Spiti Valley With Thrillophilia: Subharthy Deb’s Journey Into the Himalayas

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PNR: BKD9ED4JTS5
Rating: ★★★★★
Travellers: Subharthy Deb & Sanjukta Deb
Trip Duration: 8 Days | 7 Nights
Date of Travel: 07 Mar 2026 - 14 Mar 2026
Destination: Spiti Valley
Package Booked: Spiti Bike Tour Winter Special

There are trips where you come back with a camera full of photographs. And then there are trips where you keep thinking about the road long after you've returned.

For Subharthy Deb and his wife Sanjukta, their eight-day journey through Spiti Valley was the latter. “Man, it's an experience!” Starting from Shimla, the couple travelled deep into Kinnaur and Spiti, passing tiny mountain villages, ancient monasteries and roads that seemed to disappear into the mountains. At one point, they were having lunch nearly 4,600 metres above sea level. At another, they were standing on a bridge over a Himalayan gorge. Somewhere between all those places, the journey itself became the experience.

When the Mountains Took Over

The first few hours out of Shimla were a gradual introduction. Then Kinnaur began to take over the view. The road to Sangla ran through the Baspa Valley, with pine-covered slopes on one side and the Baspa River cutting through the landscape below. The mountains kept getting bigger while the settlements became smaller.

There was also Hindustan Ka Aakhri Dhaba, sitting at roughly 3,500 metres. Stopping here for a Himachali meal felt almost too appropriate. They were heading into one of India's most remote mountain regions, and lunch was happening at a place literally named the last dhaba of Hindustan. By the time Subharthy and Sanjukta reached Sangla, the holiday had already started feeling like an expedition.

Then Everything Turned Spitian

The next day, the scenery changed dramatically. The green valleys of Kinnaur slowly gave way to the dry, almost lunar landscape of Spiti. At Khab, the couple saw the Sutlej and Spiti rivers meet, marking one of the natural gateways into the valley. Then came Nako, sitting at around 3,662 metres.

The village looked almost frozen in time. Nako Lake sat quietly among willow and poplar trees, while the surrounding mountains rose in every direction. Nearby, Nako Monastery and Nako Chango Gompa revealed another side of the valley. And there was an especially unusual detail inside the gompa: a centuries-old prayer wheel traditionally made from yak skin. This is the thing about Spiti. You can spend an hour staring at a mountain and then walk into a monastery and discover something you had absolutely no idea existed.

A Mummy, Ancient Murals and a Monastery From 996 AD

The road to Kaza came with some seriously unexpected detours. At Gue Monastery, Subharthy and Sanjukta encountered one of Spiti's strangest sights: a naturally preserved mummy believed to be around 500 years old. Then came Tabo.

Founded in 996 AD, Tabo Monastery is among the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist monastic complexes in the Himalayas. Its ancient murals and sculptures have earned it the nickname “Ajanta of the Himalayas". Imagine spending the morning driving through an almost completely barren mountain landscape and then walking through a monastery where the walls have been carrying stories for more than a thousand years. That contrast is Spiti. The valley can look empty from the outside. Step inside one of its monasteries and suddenly you're looking at centuries of history.

Kaza Was Where Things Got Really High

By the time they reached Kaza, the altitude had crossed 3,600 metres. But the next day was when the numbers started getting ridiculous. First came Key Monastery, perched dramatically at around 4,166 metres. The monastery rises above the Spiti River like a fortress, with the valley spreading out below it.

Then the road climbed towards Hikkim. At approximately 4,400 metres, Hikkim is home to one of the world's highest post offices. So naturally, the appropriate thing to do when you get there is send a postcard. From there, the group continued to Komic, around 4,587 metres above sea level. Yes, they had lunch there. There is something hilarious and wonderful about the fact that an ordinary activity like eating lunch becomes a travel achievement when you're sitting nearly 4,600 metres above the sea.

The High Point

And just when the day seemed to have reached its peak, literally, the group drove across Chicham Bridge, which stands at roughly 4,145 metres and spans a deep gorge. The view below was enormous. The road ahead looked tiny. This was probably the point where the word adventure in the itinerary stopped being a description and became a fact.

Spiti doesn't let you leave without changing the scenery one more time. The drive towards Kalpa took the couple through Dhankar, where the ancient Dhankar Monastery sits dramatically above the valley. Then the landscape started softening. The dry, barren slopes gave way to greener valleys, forests returned, apple orchards appeared around Kalpa, and the Kinnaur Kailash Range filled the horizon.

Why Thrillophilia Made the Difference

For Subharthy, the itinerary may have been compact, but it managed to pack a lot into eight days. What really elevated the experience, however, was the support on the ground. He specifically called the team “amazing” and said that people like them are what make the Thrillophilia brand special.

Two people stood out in particular. Sachin, their tour guide, and Heeralal, their driver, were with the couple through the long mountain drives, high-altitude stops, and constantly changing terrain. Subharthy felt that both went all out to make the journey comfortable and enjoyable, praising them for delivering the best possible service and making their time memorable.

By the end, the couple had travelled from Shimla into Kinnaur, crossed into Spiti, explored ancient monasteries, reached villages above 4,000 metres and stood on roads surrounded by some of the most dramatic landscapes in Himachal. But Subharthy's strongest takeaway was the feeling of being somewhere completely different. As Rudyard Kipling famously described the region, it can feel like “a world within a world.” For Subharthy, that world clearly left an impression.

“Spiti is a place you don't travel often, but when you do you become mesmerised.”

And perhaps that's what made the trip worth remembering. It wasn't simply about collecting destinations. It was about the long mountain roads, the unexpected discoveries, the sheer altitude and having the right people around to make the journey easier. Subharthy's final words were simple: “Hope to have another trip soon.”

Also Read: Vinay & Soumya’s Spiti Valley Adventure with Thrillophilia