - Sangla - Shimla. At the end, a perfect day at perfect Shimla had a perfect ending..The day went to a peaceful sleep after many games of cards!! :):)

The Eight :)
Top row from left: Chetan, Sanket, Prachita, Kedar
Next row from left: Sonali, Prashant, Manali, Onkar

Some Numerical Info:
Hotels at Chandigarh: Rs.500/- per double bedded room per day (we adjusted 3 per room).

Hotel at Shimla (Youth Hostel): Rs. 1100/- per 4 bedded room per day.

Vehicle (Tavera I guess) : Rs. 14000/- for Shimla - Sangla - Kalpa - Shimla (around 550kms)
Actual cost could have been Rs. 8000/- if booked directly, Rs. 6000/- was taken by travel agent :-o.