The Best of the Times!!

Visualize a small cute agricultural valley town surrounded by bald barren mountains with snow capped ones behind, palaces and Buddhist monasteries or stupas or gonpas on the hill scatterred across wide area, overrun by refugee kashmiri and tibetan souvenir sellers, internet cafes, cute french chicks, cool looking firrangs, monks who don't give up their goggles, variety of restaurants ranging from your masala dosa to Pizza and stream of water gushing across the town, army base camps, good roads, pure air - Thats LEH for you. But let me retrace my steps, I was a bit quick on the Leh road story. Most budget visitors here arrive overland in jeeps or by 'ultra deluxe' bus, Most do the Manali to Leh trip, and some mad people do this long drive on their enticers and enfields racing over passes higher than 4500m. People with slightly more time, money and self-esteem split up the trip into a few days, not an easy feat as this is wild, wild desert area and Rich people take the plane :). With a lot of excitement over the email exchanges about the Check list of items to carry, the To Do Things at Leh i caught up my group of friends at the Delhi Airport for We had to take the Flight to Leh on the Deccan Airways. My first Impression as we boarded the flight, Deccan is not a bad as it is portrayed. It takes almost an hour or little to reach Leh but you don't realize the time spent in the flight because of the excitement you are carried with tripping to LADAKH complimented by the beautifully snow capped mountains, the sun rise, the distant view of the stretches of the rivers the small green agricultural belts.
view from the top sitting in the craft












We reached Leh Airport as per the schedule and are denied to kodak the surroundings for security reasons, make our way to collect our baggages and dump the entire luggage into the vehicles waiting outside the airport and reached the Guest House within no time. After sipping a hot masala tea the instruction was to get acclimatized to Leh it being an high altitude arena. The Ladakh Festival : While the group was resting i was busy snapping my camera of the surroundings and an hour or so the break fast was served. Filling the stomachs with boiled eggs and toasts we set off to the local ladakh festival. Lucky enough to catch the glimpse of start of the festival with the monks blowing the chimes, the local ladakhi women dancing to the tunes of the drummers, we followed the procession for more than an hour till we realized we walked quite a distance along with the procession, decided to get back to the guest house. Got hold of the time table of the festival and decided to go for the music concert in the evening after resting for a while with good sumptuous lunch. In the evening we went to the polo ground where the music concert was being hosted. We witnessed the ladakhi and tibetan dances and indeed it was a retreat for us and am still humming the tunes. Ladakhi Dance - Ladakhi Festival










Having chalked out the plan for the next 7 days we were ready to explore as much of Leh as possible.

Day 2 :
Visit to Thiksey :
The parathas were too heavy for us at the breakfast table but at the end of the day it was justified for we visited 5 Distinct Places, though not much of trek but bit of climbing the steps and sitting in the INNOVA for all through the day is indeed tiresome no matter it be a MPV with all the comforts. 20 KM away from leh at an altitude of 3500m you get the Thiksey Monastery one of the famous Gonpas in Ladakh. Housing a Huge Buddha (as high as 15 m) its Buddha Idol
indeed a great place to be and we also had the privilige to witness the Mask Dance . The dances were fabulous; monks dressed up as figures from the Buddhist scriptures, all wearing fantastic masks. Some were dressed up as benevolent heroes, some were evil demons waving swords. At one moment, more than 10 monks were dancing slowly in circles to the crashing music, comically lifting their feet and stamping around, enacting scenes from the scriptures. .


The Mask Dance at Thiksey

Visit to Hemis : After gulping the Butter Chai offered by the monk we traveled to another Monastery called Hemis, yet another Tibetan style Gonpa jutting out of the Mountain dating back to 1672 AD. The way to hemis indeed is tiresome because of the high altitude passes and the river bridges with deserted mountains and alpine green valleys probably reflecting the Buddhist culture and living life in harmony among such harsh climatic conditions of Ladakh(No wonder the monk who sold his ferrari looks younger than his age when he is back from Himalayas having spent considerable time here) . By the time we reached the Gonpa it was lunch time and the entrance was closed. So we had a light meal in the nearby restaurant and took less than an hour to complete the visit. Probably if you have enough time on hand a trek to this gonpa will be breathtaking .
HEMIS GONPA













Visit to Shey Palace :
From Hemis we drove to Shey Palace and the drive was good with a good sight of the Indus River and scenery on the sides was lovely. Opposite shey palace we could see the rich green plain probably flooded by the river. Seeing such green patch is surprising as I read Ladakh is a dry place. We climbed up the stairs to Shey Palace nothing difficult under normal conditions thought it was bit hot due to the sun and the wind blowing cold. Like Hemis The palace had a profusion of prayer flags in the front. I came to know through some R that the prayer flags are supposed to carry people's prayers to God every time the wind blows. Indeed i could see that there were lots of prayers floating about similar belief as in south here we tie the cloth to a peepal tree. view from shey palace



Prayer Flags at Hemis












The giant red cylinder in the adjoining snap is a prayer wheel found almost in all the monasteries visited. Apparently they are like prayer multipliers. Every time you utter a prayer and rotate the wheel through one full circle, your prayer gets counted as x prayers instead of one (where the number x depends on the size of the wheel usually - probably BABA's principle is dependent on this one, no wonder Rajni visits Himalayas very Often). So if you feel like praying a 100 times each morning - rotate the wheel 100/x times and you're done. Prayer wheels come in many sizes. Some of the big ones (like the one in the picture) are installed at street corners in Leh. The smaller ones can be carried around easily and monks often rotate their prayer wheel continuously as they walk, i too bought one.






Visit to Stok Monastery : We then left for Stok Gonpa and couple of us from the team were little exhausted for they have had too many gonpa's for the day. I just went uphill to take this one snap of Stok, and found that not many people visit this Gonpa but this too has a beautiful view of the mountains and the greener side of LEH. Stok Gonpa





Visit to Shanti Stupa: Having had too many Gonpas we forgo the Leh's palace perched high above the town on a barren ridge, a semi-ruined one and we didn't bother panting up the hill to see them instead we drove towards the Shanti stupa which is on the other side of the valley , beyond the village of Changspa that's connected to Leh. Shanti Stupa
A Japanese Buddhist society has built the Shanti (peace) Stupa, a huge temple overlooking the whole area. I heard the walk up the steep steps was no fun but were lucky enough to get our car till the Stupa, but the views at sunset were stunning. The light is very different at high altitude - it's clearer than normal, and with the absence of pollution except dust, the air is as


View From Shanti Stupa
clean as it comes. Its very pleasant to be here and you could spend as much time in peace and the view of the town and the mountains is really amazing. By the time we reached the Hotel it was time to grab some momos followed by the cricket match lucky enough to catch the match at this altitude for i never expected the town to have a cable connection. My friend wanted to try out the local pizza which was decided the day we landed ,filled our stomachs with an yummy pizza at the garden cafe restaurant.I Observed that the shops closed down by 8 PM probably beacuse the locals go to bed early and the town is dead quite by 9 PM.

Day 3:
The day started quite early as we had to travel quite a distance. Grabbing a quick bite of bread packing our baggages, unsure of the entire luggage loaded we left to Lamayaru. On the way to lamayaru we could see the beatiful scenic view of the mountains with the river zanskar flowing. Though it was quite a long journey to Lamayaru the scenic beauty around supplements the same. On the way we stopped at Khaltse had a good brunch and moved on. Lamayaru is famous for the moonscapes which have an uncanny resemblance to the surface of the moon. At the very look at the Lamayaru Gonpa it seems to be the oldest monastery in Ladakh.
Lamayaru Gonpa The MoonLand view

Apparently lamayaru has the Old Traditonal Style Ladakhi Houses made of made of mud bricks (it hardly rains here so the bricks don't get washed away), willow beams and a mud roof.

Visit to Alchi: Having spent a considerbale amount of time at Lamayaru we then set off to Alchi. The enroute to alchi also is wonderful with just the mountains and high passes with less of civilization. We reached alchi checked in the guest house had a brief lunch and 3 of us left to the Alchi Gonpa while the rest wanted to rest. The Alchi Gonpa is unique in its own kind with dominated by three major temples with beautiful paintings inside the gonpa on the walls ,where you have to use your torches and strain your eyes to appreciate the beauty of the paintings. A significant thing to notice here is the buddha statute which has the eyes portrayed in the kashmiri style than the regular Tibetan style and the doti too has a good colorful paintings. We almost spent close to an hour to visit the three temples especially looking at the old paintings which indeed were marvelous. We then trekked down the river side spent close to 2 hours on the banks. The current was so huge we could hear the gushing of the water and touching the banks like a high tide. One of us tried to apply the skill demonstrated in of the advertisements offlate to see if the water can be distributed without disturbing the caricatures built on the sand.
Entrance to the Alchi Chhoshkhor Temple
Soon the sun had set and rest of the folks joined us and were gazing at the stary stary night and my friend was showing the different sun signs and managed to catch a glimpse of comets, and soon it was dinner time. We had a sumptous dinner in the local restaurant. We enjoyed the dinner so much that we decided even the breakfast menu for the next day.

Day 4:
It was quite a late morning for all of us, managed to get hot water and with in an hour's time we landed up at the same restaurant where we had dinner and were ready for the breakfast. Those who missed the gonpa the previous day they visited the temple today and the rest if us were just enjoying the river side yet again. The river side where we had a gala time
Having spent some time we got back to our hotel, checked out and left for Likir.

Visit to Likir : After travelling for an hour or more we reached likir. We could see the lots of fresh water streams flowing by and this view of the Likir is really interesting where you see an Idol of Buddha from Far. Likir is no different from Alchi in terms of the paintings however here the paintings are well maintained unlike the Alchi Temples. The idol which is called Maitreya or the Future Buddha or Buddha of Compassion is something thats really attracting the toursists. I wished i could climb on to the statute and take a snap placing myself on the lap of buddha. Future Buddha

Having finished Likir we rushed back to leh as we had to finish couple of other destinations. The enroute to Leh-Kargil-Batalik National Highway we expereinced a wonder called Magnetic Hill. The local administration has put up a bill-board near the "Magnetic Hill" for tourists stating that if a vehicle is placed on a particular spot on the road and the engine is switched off, it would not slide down but move up. Infact we tried this out on our vehicle and seemed to be true. Just watch this video :

I am not sure in order to escape the magnetic impact of the hill if the choppers and aircrafts have to fly at a relatively greater height. And if an aircraft which comes into the radius of the "Magnetic Hill" faces any jerks or any turbulences. A few kilometres from the "Magnetic Hill" is "Gurdwara Patthar Sahib" where Guru Nanak Singh, Guru of Sikhs, had sat on meditation. The Gurdwara, which has its own religious importance for the Sikhs, has remained in the oblivion probably due to its location. Maintained by the army, the Gurdwara is more of a place of prayer for the locals, armymen and tourists. Not many Sikhs from other parts of the country visit the place. It is said when Guru Nanak Singh was meditating here, an evil soul threw a large stone from the hill top at him. The stone did hit him, but Guru was not hurt. However, the mark of the Guru was left on the stone which is still lying at the Gurdwara. We managed to get a free lunch at the 'Langar Hall' which is generally served on Sunday's only. Having finishsed a late lunch we visited the Spituk Gonpa and the Kali Mata Temple a few kms away from Leh. We couldsee the run way from here and the view from Spituk is was indeed a great sight to watch. The kali mata idol with its face closed is a magnificient one which is open for a week during a festival in Jan. I could imagine the powerful charisma of this idol for with its face closed itself it was bhayanak. Check this view from Spituk and kali mata temple. Soon we were done with what we have planned for the day and reached our guest house.

Day 5 :

This day we planned to go to Kardungla , to catch the glimpse of the snow fall we had to leave quite early than usual. Kardungla is supposedly the highest motorable road in the world which is at a height of 18380 feet. Having reached the top after a brief while we freaked out seeing the snow. It was something i had been looking for quite some time just snow snow around you. And to add to our luck we witnessed the snow fall too. With too much of expereincing the snow we gulped the hot tea offered by the local army man and set of to Nubra Valley - the valley of flowers. It being the end of the season we couldn't find much flowers to our sight but the very picturesque scene of the roads , the red, green purple colored mountains with the river in between was splendid. On the way to Nubra Valley
We reached nubra valley town finsihed lunch and set off to leh. We passed the Kardung pass yet again on our way back but couldn't see the snow at all. This one is great place for the hitch hikers , i wished someday i get hold of the Enfield and drive these passes which should be an exhilarating rush of the adrenaline.

Day 6 : Having ended the previous night watching the nail biting finish by the local BissiBelle Bath Boy (Robin Uttapa) , today we decided to go for the rafting . The previous day weather put us in a speculation if we could go for the rafting however this morning the weather seemed fined for rafting. Having had a heavy breakfast we went for rafting in the indus river. It was 22-30 Km long rafting , since most of us had a first hand experience in rafting we were quick to jump into the raft and started to row with the instrcutions being followed carefully. The water was too cold to bear and as we finished half the track hands and legs had become numb and the time we reached the Sangam where the Indus River and the Zhanskar River meet we could feel that water colder than earlier.We came to know that Zhanskar river flows from the Glacier which is why at the meeting point of the rivers the water was too cold . With few level 2 and 2 plus rapids the water gushing on the already cold bodies we managed to finish the rafting in 3 hours time. The rafting ended with a good meal , the driver was waiting for us to leave us back at our guest house. An idea struck to visit the ORACLE Lady at Matho Gonpa. Having reached the Gonpa we figured that the Oracle Ladies come only during the festive season. Though we couldn't get hold of the Oracle Woman the sight of the place opposite to the gonpa where the river indus was flowing was awesome. Unfortunately we didn't take our cameras this day so i can't post any snaps showing the beauty of the matho village. The night dinner was hosted by David a very sweet and helpful guy who has helped us in chalking out the plan for our entire trip. The dinner was superb for i had a chance to taste the chicken curry having had veg stuff all through the trip which was equally good.

Day 7
The day started of quite early than the days before as the plan was to visit the pangong lake extending from india to tibet where you need a special permit to visit the place and its a long 5- 6 hour drive from leh. As we started to ascend the Mountains we could see heavy snow fall and we reached a point where our driver was really pushing hard.We decided we will head back to leh as the road seems to be blocked and all the vehicles ahead of us started their way back. But the beauty of this travel was the heavy snowfall which was indeed a bonus for all of us. We had a gala time in the snow fand headed back. I guess this will be the best of all the days of trip for most of us. On our way back to Leh we stopped at the place where the Movie "Dil Sey" was shot. It was a fanatstic location and i managed to trek a small

Can you see the small black thing - well thats me

desert. We spent more than an hour at this place before heading back to the guest house. In the evening we had sometime to shop while the next day was dedicated entirely for shopping and chilling out.

Day 8: As i wake up today i could feel my head heavy probably due to extreme exposure to the snow fall. We managed to pull Mrs David yet another sweet woman who joined us for the shopping to take us to the genuine places as the prices being quoted were exorbitant. While few managed to buy little stuff others managed to empty their wallets :) . We reached little later than noon finished our lunch with the stuff we got from home and started playing cards watching the final match. Since the cricket match seemed to be uninteresting everybody left for another shopping spree while i was in the room drafting this blog. In the evening we packed everything as we had to catch an early morning flight. It's very strange to leave a place that was so unknown before departure, but became so familiar during the stay that I've travelled there. It's a bit like emigrating; you're glad to go to new horizons with this beautiful experience but still sad to leave.

Day 9: Soon the morning arrived and we had to leave Leh with a high note. Since we had a small argument regarding the carrying of Oxygen cylinders we couldn't realize we spent 2 hours in the leh airport. Within no time we reached delhi and few left for shopping. Since we havent had breakfast my friend prepared the stuff she got from home which was spicy and yummy and filling enough to skip my lunch substituted by an ice cream little later. I am really not sure how the time passed by and soon we were in bangalore and bid adieu to each other having collected the baggages and weighing the apples being distributed amongst us.
It seemed like the 9 days passed on just in a whiff and i am still not out of it. Today when i was driving to office i was missing the mountains around only finding the sad looking apartments, however the memories of the trip will remain fresh making me miss all those moments of peace subsequently doing nothing for a week very unlike of me.
I am sure this will be the best of all the trips i had been to and want to thank my dear friend for dragging me in to the group whom i knew briefly and at the end of the trip making me feel part of the group and now missing them all. This trip has really been a wonderful experience and i am sure will be a memorable one in the years to come.

With my mobile phone switched off , an out of office reply for a week, no internet access, the trip was so overwhelming that all i could say is "i had the best of the times!!!!" of my life.

~Juley(Greetings)
For all the pics visit :
http://picasaweb.google.com/vijaykumar.yenne/TripToLeh
http://picasaweb.google.com/vijaykumar.yenne/TripToLeh02