Spiti Valley (day 1-3)

From Manali we took a jeep and went in 7 days to Shimla through the Spiti and Kinnaur valley. The Spiti valley is famous for its landscape and the Tibetan influence.

DAY 1:
We left Manali at 6 o'clock in the morning by jeep with 2 German and a driver. A total of about 200 km were waiting of us to get to Kaza in the Spiti valley and this on a mainly unpaved road which finally was a quite bumpy experience. On the way to Kaza we had to pass 2 mountain passes, the first one (Rohtang Pass) has an altitude of 3978 meters (photo 1) and the 2nd one, the 45551 meters high Kunzum Pass. Between the 2 passes we drove through the Lahaul valley with its desert like landscape (photo 2 and 3). Near the Kunzum pass we went on a 2 hour (return) walk to the Chandraltal Lake (altitude 4250 meters, photo 4). At this height, it's quite hard to walk, oxygen pressure is very low, but we arrived to the lake and had a nice view of the surrounding mountains (photo 5). Also Fredi was very happy to see the lake, however the water was so cold that he preferred to stay away.
After a long drive we finally arrived at 8 p.m. in Kaza (3600 meters), the main (small) town in the Spiti valley.



DAY 2:
After a good, but cold night, we went on a day trip to Kibber, altitude 4205 meters, which is (at least it's said) the highest village in the world with road access and permanent electricity. The Tibetan houses in this village are very nice and people put branches on the roofs (photos 1-4). Well, Fredi was a bit disappointed, he could find any colleagues, he only met cows, goats, sheeps and a kind of chamois.
Afterwards we continued to another village, Tasigang (4270 meters), with only a couple of houses (photo 5). On the way we saw and met many local people (photo 6). From the nearby Gete village we had a walk downhill (very steep, photo 7, monastery is visible on the left hand side) to the Ki monastery. This Tibetan monastery is quite big, but the location of it is much better, like a fortress on a small hill above the river (photo 8 and 9).



DAY 3:
After another night in Kaza we went by jeep to a viewpoint (photo 1) from where we had a nice view of small Kaza below, the Spiti valley and the surrounding mountains, covered of snow. Then we went to Hikkim village, (photo 2) where we met local people (3 and 4). Finally we drove up to the Komic monastery, situated on an altitude of nearly 4600 meters! The monastery wasn't very interesting, but with the monks we had a funny and exhausting volleyball game (photo 5). A bit below is Langza Village, where we had a nice walk through the houses and could see how people work (photo 6). This village has a nice location just in front of big, white mountain (photo 7).

Manali

Manali is mostly famous by Indian tourists and western one's are as usually here in India outnumbered. From Dharamsala we went by night bus to this place which lies in a valley on about 1800 meters. The new town is dirty and quite ugly, only in Old Manali remain nice houses. The landscape with mountains up to 5500 meters is wonderful and offers some good trekking possibilities.

The landscape around Manali and on our trekking tour to Vaishisht and a nearby waterfall.

The new town of Manali, full of souvenir shops and travel agencies.

The Hadimba Devi Temple dates back to 1533, has some nices carvings and is in the middle of a nice forest.

Dharamsala

After Amritsar we went by bus to the Himalaya. Originally it was planed to go by train, but due to a high delay we canceled the train ticket and bought one for the bus. After a long day we finally arrived in Dharamsala and stayed in McLeod Ganj, originally founded by the British as a hill station in 1855. This place is situated on an altitude of about 1850 meters and has a more comfortable climate.
The Himalaya range starts here from nearly 0 up to 5000 meters and it's going up very steep! Dharamsala is famous because it's the place where the Dalai Lama lives (when he isn't somewhere abroad, and this happens quite often). McLeod Ganj is a small village with many Tibetan refugees, so people, but also temple, houses and food is different.
When we were there, the Dalai Lama just started a 4-day teaching course and the whole village was full of tourists from all over the world. For a short period I assisted also a teaching session (and could see the Dalai Lama passing in front of me!!), but I didn't have a radio receiver for the translation and due to no understanding, I left.

From Lower Dharamsala it's possible to see the first Himalayan range and a bit up the mountains lies McLeod Ganj.

The Namgyal Monastry is the main Tibetan temple there and next to it is the house where the Dalai Lama uses to live.

Another Tibetan monastery and in the mountains around are many prayer flags visible.

The only British remaining in their former Hill Station (destroyed by an earthquake) is the church St. John in the Wilderness.

On a short trip we went to a waterfall, but the weather often got cloudy already in the morning and in the afternoon it rained a few times.

Amritsar

From Delhi we took a night train to Amritsar, in the north and very close to the Pakistani boarder. In this city we wanted to visit the Golden Temple, after the Taj Mahal, probably India's most famous monument. The Golden Temple is the holiest place for the Sikhs and situated in the middle of a lake (of immortality). A lot of pilgrims visit this place every day, but western tourists we saw only a few.

Apart of the temple there isn't anything else worth to see, Amritsar is a busy city, dirty and noisy as well, and the rikscha drivers are quite annoying...

Delhi

The capital of India is a very busy, noisy, dusty and dirty city! However it has some nice places to visit and get away from the daily life.
Another positive thing is that the local people haven't hassled us a lot and we could walk even through the bazar without problems, nobody wanted to offer us a very cheap souvenir or a rikscha ride.
Luckily we had good weather and no smog, so we could enjoy the sun and hot temperatures.


The main mosque in Delhi and the biggest one in India. From the minarett it's possible to see a lot of Delhi if the visibility is good, eg. the Red Fort (in the background).

The entrance of the Red Fort in Delhi.

The Safdar-Jang mausoleum

The Qutb Minar complex

Lakshmi-Narayan temple, a typical one from the north of India.

Fredi enjoyed the trip to the Humayun mausoleum, which is like the Red Fort and Qutb Minar a UNESCO world heritage.