Kaza and Beyond...

I left the blog 1 year back at my last post of Kaza and as I left the mountains and joined my city life it consumed me again with all its lust and commodity love. I always wanted to finish this blog though as this trip is-was and will be very close to my heart..After 1 year here I am, trying to recollect the journey and aiming to finish the blog...

14 kms from Kaza was Langza which brought us to a tall Buddha statue made around 2005 which is placed in front of 500 years old temple..the temple has Ibex horns whch I guess is worshiped over there. We halted there, got ourselves photographed , prayed and moved ahead...

The view from the temple is as breath taking as the temple and the saute itself...

Our journey continued for the day and we finally arrived at Komic,the highest village in the world with a road having a population of 114 people.. We visited the Komic Tangyud monastery and offered our prayers in the monastery. Serene is the word to describe the experience in Komic.

the beauty surrounding is mind blowing...you feel that the nature has taken you int confidence and you are a part of it now..the next photo is taken on mobile, the sheer vibrancy of the photo is an evidence of the natural beauty of the place, I know i am using the word beauty a lot of time but that's how my experience has been...Beautiful...

we moved ahead to another monastery some where between Key and Kibber. I am unable to find the name of the monastery even after rigorous Google search..

We reached the monastery with the thought of offering a prayer but found the gate closed, disappointed as we started heading back a monk spotted us, called us back, opened the doors to us,welcomed us, showed the inside of the monastery, offered a prayer for us..all done in an unique friendly manner that you can expect only in the mountains..It was one of the best prayer of our life. We were elated with the experience and it refreshed our souls...

I still thank the monk/lama from the bottom of my heart for such an experience...

we headed off with our satisfied and rejuvenated souls for lunch at Norling guest house..Maggi was awesome the tea was energetic..We headed off to Key monastery which was closed by the time we reached but it was not dis heartening because of the prior experience we had on that day...

We headed on our way back...the weather started becoming bad and it was raining, we decided to take shelter for the night.We started looking for hotels and all were full, finally we managed to get just one room for ourselves and we all 5 of us settled in for the night.The warm dinner gave way to a deep sleep..We will be heading back for Manali the next morning...

Kunzum Pass to Kaza..

Kunzum Pass is 122 km from Manali and is located at an altitude 15060 ft. It connects Lahul and Spiti Valley of the Himachal Pradesh.
It is also the home of Kunzum Mata and locals believe that you should cir-cum-navigate the holy place when your are passing the Kunzum pass for Good Luck.

 22nd August 2016: We left Chandra Tal for Kaza and on the way we came across the Kunzum pass..The mountains are not green but husky brown. The first thing you see even before you see the temple are the prayer flags, abundant prayer flags on the rugged path to the temple of the goddess..The wind blowing the prayer flags,.prayer in the air..the calmness..the silence..the emptiness..all giving rise to a divine feeling..A respectful feeling..An admiring feeling for the almighty for make nature so vivid ,so beautiful and so refreshing.

We offered our prayer to Kunzum Mata, tried putting coins on the rock with out it falling, (we all failed except my friend) and headed towards Kaza. The road is absent, so its completely off road and the entire ride is bumpy..its like being in one of those rides in the amusement parks, right-left-up-down all the way..The weather started becoming clear and we saw the blue sky..(mesmerizing and beautiful)..Though the UV exposure is very high still we all periodically can't keep our eyes of the beautiful blue sky which enhances the rugged nature;s beauty..The sky reveled us its utmost beauty in the coming days.

The rugged, off-road, bumpy,stomach churning ride finally brought us to the welcoming Spiti gate in Lossar..

Hungry and tired we had to fill our stomach..Omprakash suggested Singaling where we feasted on parathas..We used the restroom and got ready to head towards Kaza..We spotted desert rose..

The small habitat looks beautiful, it gives a feeling of 'out of country'.

Fuel for the body enabled us to carry our journey forward towards Kaza.

We were able to find a few screws for our bike from a local mechanic in Kaza..

Kaza was our night halt for the day, after an initial hunt we got a nice hotel named Hotel Deyzor..

Good night rest , great food,courteous staffs revitalized us for our onward journey.The hotel walls bear a lot of wise and befitting writings..

Only mobile network you will get in this part of India is that of BSNL, so if you are planning to explore this beautiful place be equipped with one..

The night sky exposed us to the galaxy of stars while the morning mountain view of the cold mountain took me and my imagination to some wild west movie sets...

We fueled our vehicle at the highest retail/retail petrol pump of the world @12270 ft Indian Oil petrol pump. We were surprised to see a lot of local Maruti 800 cruising seamlessly in this high altitude.

 Refueled body and vehicles started our onward journey towards Komic..