This incident took place with us in Spiti in the year 2017, June.
Not once but twice in the same day we witnessed kindness in strangest of places.
It was our 6th day into our Spiti Trip and we were on the way back to Manali from Kibber village. We were group of 8 persons travelled to Spiti from Mumbai via Chandigarh.
The trip was completely planned by us and not through any tour operator.
The trip experience was mesmerizing and we were all filled with happy memories.. 😀
We started early in Morning from Kibber as we wanted to reach Manali early in the evening before its too dark.
The road from Kibber Village to Manali is 14 hrs long. Also,due to difficult terrain of the region, it takes usually more time than that to reach Manali.
We crossed Kunzum pass at around 11.00 am and only a few kms ahead suddenly our driver stopped the car only to realise that we had flat tire.😑
Although, this is very common incidence to happen in Spiti due to bumpy and unconstructed roads,this was 2nd incident in row for us.
Just a day before, we had flat tire while travelling to Kibber from Dhankar village and it was replaced with the only spare tire which we had.
We couldn't get us new spare tire as place where you could get Tire in Spiti is Kaza which we left 3 days back and it was not on the way in our journey back. 🙄
We waited on the road to see if we can get help from any passerby vehicles. We tried stopping many vehicles for spare tire or for lift, but, our efforts were futile.
We waited their in scorching sun, windy environment where there was no mobile signal, not a single human in near vicinity and only few vehicles passing by. 🙁
Atlast after 3 to 4 hrs of waiting one vehicle which was going in our direction agreed to give us their spare tire till Batal. Batal was nearest village from where our Car was broken down.
From Batal, two roads diverge, one leads to Leh and other one to Chandratal if you are coming from Manali or Kaza and hence a lot of vehicles pass by Batal.
We reached Batal in half n hour. Batal pass is not big village. All you can find is few places to eat,one home stay and a camp of Army. That's it!
We were all started to get worried due to this uncertain event as most of us had our buses back from Manali to Chandigarh very next day.
Batal was our only hope to get any help.
If we didn't get other option immediately their on that day, other sources of help were far from reach anf our plans to go back home were going to get messed up.
In that moment, all we wanted was a solution to get to Manali and someone who could guide us on other alternate options.
While we were eating in small hotel there, a local person informed us that the army camp has satellite phone and we can try contacting our family members from there if army officers permit.
This re-kindeled little hope in us as hearing voices of your loved ones at such time brings back your energy.
As we went to army camp, the Army officers in the camp gladly allowed us to use their phones and also guided us how to use the phone.
One by one we contacted our family members and kept them updated.
There were 4 to 5 officers in the camp out of which one was very senior by position. I am not sure of his rank or name, but he looked almost of our dad's age.
After having brief introduction of all of us, he made us feel comfortable in his camp.
He introduced us to other army officers in the camp, showed pictures of his family members from his phone and shared his experience in army over the years of various places.
He even offered us to use a spare camp of theirs if we had to spend that night in Batal and guided us on Manali-Kaza bus service which we could use next day to reach Manali if nothing else works out.
For that moment, all of us felt relaxed with his act of #kindness and gesture of friendliness.
We forgot our all worries of that situation and got happy that finally we have some solution.
It felt like we met a family member in this strange place. 😇
While we were enjoying our conversations, our driver was looking for other options so that we can start our journey back.
Around very late in the evening, we met a local family from Kaza who had stopped at Batal for some break. We got to know that they were traveling to Manali for their Son's urgent medical emergency.
They agreed to provide us their spare tire on a condition that both the vehicles would travel together till Manali and we can return their tire in Manali.
We bid adieau to Army officers with Happy heart and started our journey again with a hope that it will not stop again now.
During the journey, the other car was ahead of us and we were behind.
In that road from Batal to Manali, a lot of "Nalahs" are found.
These nalahs are nothing but small waterfalls formed due to melting of ice from the mountains.
At times, big stones also do get fallen with the water from top.
Due to this, there are chances of the vehicle getting stuck in such Nalahs.
We witnessed one such incidence of one tourist car getting stucked on our day 1. <I have attached picture of the same in this blog>
Each time when we were passing through any such Nalah, we were praying that let our car pass through this without getting stuck.
We crossed many such nalahs safely on the way.
It was around 8o clock in the evening, at one place on the way ,due to our bad fate maybe, we got stuck in one such big nalah.
The other car was ahead and did not realise that we are stuck. We and our driver tried many efforts to push the car from where it was stucked.
It felt like our Car is going to get stuck here itself and we have to spend our entire night on the road.
After some time, the other car realised that its been long that we are not following them and came back for us.
The driver from the Car suggested that our Car could be pulled by their Car using a strong rope.
He pulled out the rope from his Car and tied it to both the cars and then pulled our Car with his Car with all his efforts.
This finally pulled our Car from the stucked place and we could started back our journey.
We literally had our tears of joy in that moment.
When we sat back in the Car, we could think only one dialogue from Jab we met Movie, "Babaji bas karo abhi, is night me abaur drama nahi chahiye"😄
We couldn't thank enough the person from the Car who helped us in pulling the car.
Firstly he lend us his spare tire when no one else was ready. Second he came back from a significant distance to look for us as we were not following for long time.
They could have simply proceeded to Manali for their Son's medical appointment. However, they did not.
When it was time to part ways with this family after reaching Manali at late night that day, we again expressed our gratitude for their help.
This time the lady in the Car said to us that "Ese difficult time pe ek insaan dusre insaan ki madat nai karega to kaun karega".
This sentence of her restored our faith in humanity again and made us believe that not all humans are selfish and not all strangers have bad intentions.
This was one of my experience with Kindness with strangers without which I can't imagine how could we have reached Manali on time.
These two incidents happened on one day have been imprinted in my mind and none of my Spiti experience stories are complete without mentioning of this incident.
Now I do not have picture of this exact incidence or the names of the People. However, I can recognize them immediately if see them again when I visit Spiti. 😀
I am sharing one picture of Car getting stucked on road from Manali to Kaza.
Also, sharing few pictures of our broken down traveller car and us.
Our learning from this trip and my advice to others is that:
1.No matter what, always carry a spare tire when you are traveling a short/long distance in such dificult terrains.
2.If you are traveling anywhere on your own(solo/group), be aware of all the possible local transport facilities.
3. Be mentally ready to face and resolve any adverese situation that may come across your way when you are travelling in Mountains 😀
