Khab - A beautiful village on India-Tibet border, where Spiti river & Setluj river meet in Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh

While on road journey from Shimla to Spiti Valley, we crossed this magical & scary places called Khab. Khab Sangam comes on your way where Spiti and Setluj rivers merge on the left and on you right you can see old silk route. Khab sngam in Kinnaur region of Himachal is surrounded by huge mountains on both sides. The place can seem haunted on a cloudy day given this place is deep under mountains on all sides. Khab is one of the important halts on our trip to Spiti valley and also took a stop here while coming back.

Above photograph shows the road going up towards Spiti and just next to the Khab Sangam. and from here on, it's a sharp climb & the road starts becoming narrower as you move ahead.

I can understand that lot of you may not like talking/reading about toilets. That's certainly a weird topic, but recently in one of the blogger meetup, I was discussing with a blogger friend how stay during travel influences travel experience. Like-wise toilets have a role to play how your day goes at a new place. During the conversation, I could recall the memory of Dry Toilet I used in one of the home-stays in Spiti valley of India. In this blogpost, we shall why Spiti Valley needs dry toilets and how do they maintain hygiene appropriately. Along with that we shall share a little about hi-tech toilet sheets used in Japan, which is discussed a lot if anyone has traveled to Japan & tried these.

The Spiti River is lifeline for beautiful valleys of Lahaul & Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. Spiti river originates from the Kunzum Range of the Himalayas in a way that it divides Lahaul and Spiti. Many Himalayan streams, including the Pin River, feed it. At some places, width of Spiti river is huge while at some places it's narrower with deep water. Spiti river gets all its water from the melted glaciers of the Himalayan ranges, as Spiti is dry and hence river doesn't get any rain water. Almost all human settlements in Spiti Valley are located on the banks of the Spiti River, such as Tabo, Dhankar, Kaza and Rangrik. Most of these places have existed for at least 1000 years. Many monasteries overlook the river as if drawing their spiritual strength from the water element of the nature around. When you are in Spiti valley, you get to see this river 70% of the time you spend there. Spiti river surrounds you most of the times, even if it may not be directly visible. Highway drive around Kaza exposes you to some gigantic views of the river.

Above is one of the dry waterfalls around Kinnaur region in Himcahcl Pradesh. You would notice dozens of dry waterfalls across the river during summer and was wondering how would they look in winters. Surely monsoons must be the season to see them but it's highly discouraged to plan road trip on these road during monsoons. I just checked the map and it seems that National Highway number also changes to NH-505 from Nh-5. Khab is connected by road with National Highway 5 from state capital Shimla. National Highway 505 starts from Khab and provides connectivity to Spiti valley in Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

Related Blogpost - Spiti Valley Travel Guide - Stunning Landscapes, mind-blowing travel hacks, Snow leopards/Himalayan-Ibex stories and Unforgettable lifetime experience

Above photograph is clicked above Khab Sangam. These zig-zag roads are just next to the sangam when you are going towards Spiti valley.

The Sutlej River is the longest of the five rivers that flow through Punjab state in northern India. The popular bharka dam is built around the river Sutlej to provide irrigation and other facilities to the nearby areas.

It was my first sabbatical after completing 5 years at Adobe systems and I had no clear plan. During an evening, Aneesh called to share about his new bike and we started talking about what is he planning. On that phone call, we decided that we will go to Spiti Valley. Decided dates on same call, I booked my ticket from Delhi to Shimla. We didn't reach Spiti valley, which you may have figured out from title of this blogpost, but things we did on our way were very special and now I highly recommend some of those experiences to folks visiting Shimla and Kinnaur regions of Himachal Pradesh.

There are several major hydroelectric points built around Setluj river - including the 1300+ MW Bhakra Dam, the ~1000 MW Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectric Plant and ~1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Dam. Setluj river is a great srouce of energy for states in North India.

A happy photograph after climbing up from Khab. The road taking circles on this mountain and our cameras wanted to take a break and compose some good shots. This was also the point when we started seeing snow covered mountains very clearly.

Recently I was talking to one of my friends from US, who has been to India but not to Himachal Pradesh. During the chat, I was trying to explain him and then realised that videos can be a great medium and all the videos in this post are not edited and shot at various parts of Himachal Pradesh. I feel diversity can be improved but till then watch Himalayas through this set of videos and provide your inputs through comments section below.

Beyond Khab we noticed few places where we noticed green patch with dry mountains all around. These are apple orchards and apples produced in Kinnaur have very high value in international market. Most of the varieties are only exported from Kinnaur.

If you are visiting North India and wish to explore some of the main hill stations in North India, we have tried to make an attempt to share list of top 10 Hill Stations you should consider. Below are the names of these hill stations, along with reasons about why we picked them for you. It was certainly very hard to chose between plenty of options. Name of every place below is a link and would share lot more details in terms of what all to expect in these hill stations, how to reach these hill stations from Delhi or nearby cities, along with safety & pocket friendly tips. Let's get started and explore some of these options.

I am sure above photograph would give you a sense of the scale of things in Kinnaur and Spiti. There are people walking on the bridge but you can even see them in the photograph as they are very tiny in comparison to Setluj river and the huge mountains all around.

After a memorable drive from Shimla to Jeori and then to Nako village, it was time to move ahead towards Kaza which is district headquarter for Spiti. So Spiti is not a district and it’s part of Lahaul & Spiti district. Interesting these are 2 regions of one district and their headquarters are located in Kaza and Keylong.

These dry terrains were very fascinating for my Travellingcamera and I kept clicking without thinking much about the compositions. After coming home I had to delete lot of photographs and the quality of views keeps increasing as you move ahead.

Khab is a fantastic place and deserves a stop while going towards Spiti valley from Shimla.

One of the most interesting things I found in Spiti valley is the mummy of Sangha Tenzin, which is preserved in Gue Monastery. Supposedly it’s 500 years old mummy which was found in a village called Ghuen in chilling & remote district of Himachal Pradesh - Lahaul & Spiti. This region is located at about 6000 meters above sea level. This mummy was discovered first time in 1975 because of earthquake which opened an old tomb. And one of the scholars from USA declared that its at least 500 years old.

....

I know I have not been able to give much time to the blog because of other engagements in office and I want to focus on other priorities, but other guest-bloggers have assured me to bring at least one blog-post in a week. So we started a little late from Shimla and Sunset moment encountered as we crossed Narkanda. We didn't have any plan for stay. This was an indicator to start thinking about the place where we want to spend the night. Rampur was one obvious option and there are multiple hotels in Rampur. Apart from Jeori was another we were thinking about. Both these places are part of Shimla region and Jeori us near to Kinnaur border.

Related Blogposts :

Langza Village - Popular place in Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh known for huge Buddha Statue at an altitude of 14,500 feet and spotting wild animals like Snow Leopards & Himalayan Ibex

Just skip if you are not interested in exploring some of the great places around Kaza town of Spiti Valley in Himalayan State of India

Why nobody talks about unique Dry Toilet Technology of Spiti valley in Himalayan state of India, while Japanese toilets are discussed at length?

Key Monastery : Biggest Monastery of Spiti Valley with Stunning Architecture and an Excellent Training Centre for Lamas

There is an Echosphere cafe in Koumic and I was super happy to find boards of Echosphere all around. I got to know about this organization in one of the TEDx events in Delhi and how this organization helps in building sustainable means of generating energy got this region through solar equipments and there are various initiatives.

Travellingcamera

Search This Blog