The tiny post office in the village of Hikkim connects a cluster of small villages in this isolated region to the rest of the world. Villagers come here to post letters or deposit money in their savings accounts, and intrepid travellers who make it this far take pride in mailing their letters from the highest post office on Earth.

Postmaster Rinchen Chhering has been running the operations since its inception in 1983. It's difficult work: few motorable roads mean the mail must be carried on foot, and the post office is often forced to shut during winter months due to heavy snowfall. The post office started functioning in 1983.

Hikkim has the highest polling station in the world. There are no internet and cell phone signals to connect with another part of the country. The houses are made up of stones and mud and the colour of the walls are usually white. The people of the village follow Buddhism and prayer flags hover near the houses. Mongolians were unable to conquer the Hikkim out of the three villages as they thought that humans did not survive at such a high altitude of approx. 4440m above the sea level. Kaza is the nearest place where one can look for the best accommodation and the food. Hikkim is connected with the motorable road. There is a co-educational school as well in Hikkim up to eight standards. You can visit it if you are interested in spreading smiles by distributing some educational material to the kids of the school

The other main attraction at Hikkim is to collect fossils. Fossils of marine creatures and plants are found in plenty under the sedimentary rocks. These fossils are around millions of years old. Although possession and collection of fossils are illegal in India, the locals in the village sell these collectables to the travellers visiting their village.

Young kids can be seen running around the village collecting and playing with these fossils trying to persuade the travellers to buy them in return for money.  The local name of fossil here is chaudua and can be easily found in and around the village. The fossils are Cephalopoda.

Best time - Spiti Valley in Summer (March - June) is the best time to take a trip to Spiti if you wish to explore the place and visit as many tourist attractions as you can. 

How to Reach Spiti - The nearest town to Key Monastery is Kaza.

By Road - There are two routes to reach Spiti, one is via Manali (HP) where you have to cross two high passes, Rohtang and Kunzum Pass and the other is via Shimla(HP) with plenty of buses and taxis plying. 

By Flight - Shimla is the nearest airport which is about 438 kilometres from Key Monastery.