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Prelude:
It all started with the Leh Trip way back in 2009, from that trip on wards my love for the Himalayan ranges keeps increasing every day.
I have one of the best group of friends who are always ready for any adventure. After the Leh Trip we did the Valley of Flowers trip in 2011 and during this trip seeds for Spiti Visit were planted.
Leh trip in 2009 was done in Bullets (rented in Leh) and this time for the Spiti Trip we wanted to do it in our bikes. Our group already had couple of bullets and we wanted to test them on the grueling Spiti ride.
After the initial discussion and planning it was decided that it will be 7 of us doing this trip in 4 bikes (3 Bullets & 1 CBR250R). The gang for this trip was
1. Ravikiran & Mamatha (CBR250R)
2. Sudhee & Sneha (Classic 500)
3. Prasanna & Shama (Thunderbird 350)
4. Prasanna (Classic 500)
The Rides...
Planning:
Planning for this started with finalizing the dates and booking the Air Ticket to Delhi. Since most of people were working considering that we decided to have 2 weeks trip. Dates were from 30th June till 15th July. These dates were chosen taking into account vacations & opening of the passes. “Kunzum La” Pass opened in June this year so we planned to do the trip after 2nd week of June. First dates were from 15th June which was later postponed to end of June due to a friend’s marriage.
Plan was to transport bikes till Chandigarh. Start the ride from there and complete the circuit.
2 Classic 500, 1 Thunderbird & 1 CBR250R were chosen for this trip. Initially there were some apprehensions about taking CBR250R on this trip considering the hostile terrain but I was confident this bike will do its job. Though it’s not tailor made for this bike terrain but I believed in Honda Quality and was confident that bike will last this trip.
We decided to start the ride from Chandigarh instead of Delhi considering that
• We were riding with Pillions on this trip and wanted to keep the riding as less as possible
• We wanted to avoid riding in Delhi Summer with temperature touching 40C
• Delhi to Chandigarh is well connected with Air Conditioned busses which gave us more reason to start from Chandigarh.
Route planning was done by going through multiple blogs, talking to friends and also getting feedback from “Ishita Khanna” of Spiti Ecosphere (Ecosphere Spiti - Travel, Adventure and Eco-tourism in the Himalayas). We did not book any hotels in advance but we did make a note of places where we planned to stay considering the options.
Below is the plan what we decided
30th June – Bangalore to Delhi (Air) & Delhi to Chandigarh (Bus)
1st July – Chandigarh to Shimla
2nd July – Shimla to Sarahan
3rd July – Sarahan to Chitkul
4th July – Rest @ Chitkul
5th July – Chitkul to Kalpa
6th July – Kalpa to Nako
7th July – Nako to Tabo
8th July – Tabo to Kaza
9th July – Rest @ Kaza
10th July – Kaza to Chandratal
11th July – Chandratal to Manali
12th July – Rest @ Manali
13th July – Manali to Chandigarh
14th July – Transport the bike to Bangalore. Chandigarh to Delhi (Bus)
15th July – Delhi to Bangalore (Air)
Ride Transport:
After finalizing the start / end point as Chandigarh we realized that we didn’t have direct train from Bangalore to Chandigarh which we could use to Transport our rides. So we started searching for other options.
Option 1: Transport by some other vendor like GATI or VRL...etc
Option 2: Transfer by Train till Delhi and ride from Delhi
It was finally decided to choose option 1. We decided to go with GATI considering that they had an office in Chandigarh. GATI promised us delivery within 1 week and Contineous tracking on the way.
Finally our bikes were packed from Bangalore on 23rd June and it cost us about 3000Rs per Bike for the one way travel. Packing was done well in Bangalore though it was expensive (800Rs per bike). Bikes reached Chandigarh by Thursday (28th June) well ahead of Schedule.
Packed CBR in Bangalore.
Transport from Bangalore to Chandigarh was very good. Vehicle was in a very good condition when we received in Chandigarh i had only 1 small scratch on my CBR
Day 1 - 30th June – Bangalore to Delhi (Air) & Delhi to Chandigarh (Bus)
Route: Delhi to Chandigarh by A/C Volvo bus from ISBT (Delhi)
Distance: 250Km (Approx)
Travel Time: About 5 to 6 hours
Stay: Hotel City Edge (Chandigarh)
Price: 5000Rs for 3 double bed rooms.
Plan was to take the 1st flight out of Bangalore to Delhi, reach Delhi by 9 to 10am and take the bus to Chandigarh. Delhi to Chandigarh is about 250Km’s and it takes about 5 hours or so by A/C Volvo bus.
We took the 1st Indigo flight out of Bangalore @ 6:30am and reached Delhi by 9am. It took us another 1 hour to reach ISBT from Airport. Once we reached ISBT we realized that Volvo busses are not as frequent as what we thought it to be or what we were told so to be. We imagined it will be similar to Bangalore to Mysore but we had to wait a lot. Unluckily ISBT was being revamped when we went there and it was difficult to find the required platform and then to get the required information.
ISBT to Chandigarh there are lot of busses (every 30min) but not many Volvo’s. We were particular that we wanted to Volvo’s since they reach faster compared to normal busses and offer better comfort. Actually the funda is
• Normal Bus takes about 6 hours
• Volvo takes 4.5 to 5 hours.
Finally we got the Volvo bus at 12pm from ISBT and during this time we had our Breakfast at McDonald’s next o ISBT. We took this time to call up GATI office in Chandigarh to inform them our status. Luckily the office is open till 8pm in the evening and it was comforting to know.
Bus started at 12 and with a lunch break in the middle it reached Chandigarh by 4pm or so. Since we didn’t book any hotels in advance it was now time to search for one. We were 7 of us which meant we needed to enquire in couple of hotels to make sure they have the rooms available. We needed A/C rooms and finally we got it at “City Edge” Hotel @ 5000Rs for 3 rooms for 1 night. Rooms looked decent so we took them and it was closer to the GATI office also.
Looking at it now it would have made more sense to take a Taxi (Innova or Force Traveler) Considering we were 7 of us. It would have been little more expensive compared to what we would have to pay by Bus but we would have saved lot of time and could do it at our pace.
Hotel where we stayed in Chandigarh
We freshened up and headed to pick up the rides. After completing the formalities we had the bikes by 6:30pm. It was now time to relax and explore Chandigarh city.
Chandigarh is a nice place when compared to other North Indian towns. Its Clean, neat and well organized. It is a planned city. I found Chandigarh to be expensive in terms of cost of living similar to Bangalore. We couldn’t find any A/C hotel within 1200Rs / night.
Day 2 - 1st July – Chandigarh to Tattapani
Route: Chandigarh - Shimla - Mashobra - Tattapani
Distance: 180Km (Approx)
Travel Time: About 6 hours
Stay: Hotel Saffron Residency(Tattapani)
Price: 4000Rs for 3 double bed rooms.
For today the plan was to start from Chandigarh and ride till Shimla. We don’t like crowded place so we were advised to either stay before Shimla or after Shimla. Since we had only 120 odd Kilometer to cover in the day we decided to stay after Shimla.
Road from Chandigarh to Shimla is generally good. For 1/3rd of the journey there is a 4 lane highway then the road narrows down to 2 lanes but it is still good.
We started at 8 from Chandigarh and the plan was to have Breakfast on the way. We stopped at “Mannu Da Punjabi Dhaba” for Breakfast mostly because of hunger than anything else.
On the way to this place we stopped at a place which looked good but when checked we found it to be very expensive so decided to look for another place. I did manage to click some snaps of the Leh Trip which was starting from there organized by “Himalayan Moto Tours”
My Ride all packed up
We did stop at couple of places for pics and we still managed to reach Shimla by 12 or so. Plan was to stay in a place after Shimla, my friend had suggested to stay at “Mashobra” which about 7.5km from Shimla. We decided to check the place and headed towards it. We reached “Mashobra” by 2:30 or so. We did some look around to find a good place to stay but we didn’t find any, in the mean time my friend went through “Lonely Planet” magazine and found that there is a place called “Tattapani” close to Mashobra and Rafting is available at this place. Since we had time to spare we decided to head out for “Tattapani” which was about 35 to 40km from where we were.
As we started from Mashobra road condition started deteriorating. We took about 2 hours and ended up reaching this place by 5:30pm or so. Just before the town we met the rafting people and took all the details from them. As we started riding from Mashobra weather changed dramatically, from the cool weather of Shimla it had turned into very hot weather we were sweating like pig! None of us were able to wear the jackets due to the heat. As soon as we reached Tattapani we searched for an A/C accommodation and checked in.
We found one called “Hotel Saffron Regency”
Bridge before the Tattapani town
It was so hot in Tattapani that we didn’t venture out in the evening. We were happy to be in our A/C rooms.
It all started with the Leh Trip way back in 2009, from that trip on wards my love for the Himalayan ranges keeps increasing every day.
I have one of the best group of friends who are always ready for any adventure. After the Leh Trip we did the Valley of Flowers trip in 2011 and during this trip seeds for Spiti Visit were planted.
Leh trip in 2009 was done in Bullets (rented in Leh) and this time for the Spiti Trip we wanted to do it in our bikes. Our group already had couple of bullets and we wanted to test them on the grueling Spiti ride.
After the initial discussion and planning it was decided that it will be 7 of us doing this trip in 4 bikes (3 Bullets & 1 CBR250R). The gang for this trip was
1. Ravikiran & Mamatha (CBR250R)
2. Sudhee & Sneha (Classic 500)
3. Prasanna & Shama (Thunderbird 350)
4. Prasanna (Classic 500)
The Rides...
Planning:
Planning for this started with finalizing the dates and booking the Air Ticket to Delhi. Since most of people were working considering that we decided to have 2 weeks trip. Dates were from 30th June till 15th July. These dates were chosen taking into account vacations & opening of the passes. “Kunzum La” Pass opened in June this year so we planned to do the trip after 2nd week of June. First dates were from 15th June which was later postponed to end of June due to a friend’s marriage.
Plan was to transport bikes till Chandigarh. Start the ride from there and complete the circuit.
2 Classic 500, 1 Thunderbird & 1 CBR250R were chosen for this trip. Initially there were some apprehensions about taking CBR250R on this trip considering the hostile terrain but I was confident this bike will do its job. Though it’s not tailor made for this bike terrain but I believed in Honda Quality and was confident that bike will last this trip.
We decided to start the ride from Chandigarh instead of Delhi considering that
• We were riding with Pillions on this trip and wanted to keep the riding as less as possible
• We wanted to avoid riding in Delhi Summer with temperature touching 40C
• Delhi to Chandigarh is well connected with Air Conditioned busses which gave us more reason to start from Chandigarh.
Route planning was done by going through multiple blogs, talking to friends and also getting feedback from “Ishita Khanna” of Spiti Ecosphere (Ecosphere Spiti - Travel, Adventure and Eco-tourism in the Himalayas). We did not book any hotels in advance but we did make a note of places where we planned to stay considering the options.
Below is the plan what we decided
30th June – Bangalore to Delhi (Air) & Delhi to Chandigarh (Bus)
1st July – Chandigarh to Shimla
2nd July – Shimla to Sarahan
3rd July – Sarahan to Chitkul
4th July – Rest @ Chitkul
5th July – Chitkul to Kalpa
6th July – Kalpa to Nako
7th July – Nako to Tabo
8th July – Tabo to Kaza
9th July – Rest @ Kaza
10th July – Kaza to Chandratal
11th July – Chandratal to Manali
12th July – Rest @ Manali
13th July – Manali to Chandigarh
14th July – Transport the bike to Bangalore. Chandigarh to Delhi (Bus)
15th July – Delhi to Bangalore (Air)
Ride Transport:
After finalizing the start / end point as Chandigarh we realized that we didn’t have direct train from Bangalore to Chandigarh which we could use to Transport our rides. So we started searching for other options.
Option 1: Transport by some other vendor like GATI or VRL...etc
Option 2: Transfer by Train till Delhi and ride from Delhi
It was finally decided to choose option 1. We decided to go with GATI considering that they had an office in Chandigarh. GATI promised us delivery within 1 week and Contineous tracking on the way.
Finally our bikes were packed from Bangalore on 23rd June and it cost us about 3000Rs per Bike for the one way travel. Packing was done well in Bangalore though it was expensive (800Rs per bike). Bikes reached Chandigarh by Thursday (28th June) well ahead of Schedule.
Packed CBR in Bangalore.
Transport from Bangalore to Chandigarh was very good. Vehicle was in a very good condition when we received in Chandigarh i had only 1 small scratch on my CBR
Day 1 - 30th June – Bangalore to Delhi (Air) & Delhi to Chandigarh (Bus)
Route: Delhi to Chandigarh by A/C Volvo bus from ISBT (Delhi)
Distance: 250Km (Approx)
Travel Time: About 5 to 6 hours
Stay: Hotel City Edge (Chandigarh)
Price: 5000Rs for 3 double bed rooms.
Plan was to take the 1st flight out of Bangalore to Delhi, reach Delhi by 9 to 10am and take the bus to Chandigarh. Delhi to Chandigarh is about 250Km’s and it takes about 5 hours or so by A/C Volvo bus.
We took the 1st Indigo flight out of Bangalore @ 6:30am and reached Delhi by 9am. It took us another 1 hour to reach ISBT from Airport. Once we reached ISBT we realized that Volvo busses are not as frequent as what we thought it to be or what we were told so to be. We imagined it will be similar to Bangalore to Mysore but we had to wait a lot. Unluckily ISBT was being revamped when we went there and it was difficult to find the required platform and then to get the required information.
ISBT to Chandigarh there are lot of busses (every 30min) but not many Volvo’s. We were particular that we wanted to Volvo’s since they reach faster compared to normal busses and offer better comfort. Actually the funda is
• Normal Bus takes about 6 hours
• Volvo takes 4.5 to 5 hours.
Finally we got the Volvo bus at 12pm from ISBT and during this time we had our Breakfast at McDonald’s next o ISBT. We took this time to call up GATI office in Chandigarh to inform them our status. Luckily the office is open till 8pm in the evening and it was comforting to know.
Bus started at 12 and with a lunch break in the middle it reached Chandigarh by 4pm or so. Since we didn’t book any hotels in advance it was now time to search for one. We were 7 of us which meant we needed to enquire in couple of hotels to make sure they have the rooms available. We needed A/C rooms and finally we got it at “City Edge” Hotel @ 5000Rs for 3 rooms for 1 night. Rooms looked decent so we took them and it was closer to the GATI office also.
Looking at it now it would have made more sense to take a Taxi (Innova or Force Traveler) Considering we were 7 of us. It would have been little more expensive compared to what we would have to pay by Bus but we would have saved lot of time and could do it at our pace.
Hotel where we stayed in Chandigarh
We freshened up and headed to pick up the rides. After completing the formalities we had the bikes by 6:30pm. It was now time to relax and explore Chandigarh city.
Chandigarh is a nice place when compared to other North Indian towns. Its Clean, neat and well organized. It is a planned city. I found Chandigarh to be expensive in terms of cost of living similar to Bangalore. We couldn’t find any A/C hotel within 1200Rs / night.
Day 2 - 1st July – Chandigarh to Tattapani
Route: Chandigarh - Shimla - Mashobra - Tattapani
Distance: 180Km (Approx)
Travel Time: About 6 hours
Stay: Hotel Saffron Residency(Tattapani)
Price: 4000Rs for 3 double bed rooms.
For today the plan was to start from Chandigarh and ride till Shimla. We don’t like crowded place so we were advised to either stay before Shimla or after Shimla. Since we had only 120 odd Kilometer to cover in the day we decided to stay after Shimla.
Road from Chandigarh to Shimla is generally good. For 1/3rd of the journey there is a 4 lane highway then the road narrows down to 2 lanes but it is still good.
We started at 8 from Chandigarh and the plan was to have Breakfast on the way. We stopped at “Mannu Da Punjabi Dhaba” for Breakfast mostly because of hunger than anything else.
On the way to this place we stopped at a place which looked good but when checked we found it to be very expensive so decided to look for another place. I did manage to click some snaps of the Leh Trip which was starting from there organized by “Himalayan Moto Tours”
My Ride all packed up
We did stop at couple of places for pics and we still managed to reach Shimla by 12 or so. Plan was to stay in a place after Shimla, my friend had suggested to stay at “Mashobra” which about 7.5km from Shimla. We decided to check the place and headed towards it. We reached “Mashobra” by 2:30 or so. We did some look around to find a good place to stay but we didn’t find any, in the mean time my friend went through “Lonely Planet” magazine and found that there is a place called “Tattapani” close to Mashobra and Rafting is available at this place. Since we had time to spare we decided to head out for “Tattapani” which was about 35 to 40km from where we were.
As we started from Mashobra road condition started deteriorating. We took about 2 hours and ended up reaching this place by 5:30pm or so. Just before the town we met the rafting people and took all the details from them. As we started riding from Mashobra weather changed dramatically, from the cool weather of Shimla it had turned into very hot weather we were sweating like pig! None of us were able to wear the jackets due to the heat. As soon as we reached Tattapani we searched for an A/C accommodation and checked in.
We found one called “Hotel Saffron Regency”
Bridge before the Tattapani town
It was so hot in Tattapani that we didn’t venture out in the evening. We were happy to be in our A/C rooms.
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