caravahan

All kinds of rock reliefs. We captured maybe ten types. The area easily has over a hundred. This place is a geologist's dry dream.

More of these #portals that don't seem to safeguard much.

I have nothing to say about these structures. Don't ask me what these are. Ask me what they do to you. Once you've seen them, you are in profound awe of what wind, water and time can do.

You see whatever this is that nature has carved into a mountainside.

You see vast #ridges

I'm going to now try and take you through the grandeur that is the #SpitiValley between #Nako and #Tabo. We did the route on Tuesday, but I've been avoiding putting up pics.

Pictures and videos are too small the capture the vastness, the other worldliness of this place. The only way to know it is to bite the blue pill and come on over to see it for yourself.

M1: How does dad look?

M2: Obese

#savage #burn #thuglife

M1: So rude.

M2: There was this chart in school with height and recommended body weight and according to that chart I think dad is...

Some pics from the #Tabo #monastery. We experienced the monastery and left #Tabo yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. By the evening we had reached #Kaza. We spent our evening in the most beautiful café ever (more on that later). This morning we left Kaza for #PinValley. We reached Mud (मुध) village and then turned around. Then we drove through #Tabo and #Nako to #Pooh.

We have lots and lots of pics to share. Will try my best with the limited connectivity we have. Also pics from the phone and the camera have gotten mixed up, so the time lines are a little off.

More pics from the sunrise at #Kasauli

Me: Do you know what B.R.O. stands for?

M1: Bro seriously?

It is exceptionally quiet in #Tabo. There is the sound of the wind, when it blows. There is the incessent tweeting of birds. Nothing else. I have a very good pair of noise cancelling headphones. Turning them on and off makes no difference at all here. It is surreal.

We had tea at #Nako. The restaurant owner was the nicest man. His restroom was covered in requests, in Hindi, to travelers, asking them to please leave the place clean. Common sense suggestions. It is sad that we send tourists up to these places without imparting them basic civic sense and lessons in hygiene.

#vanlife

The ride quality of the #Innova #Crysta is pretty amazing. The steering wheel requires more force than a Hyundai Xcent. There isn’t any perceptible body roll. The 2.5L petrol engine is adequate.

In the plains I was driving in Eco Mode. In the mountains I realised it leads to a peculiar situation. When I try to overtake another vehicle while going uphill, I need to press the throttle all the way down before the automatic tranmission will downshift. Then it downshifts twice, and the engine lets out the most unnerving growl. I have seen the most seasoned Bolero drivers look around at the car when it growls like this, and make way for it. Which is not what I want. I am here to have a travel and share the road, not be the boss of the road. Turning off Eco fixes this. I haven’t tried Power Mode yet.

I am told that the ground clearance of the Crysta is higher than the older Innova. But still not high enough to take us past Kunzum Pass. In any case, the kids aren’t enamoured with snow any more. So we will just hang around here for a while and turn around, not risk it at the pass.

You guys are lucky. Because we were offline and basically vegetating, I found the time to upload the #DSLR pics into my phone so I could #Instagram them. Yes, I figured out how to use the DSLR. There is basically an idiot friendly, everything auto mode in the camera. The autofocus in this mode does not work when pointed at stars in the night, but works great during the day. I will be uploading DSLR pics from the beginning of my trip, occassionally. Enjoy.

About an hour before #Nako, on Tuesday, we lost phone signal. We did get a #BSNL SIM, and Nako is supposed to have #3G connectivity, but there was no signal at Nako. The restauranteur at Nako was elated that #Jio would soon bring #4G connectivity to the entire #Spiti Valley. We reached #Tabo by nightfall on Tuesday. We parked in the lot opposite the Monastery. We had lovely dinner, including pizza with olives. Sleep came easily after a long day of driving. We were #cozy in the #caravan inspite of the cold winds and rain outside.

It was supposed to #snow on Wednesday morning but that did not happen. The kids weren’t too dissappointed. We got busy looking for a place to shower. The lovely people at Kunzom Cafe offered us the use of their solar heated shower at no cost. As I sat there chatting with the owner, he told me that we all need to keep ourselves fully covered and warm. Weather changes suddenly around here, and the temperature difference between night and day is high. People coming from the plains fall sick easily.

Just as he was telling me this, I felt illness take over me. I moved indoors into his cafe and just lay down. Maybe it was the fatigue, maybe the altitude, maybe the cold. I don’t know. In no shape to walk back to the caravan, I rented a room and slept off right there. I must have slept all day. The kids had a whale of a time, running around the place, eating delicious food, showering, playing with kids, and gorging on candy.

M1 was dissappointed that we weren't staying in the caravan. Wasn't that the whole point, he asked. Perhaps. One has to adapt. Also, once you've seen the scenery between Nako and Tabo, nothing really matters. You are in another world. You just want to soak in the scenery. Tell yourself this is real. Are we still on planet 🌏?

We have done 1,003 km so far, and the mileage has averaged out to 11.7/100km, over plains and mountains. This is still a lot better than the mileage in Gurgaon, so I’m not complaining.

So far, fuel was our primary cost in this trip. Food was cheap, averaging ₹100 per person for lunch and dinner, and lesser for breakfast. Here at #Tabo, there is so much good food, so much local cuisine to try, that our food bill has gone for a toss. I am frankly not keeping count. We are here to have a good time, not to keep costs low. Enjoying local cuisine is definitely a part of the #roadtrip experience. A good sideeffect is that M1 has stopped asking me when we are going to begin cooking our own food. We have always used our cooking gear when we go camping, except this time. It’s a big let down for him. But now that we are surrounded by pizzas, pancakes, thukpa, samthuk, fresh green salad, phaktse and what not, he doesn’t care about cooking.

This is a sight I don’t get to see in the cities - families playing with kids. Even on a weekend, I find most parents just don’t have the time for their kids, so consumed is their life with chores, leisure and the Internet. In the villages around Gurgaon this is common - men and women hanging out with kids, enjoying the sun on a weekday morning. But in the cities it is usually the primary care giver who spends most of the time with the kids.

It is Thursday morning now, and the kids refuse to leave. They want to spend the rest of the vacation here, eating delicious food and making friends with all the nice people. They no longer want snow, glaciers or scenery.

On NH505 between Karchham and Nako:

M1: This road is so broken. How can it be a National Highway?

Me: There is construction work going on, so it is broken in places. But where the road work is complete, the tarmac is as smooth as the best road in the world. They even go around manually sweeping the roads every day, to remove the stones that have fallen from the mountains above.

People from all over the country have gathered to build this road for you. Engineers, military people, and poor labourers. All of them are slogging here in the most inhospitable conditions, covered in dust, with the sun beating down on them and the wind howling all around. Every time our vehicle passes, they stop their work and move to the side. One one side is a steep fall, on the other side rocks can fall down on them. The poor labourers must be working for a few hundred rupees a day, their poor children playing beside them with rocks. The children are unwashed, unkempt, sunburnt, and when the cars whizz past they throw up little sharp pieces of stone that hit them. Yet they are all working relentlessly.

M1: Ouch!

We can never have enough #gratitude and #respect for what #nature and #mankind give us. I try as much as possible to make my children be #thankful for all they have, and to be aware of their privilege. Sometimes that ends up in rants like these.

Butter doesn't need refrigeration round here, even at 30°C ambient. Apparently it's the dry weather that keeps it unspoilt.

We haven't bought any packaged water since we started. We have been refilling our bottles and managing with that. On the way up to Tabo we have purchased two 5L jerry cans as backup.
It takes a special kind of stupid to come to the mountains and buy bottled "mineral water". Everywhere we go there are natural water springs and glacial rivers. My kids have had to learn to not be queasy about drinking water that doesn't come out of an RO machine or plastic bottle.

#Aquafina #Kinley and #Bisleri don't have a patent on clean water. They do have a patent on trashing the planet with plastic waste. We should only use them when absolutely necessary. I see tourists buying 12 packs of Bisleri for ₹240 because "Oh, its only ₹240". It's not. It's you coming to 3,000+ meters and leaving your trash here for perpetuity.

A #highaltitude #game of #cricket at #Nako

Lots of #donkeys in #Nako today

#blast
#shovel
#dump
#build #road

The kids have not watched a single minute of T. V. or video, or used a smartphone, since we started. All kids need is constructive engagement.

Perfectly nice brand new concrete bridge lies unused while we had to go over a rattly, noisy, scary #metal #bridge.

M2 noticed that this is how our #route looks in #satellite view.

Been #riding beside the #sutlej for an hour now.

Now accepting #roadtrip #song #recommendations

Nowhere near the most spectacular #overhang we have encountered so far. But the one safest to photograph 😀

We lost our way on the road to #Tabo. Looks like it wasn't such a bad thing 😀

It's the #journey not the destination!

#travel #instatravel #India #incredibleindia #mountains

This is a very #scenic, #idyllic spot. I'm unable to capture its #beauty with my phone. There are some winding stairs, a narrow path, a stone cabin. A stream flows through the place. The kind of location authors picture with words in stories.

We are #ontheroadagain. Let's see where we reach today.

Last night when we came back from dinner, we found our #caravan boxed in by a couple of other cars. We were anyway gonna sleep here tonight, so it didn't matter. However, being a city dweller, I was quite uneasy about being trapped in my spot.

In the morning I asked someone for help. She pointed out that most cars have the cellphone number of the owner printed on the car. And yes indeed, the cars blocking me were stickered. Before I could call the owner, he came and took his car away.

#Himachal is so safe that people put their numbers on their cars 😲. In Gurgaon you'd get stalked.

What's the first thing you see when you slide out of bed in the morning?

#cowsofinstagram 😂

दरवाज़े और दीवारें #doors and #fences

Monster flower gonna get you tonight.

#HimachalPradesh

Tonight we #dine at a #fancy #buffet. A little luxury doesn't take away from the #vanlife #experience.

Since you people are clearly suckers for the #sound of #flowing #water

#HimachalPradesh #experientialtravel

More hero गिरी

#kidsofinstagram #kidstravel #travelwithkids #HimachalPradesh

लकड़ा हमारा hero है

#kidsofinstagram #kidstravel #kids

As you folks would have noticed by now, we went for a #village #walk.

Walking through villages is always the high point of any trip I make to the mountains, whether it is Himachal, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya or Assam.

We made friends with some boys from the village. 5am tomorrow they're gonna take us to a glacier nearby. Can't wait.

#HimachalTourism #HimachalPradesh

#Moar #trees

#TheHiddenLifeOfTrees

#GooglePhotos has been itching to get in on my #Instagram game

आज हमने कई दरख़्तों से दोस्ती की 😊

#TheHiddenLifeOfTrees

#dogs #dogsofinstagram #goodboy #HimachalPradesh

बड़े बड़े ताले और छोटी छोटी खिड़कियाँ। क्या हैं यह?

#locks #lock #window

#HimachalPradesh

+1 would trade my #caravan to live in a #tinyhouse above a #stream with the sounds of #flowingwater and #childrenplaying in the #school #playground next door.

#ताला #lock

#गाँव #village

#apple #orchards

+1 would make this the logo for our products. Rugged like these rocks.

For #geography wonks. In this one pic you see #clouds, #snowcappedmountains, #glaciers, melting #snow and #moraine, a glacial #stream, and a #river

A moving painting with sound

Like a #painting

More #mountains for you.

Chitkul!

#vanlife #kidsofinstagram #kidstravel #travelwithkids