I along with 4 college friends of mine decided to make the most of the upcoming long weekend. We had heard of Kalpa, Sangla and Chitkul and saw pictures with awe. So we decided to go on a road trip to the untouched divine district of Kinnaur in Himachal.
We booked a ZoomCar Ford Figo for 3 days from 21 Feb 12:00 am to 23 Feb 11:30 pm. We got a heavy 50% discount and the car without diesel costed us only Rs. 5500 in total.
It took us around 4 hours to reach Kufri from Chandigarh. But the weather worsened and it started snowing. Our car began to slip as the snowfall increased. We had to stop the car. It snowed all morning. We're stuck in the snow for 6 hours. The bulldozers cleared the roads in the morning. We stuck time and time again. Pushing and dragging the car out of the snow every time.
The snow disappeared as we crossed Narkand. We stopped over by a restaurant made some great local friends, drank local liquor and continued. We had started the journey at 12:30 am and finally reached Sangla (333 km from Chandigarh) at 6:00 pm. The snow capped mountain ranges surrounding us kept us going. We booked a room for 5 for Rs.1200. Strolled the village in the evening, clicked a few pictures and went to sleep. I couldn't find my wallet as I searched it to pay the rent. There was only one place where I took it off my pocket, the local restaurant at Rampur Bushahr.
We left for Chitkul(about 20 km from Sangla) at 9:00 am after having breakfast. Their was snow on both sides of the road. The view was mind-blowing. Chitkul is the last village on the Indo-China border.
In afternoon we left for Kalpa(61 km from Kalpa). There were plenty of adventures on the road. We paid Rs.100 fine for not wearing the seat belt. Took us around 2 hours to reach Kalpa from Chitkul. We booked 2 rooms at a homestay for Rs.500 each. My friends were paying on my behalf as well.
Strolled in the village and left for home at around 9:00 am.
We stopped at the restaurant to ask for my wallet. To my surprise I found it there. I had left it there 2 days back. We thanked the owner and continued. We witnessed snow in Narkand so we turned back and took another road to Shimla which was not affected by snowfall.
We reached the car dropoff time at exactly 11:30 pm our dropoff time. Gave the car keys and went back home. The car consumed diesel of around Rs. 4000. The car summed up to about Rs. 2000 per head and trip costed only Rs. 3000 per head.
