Stay at Hotel Rollingrang, Kalpa and visit to Roghi Village
It was a beautiful sunny morning at Shimla after couple of cloudy and rainy days before, and we were quite excited about the forthcoming visit to Kalpa today. We have already booked the four day trip to Kinnaur with Mehar tour and travels and our driver, Mr. Karam Chand has asked us to be ready for departure from Shimla by 8.00 am sharp as the distance of 230 KM to our destination, Hotel Rollingrang at Kalpa would take at least 8-9 hours and we wanted to check in before dawn.
We started at 8.20 am anyhow and it took one hour to get out of Shimla town due to heavy traffic. After crossing Narkanda, a few KM ahead the snow covered mountain ranges began to show up the horizon. It was a cold day as clouds have again come up and we felt the urge to take our breakfast. Mr Karam Chand asked us to wait for another hour, it was already 10.30 am when we reached Khadu Cafe, a unique place for eating authentic himachali food. The place looked antique, with the floor covered with straw and wooden architecture inside. The valley views from the big glass fitted on the back wall were outstanding. We had SIDDU, a local dish served with plenty of desi ghee and tea in breakfast. The food was simply the best.
The road to Kalpa was in good condition and except few broken short stretches of 2-3 KM we found no problem with the road. It was 5 PM when we crossed Reckong Peo, the town with a big market just 10 KM short of our destination. The views continued to get better and grander as the wheels climbed up the steep slopes of Kalpa. As soon as we landed outside our hotel, The Rollingrang Kalpa, the beauty of the mountains covered up in snow, with blue tone all over; and the grand view it made soaked my mind and it was worth standing there even after feeling the chilly cold wind forgetting that even I have not worn my jacket. Our room was on top floor, facing the mountain View. The balcony provided the grand 120 degree view of the giant mountains of Kalpa.
The hotel is situated at a peak point of Kalpa town. The room was cozy, though not very big but it had ample space for two people. Adding the extra bed for third made it cramped but we still managed. The bedding was comfortable, clean and the electric heated mattresses provided the comfort we badly needed after a long journey from shimla. I just opened up the curtains from the big glass window and got almost the same grand view while sitting on the bed. It was hard to keep the window covered thereafter until I went to sleep.
On the very next morning, we did our breakfast early at 7.30 am. The hotel has kept a big table and few chairs outside,just at the entrance, to enjoy the view and the great food together. The excursion to Roghi village took about 20-30 min only as the distance was not much, probably 6-7 KM only. The entire route was very scenic, full of apricot flowers laden plants and apple orchards and en route we stopped for a while at the Suicide Point and found the deep gorge quite scary.
The Narayan temple at Roghi village presented a unique combination of antique, wooden and stones mixed construction and the walls were full of sculptures of gods. I have never seen such a marvelous and so beautiful mountain temple earlier. It was truly a very different, memorable experience to visit this place.
After spending few minutes at the temple we decided to take a walk in and around the village. The mountain views all around were simply superb, the entire place was full of trees laden with pink colored apricot flowers. After strolling for half and hour and taking some beautiful shots, we directly headed to the Narayan Nagini Temple of Kalpa town. The stay at Hotel Rollingrang, just sitting in the balcony for hours watching the big, giant snow covered mountains at a stone's throw and the short visit to the beautiful, one of it's kind Roghi Village were deeply added in my memory forever.
The narayna nagini temple at Kalpa was equally beautiful and it also had stunning views all around. We felt like just sitting in the temple for hours, it was so peaceful and relaxing there. The temple is believed to be more than 5000 yr old and it is linked with the story of Mahabharata as well. There is a monastry just 5 min walk from the temple.
Afterwards we made a visit to Reckong peo market in the afternoon and had some great food there for lunch. We checked in to our hotel by 4 PM to enjoy the awesome mountain View for a couple of hours before the sunset, as next day we were to leave Kalpa for visit to Chitkul, the last village of India in early morning.
