DJ woke up at 5 a.m., completed his daily routine, and checked out of Dolma Komestay at 6 a.m. on his way to Tabo Himachal Pradesh. The plan was to go to Pin Valley, Mud (pronounced Mudh) village forest, Dhankar and Lhalung monasteries, and finally hit Tabo.
By 7 a.m., DJ entered Pin Valley and went to Mud by 9:30 a.m. While riding, he noticed a number of beautiful villages in Pin Valley. The villages looked even more splendid with the Spiti river flowing next to them.
Riding in the Pin Valley was a fascinating experience for the DJ. He first came across a village named Telling, located at the top of a hill and breathtakingly beautiful. Telling comes up just before Mud Village. However, on reaching Mud and after spending some time there, DJ found the place to be overrated. The village is meant for travelers who wish to spend a night and then embark on a 3 km-long trek to get to a place that gives a 350-degree view of the Pin Valley. Mud may also be used as a base camp for the Pin-Bhabha trek.
After spending some time and clicking pictures, DJ proceeded on the road towards the Shimla-Kaza highway. Once on the highway, he went ahead towards Tabo and reached Lingti in about 2 km. A shortcut, as suggested by Rahul (komestay owner in Kaza), passes through the tiny and gorgeous Lingti village to connect with Lallung. Using the shortcut, DJ reached Lallung by 12 p.m.
A monastery is present in the beautiful village of Lallung. It is said that the Lhalung Monastery and the Tabo Monastery were built at the same time. Interestingly, DJ found the village to be more beautiful than the monastery. On the day and time he arrived, the Lhalung monastery was closed. Taking leave of the place, he headed towards Dhankar.
A few strokes of bad luck
While going towards Dhankar, DJ took a wrong turn by mistake and ended up riding on rough terrain for 4 km. After returning to the right track, he got to Dhankar by 1 p.m. As luck would have it, he took a wrong turn yet again and went to the backside of a fort instead of the monastery. Again, while riding down from the fort his bike fell on a slope, and this time it was pretty difficult to get it up. He searched for help but there was none, and even homestays around the monastery were closed.
At this time, DJ’s bike was constantly losing fuel, leaving him no option but to somehow get it up. He used all his strength to get the bike up and eventually got to Dhankar. Although a small monastery, DJ found it to be quite beautiful, and it was built on a hill in a manner similar to the Key monastery. He found out that another monastery was being built 500 meters away from this site.
Dhankar is 8 km. away from the Shimla-Kaza highway. It gets connected at Sichling, from where DJ rode continuously to reach Tabo by 3 p.m. He went directly to his homestay, had lunch, and then walked to get to the Tabo monastery. This seemed to be built the same way as the Lhalung monastery, and there was also a new monastery here. When DJ went into the old monastery, he found some people resurrecting old paintings, and those efforts to keep history intact felt good.
After this, DJ returned to the homestay and contacted his friend, who suggested he visit ancient caves. He went to visit the caves, which appeared to be man-made. It seemed likely as though people had built these caves to save themselves from rain. With a few pictures, he returned to the homestay, discussed his itinerary for the next day, and ordered dinner. Yet again, the DJ asked to have the local food, enjoying the idea of understanding culture through cuisine. Before going to bed, he cleared his dues at the place and thanked the hosts.
