On our second day in Spiti, we hired the same driver to take us to Dhankar, another village dominated by a monastery. We liked our driver, a young and cautious local man who blared the latest American hits on the way, from the Black Eyed Peas to Taylor Swift. On the long uphill aproach to Dhankar, we suddenly stopped by some workers on the side of the road, and our driver had a quick conversation with a woman. To our surprise, she opened the door and dropped her baby in the car with us, laughing a little. The baby fussed for a couple of minutes as we drove off without the mother, then quickly calmed down and fell asleep. We never did get an explanation; the baby hung out with the driver during our stay, and we dropped it off again to the mother on the way down.
Dhankar was probably our favorite place in the Spiti Valley. The scenery was particularly gorgeous, and we had another pleasant monastery visit. The monastery was 1,000 years old, and there were a couple of rooms full of Buddhist paintings that were the same age, and remarkably well-preserved. As we admired the views from the roof, we could hear chanting from a room below.
Our last stop in Spiti was an overnight trip to Tabo, which was not quite as gorgeous as the other stops but had the most interesting monastery. Also just over 1,000 years old, it housed some incredible art, from paintings on the walls to large statues of bodhisattvas, Buddhist enlightened beings. Our guesthouse was also run by the monastery; the first time we've checked in with a monk at reception.
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