One thing that you will notice as soon as you stepped into Kinnaur region is people. Himachal people, especially Kinnauri are very good looking. They do not look like Indian origin but a mix of Mongoloid and Mediterranean in some ways. Both women and men wear thepang, grey woolen Kinnauri caps with green flap, that give special character to them. I fell in love with these people and their traditional costumes since I firstly encountered with two Kinnauri mother and daughter on the bus to Rekong Peo. Apart from their lovely caps, they interestingly have good taste in choice of colour!
Kalpa is only 30 minutes up hill from Rekong Peo. The bus to Kalpa leaves from the bottom bus stand of the town every half an hour (or until full). It's only 10 Rupees each for one way. The bus was full of local people and young kids (students). The good thing and quite a surprise here is that, although you are obvious to them as a foreigner (or tourist/traveller), Himachal people (better say now as Kinnauri) didn't give you that "oh so interesting!" gaze. That made me feel very comfortable to travel locally and mingle myself with the crowd on that bus.
Kinnauri women wearing thepang (caps) and traditional sleeveless woolen coats.
Kalpa is only 30 minutes up hill from Rekong Peo. The bus to Kalpa leaves from the bottom bus stand of the town every half an hour (or until full). It's only 10 Rupees each for one way. The bus was full of local people and young kids (students). The good thing and quite a surprise here is that, although you are obvious to them as a foreigner (or tourist/traveller), Himachal people (better say now as Kinnauri) didn't give you that "oh so interesting!" gaze. That made me feel very comfortable to travel locally and mingle myself with the crowd on that bus.
The bus climbed up with so many sharp turns. Eventually, it stopped at a small village entrance. Kalpa is a small village of Kinnaur valley that earns its cash through apple crops. The picture of apple orchards set amid snowcapped mountains of Kinnaur Krailash is what you can expect here. The village is small enough to browse around. There is an old Hindu temple located at the centre of the village surrounded by traditional wooden Kinnauri houses. Beautiful carving on wood panels can still be seen.
Small path runs through the village of Kalpa, a small magical village surrounded by Kinnaur Krailash and apple orchards.
As the bus stopped at Kalpa, the first sight of its village shop appeared.
Kinnauri style of Hindu temple, strangely I found some cultural similarities to Thai temples.
Traditional Kinnauri wooden and stone house that can hardly see elsewhere in Kinnaur nowadays.
I spent couple of hours here having my first Tibetan momo at a small cafe' with impressive view of Krailash mountain. In this region, Dal and rice or Dal and chapati are still easy to find but you won't have that wide selections on Indian curry to choose from. To be honest, I think I feel more comfortable and familiar eating Tibetan food like Chowmine (Chowmian in Cantonese - fried thick noodles), Thukpa (same type of noodles but in broth), Thenthuk (chopped fat pasta, like Thai big noodles, in kind of thick broth) and Momo (steamed dumplings with vegetables/mushroom/ or cheese stuffed!).
Having vegetables momo at Jyoti Eating Corner with never-boring view of Kinnaur Krailash.
Momo, or steamed dumplings, not so new to me as it is exactly like Jiaozi that I had in Beijing.
source: http://www.tibetdiscovery.com/what-to-eat-and-drink/
Thukpa, sometimes found in slightly round and smaller noodles.
source: http://www.tibetdiscovery.com/what-to-eat-and-drink/
Thenthuk is more like thick pasta-like noodles.
source: http://simplytibetan.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/thenthuk/
From Kalpa, you can travel on to nearby small village of Roghi Village (8 km from Kalpa) to see real village life as well. In Kalpa itself, there are a good number of hotels/guesthouses here. Word of advice, instead of staying overnight in Rekong Peo, you can choose to stay in this lovely village. Even though you need to be in Rekong Peo town for very early morning bus on the next day, Kalpa is still a better choice. Taxis are always around. You can ask your guesthouse or hotel to find a taxi for you to take you back to Rekong Peo and it shouldn't cost more than 300 Rupees. I made wrong decision because I was afraid that I will miss the early bus, so I ended up staying in a strange guesthouse room overlooking the street of Rekong Peo instead.
(I haven't taken any pictures of what I ate at all, so these other links helped me a lot to get the pictures, thank you!)
Elevation:
Kalpa - 9,711ft
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