5 most scenic villages in Spiti you do not want to miss spending some time in

Spiti is an extension of the Tibetan plateau and one of the only few which is inhabited despite being in such regions at such a high altitude, to be inhabited.

The tourism in Spiti is just about picking up on popularity with the non biker community. More and more roads are being laid and new hotels and homestays are beginning to see the day of light.

The usual cookie cutter itinerary of Spiti valley run by travel agencies and tour operators land up covering the more popular points of interest, however there are still a few places which usually go unnoticed in the hush of covering the itinerary on time.

So the idea of this blog is to share the villages which often are overlooked, but if you ask me are totally worth a visit even if that means adding a day or two in your Spiti road trip.

Specially if you are an asthmatic, and you know that this is your first and last visit to this high altitude mountain desert. As generally Spiti may not be your choice of an ideal summer vacation on multiple occasions and it is once in a lifetime visit. So one must try to make the most of it. At Least that is what I did.

We booked a taxi from Shimla, being an asthmatic a gradual change in altitude is advisable, and the route to Spiti via Shimla is more gradual in gaining height than from Manali.

Having done my research well, and also being chatty while on my travels especially with the locals,, I soon realized that our driver was not aware of the lesser known villages.

Lest you get into a similar situation I thought I should definitely share some hidden gems of Spiti that still go unnoticed.

When you plan your itinerary for Spiti you will often read about- highest post office of the world, highest village to be connected by motorable road, highest bridge, so on and so forth.

And finally when you travel you will find yourself on top of really huge and high mountains and often on a road alongside the river , surrounded by those very gigantic mountains. So basically the entire landscape is very dramatic, from really high highs to really low lows, from barren browns to patches of green, from beautiful rivers which suddenly look like a serpent crawling between mountains to really dry streams called nalah by the locals. But most of the part you will be driving in jaw dropping beauty and vast nature.

So picking just a few spots in such a gifted landscape is difficult as I truly believe every inch is awe inspiring.

So in my road-trip from Shimla to Manali, I do have stretches of places which completely blew my mind for the kind of visual beauty they are. So here is a list in the sequence of me seeing them.

1) Nako: Politically and administratively part of Kinnaur district and not Spiti valley, but the villagers, their lifestyle, the houses, the practice, their culture almost everything is similar to the locals of Spiti valley. Nako is a small hamlet rapidly growing into a village which is famous for the lake Nako, where Guru Padmasambhava who is known to introduce Buddhism in the Himalayan region once took a dip. Though a major part of the village is built in nomadic style architecture: with stone fence and stone house, the tourism is slowly leading to change in the character of the hamlet into a mountain village of sorts.

My favourite time of the day there is the early mornings . Being on a hilltop the clouds move swiftly and cast beautiful dark shadows on the brown mountain top. Watching it is like witnessing a personal art show created just for the entertainment of Gods of the valley. Also the nights , especially in August are perfect for sky gazing and the view of the Milky Way may actually shock you if you have never seen the sky from this kind of an altitude . It took me a few seconds to really come to terms with the fact that one can see the Milky Way and how it could possibly look the way it did from naked eye .

2) Gue: The second place which I would say stole my heart was Gue Village. A recent point of interest for visitors and travellers in the valley, the main attraction is a 500 year old naturally preserved Mummy of a Lama. But for me the pleasure was all in the landscape, still an unexplored spot of already a lesser explored region, the approach road to the village runs along a thin stream and mountains with sparse foliage and no sign of inhabitation.

We also took a stroll in the village which had, to my surprise, modern homes and a huge primary school too. If you happen to visit the Mummy temple, take the cemented path which leads to the village. This small walk will take you just ten minutes, tops, from the top of the mountain to the village giving you a birds eye view of the village and the valley around.

3) Dhanker: This was the erstwhile capital of Spiti. And you will immediately realize how well thought through this decision must be considering the fort is on a cliff top overlooking the entire valley and any possible enemy attack in the earlier days.

Coming to the landscape, it is to die for! The entire mountain on which the village homes and other buildings are made , is cut out into cones, giving it a very different look than what I had ever seen before. The unique shape of the mountain is due to centuries of wind erosion and tectonic movement. If you don’t wish to hike up to the fort, you can go up to the monastery as. Then enjoy a cup of chai and some momos in the new monastery which is constructed only because the old one can only take up as much load.

4) Mud Village: Pin valley National Park, a beautiful zone in Himachal, much known for the Pin Parvati trek. Mud is the remotest village in Pin valley with a population of less than a couple of hundred people. We drove around 90 minutes by our cab from Kaza to reach Mud and then walked around the beautiful Pin river near Mud.

The sight of this area is just splendid, the clean pristine river with snow-clad peak on one side and the brown arid mountain on the other. The fact that it is so untouched and remote just adds that extra rustic nature to the entire experience.

5) Demul: Not many people know about this village in Spiti, we also would have not had I not been in a habit of striking conversation with locals and fellow travellers. So on being told about Demul, I immediately got excited and the views in this two hour drive from Komic to Demul surpassed all my expectations, we were driving on top of the mountains for almost the entire drive which meant driving along side glaciers which we could see on the peaks at distance and the fauna of the mountain our car was playing on was also so different from what we had seen in this journey so far. We also spotted some wildlife on the way to Demul. So over all, this drive is one of the most memorable drives of my life.

So, these are a few of my favourite spots & stretches in the valley. And I highly recommend them all to be considered by you while you plan your trip as going to areas like Spiti, are like once in a lifetime considering the difficulty in the terrain and the time required to really explore the region so you might as well ensure you have plenty of lesser known places of the region in your radar to explore.

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