We had planned the 50 plus voyagers trip for 5 of us. Ravi, I, Moorthy athan, Viji and her husband Arul Annan. We had seen the reviews of 50plus voyagers on Facebook and were impressed. We thought it might be a good idea to go on a tour which is curated and managed by a tour operator.
We started on September 26 from Chennai by indigo and reached Chandigarh at 2 pm. We stayed at the Velvet Clarke Exotica. It was a beautiful hotel with spacious rooms and lobby. We were greeted by our Tour Manager Gaurish. Since we had time we decide to do a bit of sight seeing of Chandigarh. The Rock Garden is very famous in Chandigarh. So we decided to go there.
The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a sculpture garden for rock enthusiasts in Chandigarh, India. It is also known as Nek Chand Saini's Rock Garden of Nathupur after its founder Nek Chand Saini, a government official who started building the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. It is spread over an area of 40 acres and is completely built from industrial, home waste, and discarded items.
I found the Rock Garden quite unique. Very interesting, a bit weird but very interesting and quite extravagant. The figures and structures are completely made of waste material such as crockery, tiles, bangles, electrical items, and such.
We came back to the hotel and had a get together with Gaurish and the tour group. We were 15 people. There was one person from Chennai Bhaskar Ganesan. There were two couples. There was a ex diplomat, environmental journalist, business men, home makers, ex government employees and so on.
We introduced ourselves and we were briefed about the next day
I came to know about a new phenomenon called altitude sickness. Diomox is the tablet to be taken two days before you climb higher altitudes.
Gaurish said that we will be reaching higher altitudes gradually so we should be acclimated by the time we reach. But people who wanted they could take this tablet.
We then had a sumptuous dinner and then went to bed.
September 27
We started from Chandigarh in the morning. We lunched at Kandaghat. We also visited the Kalikatippa kalidevi mandir. This is a beautiful temple with a panaronic view of the mountains. The Himalayan range that we viewed were the Shivalik mountains. We passed through Chail village, Koti. We then reached Kufri at about 5 pm. Shortly later we reached the Snow king retreat hotel at Fagu top which is at 9000 feet. Fagu top is at a higher altitude than Kufri.
The temperature was around 14 degrees at Fagu top. We had a guide Sunil who told us about the area.Deshu temple fagu can be reached from our retreat by walking up 300 steps. Sunil told us that Narkanda hattu peak has temples too that we did not visit.
Sunil told us that in December fagu peak is covered with 4 feet snow.
Sunil the guide also told us that the royal gala apples were stored, sorted and exported in this region. Also we saw the potato research place. The potatoes cultivated here are of superior quality and are also fully exported
We came back for games. We played a game where we say...I went to Kinnaur with...names of people starting with A.....next person has to add the next alphabet, and mentioning all the names from A, B, C and so on..... it was a lot of fun...People who did not remember could pass and they were out.
After dinner we took one more round around the pond. Viji got a stomach upset. She took zinetac, ors. She had a migraine in the morning. It could be just a stomach upset or mountain sickness. She also took diamox for mountain sickness
September 28
Morning at 6.30 am we climbed the 300 steps to the Deshu Kali temple. We had a fantastic view of the several layers of mountains with the snow clad peaks in the distance. There was the shivling and Kali mata. Many people come here asking for mannath. We were told that there was a lady who had prayed for a baby. She said she will come back with her baby before the baby turns one month. When the baby was born there was several feet of snow. To fulfill her mannath special arrangements were made and she did bring her baby to the temple inspite of the heavy snow.
After breakfast we proceeded to Narkanda and then Sarahan. We stopped on the way at the Rajiv Gandhi High altitude training center at Shilaroo. Here sportspersons undergo training for playing sports at high altitudes where the air is rarer.
We stopped at hotel Hatu for tea. We saw wedding preparations going on at the hotel.
We then proceeded to Rampur and visited the grounds of the palace. (Padam Palance does not allow tourists to enter inside). We had lunch at Rampur which was not very good. The Bushahr regency Rampur. We then proceeded to Sarahan
The roads to Rampur and Sarahan were very bad. Due to heavy rains there were land slides and whole parts of the roads were broken. The ride was bumpy, risky and precarious. It was very tiring. There were
We reached the hptdc hotel at sarahan at about 5 pm. We started to the temple after a short rest. The Bhima kali temple is one of the 51 shathi peeths. Its believed that Mother's ear fell here. We reached the temple at about 6 pm. We cannot carry any leather items or mobile inside. We were also asked to cover our heads. We had a good darshan and also stayed for the arti...There were drums and cymbals and chanting. We also received Prasad that was like sakarai Pongal. There were no demands for money like you find in other places.
On the way back one of our group voyagers Mr Bhaskar entertained us with karnatic songs. Viji and I made some purchases. The men in this region wear wollen caps and the women wear scarves. Viji bought both and I bought some scarves.
We found our group leader Gaurish at a shop selling Sathu and momos. Sathu is a dish unique to this region. It is made out of maida that has been fermented with yeast. The dough is made into a thick Paratha and filled with potatoes. Desi ghee is poured over the hot Sathu. Its eaten with green chutney. It was very delicious. We had sathu and momos and proceeded to the hotel. We woke up to a stunning view from our bedrooms of the Shri Khand Mahadev mountain and the beautiful Shiva linga that we could see at a distance. Apparently this is a 8 day Trek from Sarahan.
September 29
After breakfast we started to the kinner camp.
We entered a tunnel that led us to the Kinnaur district. We had some fun pictures taken here. The trees were heavy with apples
One of our group mates had a bit of a health set back so we halted for medical treatment on the way. We drove through picturesque winding roads along the Sutlej river. This is a Indo Tibetan road. We saw the JSW mega power plant on the way. We went through Wangtu, Tapri, Chooling and Karcham. We were joined now by the Bapsa river. We reached sangla and crossed sangla village to reach the kinner camp at Sangla.
This camp is owned by Dilip Negi. He is a sprightly man, 48 years old. He hails from the Batseri village nearby. After a delicious vegetarian lunch with home grown spinach and mixed vegetables, kichadi, roti...we then walked with Negi to his Batseri village. He took us through orchards of apple trees laden with apples. There were trees with both yellow and red fruits in the same tree. Apparently it helps the tree bear more fruits to have a grafted branch of the yellow apples. The Batseri village does not allow vehicles inside. There are about 200 families, 160 are Rajput families. They make peach and apricot alcohol apart from vegetable and fruit cultivation. They also rear goats and sheep at the village. We passed orchards of apple trees and a few apricot trees. We also saw rajma, cauliflower and cabbage cultivations. They also have a Narayan temple in the village. We were not allowed to go in but could pray from outside. The deities were Badri Narayan, Tapo Narayan and Vishnu Narayan.
The climb to the village was steep. We were picked up on the way back by car.
The whole group again gathered for wine and local apricot and peach alcohol. There were gazals, songs sung, poem narrated. Altogether it was many hours of laughter and fun. Moorthy athan was in his element....
We had one more more day the next day, in the Swiss tents.
September 30
We started in the morning to chitkul village from the Kinner camp. This is the last village before the Tibet border.
We stopped on the way to see the Kinnaur Kailash mountain . The peak of Kinnaur kailash is at a height of 7000 feet.
We took photos at the chitkul board at 11300 feet height. We entered the Kinnaur desert terrain with less vegetation. We proceeded to chitkul village, the last village of India. We walked through the village. We saw wooden store houses for grains, houses and a school. We then went to the last military checkpost on the Indo Tibetan road and met the jawans there. We then went to the baspa river bed. It was raining and was cold and chilly there. We returned to kinner camp for lunch. We had a bonfire at night and enjoyed hot pakodas. There was apricot tarrra . We danced around the bonfire to Bollywood songs. We learnt garba and himachali dance.
Temperatures dropped to 1 degree in the night. We were saved by the hot water bottles.
October 1
We packed our bags and bid farewell to Dilip Negi and the kinner camp. It was a lovely two days stay.
We started to kalpa. We stopped on the way to view the cusp of baspa and Sutlej river.
Himachal produces more electricity than any other state in India. It has numerous hydel projects. We took photos at Karcham dam.
We stopped at a place from where we had a view of the other side of the Kinnaur kailash lingam. It is known to change color from white to red and brown.
We then went to Reckong Peo for shopping. I bought some sweaters and a salwar.
Each district in HP has a specific color. The Kinnaur color cap is green. Kinnaur caps are rs 300 to 400. They are made of wool. The other red caps are from rs 100 onwards.
It was a Sunday and most shops were closed. Few shops were open.
This place is known for its rajma and a few bought it. The rajma here is known to cook and melt in with the curry.
On the way to kalpa we stopped at the temple of the local deity of a place called Koti. Its called Chandika devi. There is a belief that there was battle here with asuras and the Devi won. The temple therefore apart from the devi sannadi, had a section for the one asura who helped the Devi in the battle to destroy the asuras
Polyandry used to be practiced earlier in this region, like the Pandavas.
We went to Vishnu Narayan and nagin temple from where we saw the view of the Hills.
We then visited a Narayana temple that was closed. We could enter the compound but the doors to dieties was closed . There were beautiful wooden carvings of Vishnu, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Shiva, narasimhar, Ganesha..
Raldang, jorka dang, kinner kailash and shivling of kinner kailash. This is the order of the mountains we could view from this location.
We stayed the night at the Kinner Villa hotel
October 2
We were able to pluck some red apples from the Kinner villa hotel trees.
We started from the hotel at about 8.15 am
Kinner is a generic name for demi god
Today is a long journey of about 9 hours to Kufri.
We stopped at a place and bought yellow and red apples for RS 50 and 100 per kg.
The journey to Fagu top was quite tiring and we reached there at about 7 pm after stopping for tea at Hatu, the same place we had stopped on the way onward.
In the evening there was a drinks party and awards were announced.
Bhaskar won the prize for the most colorful voyager. Moorthy athan for the naughty voyager, Viji for creative photographer, Gautam for singing, me for best student, Gopi warrier for best teacher....and Gaurish for dancer.
Moorthy athan then sang the lyrics of a poem. 'Don't let the old man in' of Clint Eastwood. It was a fun evening.
Morning the next day at about 7 am we climbed the 300 steps to the kali temple. Luckily there was a priest who gave us prasad of dried raisins. We also got prasad of puffed rice and dried coconut.We got good darshan of Maa Kali and Shiva.
We bought woollens at a place called chirapada near Fagu top. I bought some salwar material and shawls. The shawls were only rs 250 each.
We then stopped for a good lunch at Falcon crest.
We then proceeded to Chandigarh. The mountains turned into the Shivalika that were gentler.
A few of us decided to go shopping in the Shastri market at Chandigarh. It turned out to be a good idea. I bought chappals, pants, a top and some hair bands. We then had chaat at Garg chat bhandar. We had malai chaap, panipuri, bhel and dahi chaat.
Feeling very satisfied after our shopping spree we went back to the hotel only to be faced with a new challenge. How do we pack all our stuff into our suitcases without exceeding our limit of how much we can carry. We were grateful for Moorthy athan's weighing machine. After a lot of juggling we were able to get our bags within the weight limits.
We flew back to Chennai after a successful voyage with fellow 50 plus voyagers.
I am very thankful to Gaurish and all my fellow travellers: Gautam and Shwetha, Gopi and Raji, Bhaskar, Sudha, Hetal, Prema, Hetal, Prabas, Moorthy athan, Viji, Arul Annan and my husband Ravi; for making this a memorable trip with many cherished moments.
In the last 9 days, we travelled like a family to some of the most beautiful and serene places in Himachal's Kinnaur-Kalpa region.
We witnessed the spectacle of the mighty Kinnaur Kailash mountains, marvelled at the beauty of Chitkul and Batseri villages at Indo-Tibetan border and drove along the Sutlej and Baspa river valleys.
From walking through quaint villages, driving through narrow and steep roads along with winding rovers to some of the high mountain locales, spending time by the river and with umpteen and more photo sessions by talented photographers it was quite an adventurous voyage in the Kinnaur Kalpa tour.
Here is the link to the photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MpF46z9fWcifmEAz6
Here is the itinerary for all the days of our tour.
September 27:
8:45 - 9:00 AM : Proceed to Shimla- Fagu ( 130 KM/ 5.5 Hours)
Appx 3:30 PM: Arrive at Snow King Retreat Hotel at Fagu Top (7800 ft height)
September 27:
We are starting our journey into Mesmerizing Kinnaur region of Himachal.
8:45 - 9:00 AM : Proceed to Shimla- Fagu ( 130 KM/ 5.5 Hours)
Appx 3:30 PM: Arrive at Snow King Retreat Hotel at Fagu Top (7800 ft height)
September 28:
Proceed to Rampur, last capital of the Bushahr dynasty ( 110 KM/ 3.5 Hours).
Visit Padam Palace and enjoy lunch at Rampur.(Padam Palance do not allow tourists to enter inside it)
Proceed to Sarahan.
Appx 3:30 PM: Arrive at Himachal Tourism Hotel at Sarahan.
5:00 PM: Visit Temple of Goddess Bhimakali, one of 51 Shaktipeeth and the presiding deity of the rulers of the former Bushahr State. Attend Sandhya Arti appx 6:30 PM.
September 29:
We shall drive along the Sutlej river on Indo Tibetan Road to Sangla Valley ! We shall travel via small settlements of Wangtu -> Tapri -> Chooling -> Karcham where Bapsa river will join us.
Proceed to Sangla ( 90KM/ 4 Hours).
1:00 - 2:00 PM : Arrive at Kinnaur Camps at Sangla and enjoy lunch. ( 8500 - 9000 ft height)
3:00 PM: Visit Batseri village.
September 30:
Step into the last motorable village Chitkul on the Indo-Tibetan Route.
9:00 - 11:00 AM: Drive to Rukcham and Chitkul - 25 KM/ 1.5 hour ( 11400 Ft)
October 1:
In the morning look out from the window of your room, for mesmerizing sunrise view on the Kinnaur Kailash - The abode of Lords Shiva.
8:00 AM Onwards: Proceed to Kalpa ( 50 KM/ 1.5 Hour)
10:30 - 4:00 PM: Local sightseeing at Kalpa - Visit monastary Rekong Peo, Narayan Nagni Temple.
October 2:
ts time to say goodbye to the Land of Kinnaris. We shall drive back following Satluj river to Narkanda.
8:00 - 8:30 Proceed back to kufri.
October 3:
09:45 - 10 am: Proceed to Chandigarh.
Bid good bye to everyone.
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