Destination Himachal Pradesh

So the moment of truth is coming up faster than I thought it would and I decided that I had a very limited timeframe within which to work in an escape of sorts. Therefore I decided that I would leave on my little odyssey in May rather than June and started charting out a plan. Regardless of how attractive carefree vagabonding sounds, a little attention to detail and logistics goes a long long way in making your trip memorable and free of stress. People, who are for all intents and purposes sane and rational, suddenly seem to become neurotic when it comes to planning a trip or a vacation. You have to work out a rough draft of what you want the trip to turn out to be but if you're obsessed with the specifics you'll miss out on the wonderful detours that you can take and the little segues that life throws at you. Traveling alone helps hugely in such a situation. I digress, however. I plan to take a trip through Himachal Pradesh right into the heart of Spiti Valley. My rough sketch of the trip runs like this:

Hyderabad to Delhi - Train
Delhi to Reckong-Peo - All bus travel hereonafter (unless I'm fortunate enough to share a taxi with decent people)
Reckong-Peo to Sangla to Rakcham to Chitkul
Chitkul to Kalpa
Kalpa to Reckong-Peo to Nako
Nako to Tabo
Tabo to Kaza
And then the incredibly long trip back to Hyderabad.

This is obviously a very tentative plan and I plan to adjust accordingly to situations thrown at me. The only constant through this haphazard sounding trip is that I'm going to try and travel as cheaply as I can covering as much ground as possible. I might omit a place or two but it would be nice if I didn't have to. Just the planning part is getting me very excited and I'm looking forward to be back on the road and in Himachal Pradesh. I haven't been fortunate enough to meet interesting people on my trips before and hopefully that changes this time around :) I'll be taking plenty of pictures and will be writing about my travels every single day. At the end of the day I plan to put together a nice little journal from the trip that can help/encourage other people to take a trip out there. I'm torn between wanting people to discover the beauty of inner Himachal Pradesh and keeping it a secret :) Lahaul and Spiti are supposed to be two of the most pristine places in Himachal Pradesh and I can barely wait to visit them. I'll try to cover the usual touristy stuff but also try and document the culture and life. A friend offered to lend me his Eneloop batteries and charger so that I don't have to worry about taking photos :) It just goes to show how much your trip is influenced by the many small generosities and courtesies by people. I don't know if anyone is going to be the least bit interested in all of this, but let's see :)