Girlie road trip Day 5 Rangrik-Hikkim- Kommic Monastery -Langhza Buddha statue-Key monastery – Kibber Steps -Kaza Market-Rangrik
It was a very cold morning with minus temperature degrees through the night and most of my friends had a tough time to sleep without heaters in their rooms.
After another day of freshening up with just half a bucket of warm water, I was just grateful to get up feeling absolutely normal with no pounding headache and no sign of any lack of oxygen or any acute Mountain sickness.
It was a pleasure to have a piping hot breakfast in the open hotel premises under the warm sunrays.
We first stopped to see a herd of wild ibex, or blue goat, whatever our driver told us. Their black rear side was the unique feature as they calmly grazed on the dried shrubs on the treacherous looking slopes of the mountains
We saw the worlds Highest post office at Hikkim, and heard the soothing prayers from nearby homes. We climbed on to the terraces of some homes which stored the local shrubs of different colours.
The excellent buy of the trip was our purchase of Yak wool shawl and sheep wool shawl from a local home. We even got a glimpse through the window of the basic loom on which this warm shawl was woven.
We then went to Kommic which at one time held the record for the Worlds highest village which is accessible by motorable road at 15027 ft or 4581 metres .In fact the record now is at a place in Peru which I had visited in 2013. I have a picture at the La Raya mountain pass in Peru 4350 metres
At Kommic we first went to the new Monastery, and soaked in the colours and the ambience. We had another experience of standing on a small part of a frozen river, luckily the ice did not crack under our feet.
We saw a stuffed snow leapord at the Tara Devi temple. Ladies could not enter the prayer room of Old monastery, though we enjoyed the musical chants by a local priest there. We also got a sense of the simple life of the monks as we walked through their living quarters in the first floor of the old monastery.
I just had to visit the smelly dry toilet that did not even have a door. My friend started puking just by the smell of the place, this is just one of the perils of ladies travelling to unexplored and uncomnercialized lands of India.
Another friend of mind suddenly got an attack of mountain sickness with breathlessness and tears just like me on the previous day. This time we were prepared with camphor and warm ginger garlic water remedies, and rest and soup when she went back to her room.
It was really very windy at Langzha near the towering Golden Buddha statue, we just had enough guts to come to the top of the very windy mountain for a photo with the big statue of the Lord.
Really camphor was a good remedy for AMS symptoms of intense headache and watering eyes, I should have remembered to take it out of my bag and use it the day before.
We were relieved to get a break at our Spiti Sarai Hotel for a hot lunch at Rangrik
After lunch we visited the famous Key monastery. I got a magical picture of an unknown hazy smoky form accompanying me in the monastery. Really there is something very mysterious, magical and powerful about these ancient spiritual places!
We saw 3 golden Buddha’s on the sloping plains below, but our vehicles could not go near them, and we were too exhausted and cold to walk up and down the slopes of the hills.
After that we visited another village called Jobber which is also one of the highest accessible villages in the world. From the vantage point near the Stupa, we got a full view of the Kibber village.
In summer this place is flocked with tourists in their many home stays, as it is also accessible from the Manual side also.
However in winter, this road was closed, and we missed seeing the beautiful Chandratal lake on the way.
We saw a home stay at Kibber and got an idea of the local smells too.
So our last stop for that day was at the Kaza market as we went shopping for booties, gloves, caps, and bowls and our group seemed to be the only tourists in this off season time in the whole of Kaza!
Dinner and rest back at Spiti Sarai hotel, was very very welcome, this time we insisted that we get heaters in every room.
I survived my visit to the highest point in the trip of more than 15000+feet and again I smiled in gratitude.
So in 2018 do notice these simple smiling moments. Have a smiling year
Recent Comments