Introduction-Chicham Bridge
Spiti Valley has truly been a bag filled with uncountable surprises. Every turn lands you onto a new mountain, every step brings you to a different pattern of landscape, every village has its own specialty of its own. This is the major reason why people take a longer duration and cover almost all the major tourist places on their trip here.
The trip also would be totally incomplete because one would definitely regret missing the left out thing though they would have visited a lot of other places because every place is unique because of its own thing and has an identity of its own. There are a lot of such places in and around Spiti Valley and Chicham is one such beautiful place.
About Chicham
Located around 22kms away from Kaza, Chicham is a very tiny village located at a humongous altitude of 13,615 ft above the sea level. Kaza is at a height of 12,200 ft and one actually gains around 1,500ft in just a span of 22kms.
The entire surroundings of this village is covered by dark brown cold desert kind of surface and it appears like you have entered the planet of Mars due to the texture of mountains all around. There are very few houses in this village and Kibber and Kee are the other nearby villages to Chicham.
The Highest Bridge in Asia – Chicham Bridge
The most important reason to visit Chicham is The Highest Bridge of Asia. At a height of 13,596 ft, no other Bridge in the Asia is at such high altitude. This bridge actually connects the 2 villages, Kibber and Chicham. It’s a matter of pride and honor about BRO because they are constructing and maintaining roads, bridges at such high altitudes for ease of the localites and also for the movement of troops.
One can go to the middle of this bridge and can find a 1000 ft gorge with water flowing swiftly. The gorge below is Samba Lamba Nallah. This bridge actually cuts down the journey from Kibber to Losar by 40 km. This is an alternate route to reach Manali from Kaza if there is a problem in Kaza-Losar road. This Bridge was constructed over a course of 15 years, and was inaugurated in 2017. It costed a whopping INR 485.50 lakhs to get the bridge constructed.
Chicham Village
Just a few kms away from this bridge is the Chicham Village, one of the most beautiful and tiny village of Spiti Valley. We were to lucky to spot Yaks on the way and the views around the village were just fabulous. There were very few mud houses depicting the real beauty of authentic mud houses styled village of Spiti Valley.
Weather
Due to this such insane altitude and proximity towards Himalayas, the village experiences extremely cold climate round the year. During our visit in October at 3PM, the temperature was -2°C and its even worser in the night. It goes upto -30°C and the dry climate makes the condition extremely bad.
The tourists face AMS as they gain altitude very soon from Kaza. If any of you are planning to visit here, just make sure you take all the precautions without fail. There is good Jio network in all the surrounding villages.
Food & Accommodation
As it’s a very tiny and remote village, there are a few hotels and places to eat. You can find Maggi, Tea shops here and there. It’s not an ideal place to stay because the nights are extremely cold and it’s very difficult to survive. So tourists usually plan a one day trip from Kaza. Though there are a few homestays and also few local people allow tourists to stay at their homes, you can enquire there.
Special Hotels
Another interesting thing in Chicham bridge is the old school buses turned into restaurants. We found 2 such buses and the vendors were very friendly, even the cost was very less. We had Momos, Maggi and delicious coffee. We actually can sit, have food on the old seats of the bus, making it a wonderful experience.
Life in Winters
As heard by the villagers, the winters are a nightmare in these villages. The entire area is completely covered with thick snow and there is almost no road, no connectivity here. The roads are blocked for almost 4-5 months. The villagers pile up all the things before winter and spend entire winter in their house itself.
How to Reach Chicham Bridge
The road from Kaza is in very good condition. It is a single lane road, but the journey is very interesting because the views around are fabulous and also on the way one can find the River Plains of Spiti Valley from a significant altitude, making it a really beautiful sight.
One has to take the Manali road from Kaza and after few kms there is a bridge which leads to Manali and the diversion takes you to Kee, then Kibber and then Chicham Bridge, followed by Chicham Village. There are many shortcuts and diversions, though there are sign boards have a offline map ready for this purpose.
Ideal Plan
One can plan to visit Kee Monastery, 14 kms from Kaza, then to Chicham Bridge, The Highest Bridge of Asia around 4-5 kms and then finally to Chicham Village 3kms and then get back to Kaza by evening. This is an area with a very cold atmosphere and as the cold is mostly dry, tourists usually feel health issues even in the daytime and it’s not at all recommended to stay at any of these villages at night.
Conclusion
This was about one of the most beautiful villages in Spiti Valley with a great tag of being the Highest Bridge of Asia. Don’t forget to add these places to your trip plan and make the most of your trip to Spiti Valley. Do share your experiences during your visit to Spiti Valley and also comment below if you need any more information regarding Chicham or Spiti Valley.
