Suspended Timeout

Friday, July 30, 2010

Part 3 - Leh arrival and visit to the various gompas

We were in Leh for a minimum of 7 days, however, due to the switch from the Manali approach to the Srinagar approach - the plan was still subject to minor change. We decided to meet our travel help guy for permits later in the evening, once we reached Leh itself. I called him over to the GH.

At the GH, were were initially being given room on the 3rd floor! we spoke, and convinced that we got adjacent rooms on the first floor itself. We shifted our luggage and started to relax. Relaxation is a must for Leh as the high altitude, nothing was planned for today apart from a light stroll towards the market area.

The GH had a Delhi dog, named Ganj :) who was brought as a pup from Darya Ganj to Leh by some foreign tourists. Its great to know that the dog has braved the Leh winters for over 3 years now!



Towards the evening, our man Mr Dorje arrived (every second man in Leh is either a Dorje, Stanzin or Namgiyal..) I had already spoken to him from Delhi and had fixed a plan so we wanted to confirm this with him. However, there was a slight change...due to the weather conditions and also the periodic nubra valley road rules...we had to ditch our Pangong night stya plan and look at Nubra for a Wednesday ascend - when cars are allowed to ply from Leh towards Nubra. Thursday...they are only allowed to come back.

We fixed the plan, tomorrow will be a ride to Hemis and other Gompas in that area, it will be a lighter day and the following day will be a day trip to Pangong, which will have to start early.

The evening was spend around the Changspa area in Leh, loitering, having fun, leisurely walks and a light meal. We returned to the GH and played taboo a game which Evi was carrying and is an awesome game! we played it and had lots of fun :)

Next morning, we started with ease towards the Hemis monastery. Its situated close to the Manali-Leh road, and we have to take a bridge across the Indus from a town called Karu. Its not very far from Leh and is around an hour's drive from our current location. The drive in the scorpio was fun, we had our breakfast before the trip and headed towards Karu, took the bridge and reached Hemis.

Hemis is the richest monastery in this region, with artifacts and memorabilia from over hundred of years and also scriptures and gifts from various kings and travelers to this region. We also paid a visit to the Hemis museum, where apart from this memorabilia, even some ancient artifacts were displayed.



Prayer wheels at Hemis



The road out of Hemis was beautiful, we stopped a few times to enjoy the view and also to let Evi fly (atleast pretend to).





Stakna monastery is very close to Leh, it is located on the Leh-Manali road, on the banks of the Indus river and just after Shey palace. It was a wonderful photo op for us, as the clouds were descending and the weather was changing from sunny to cloudy in the matter of minutes.





On route to Shey/Thiksey



Somewhere mid-way







Next stop was Ladhak's most beautiful monastery - Thiksey. The climb up to Thiksey was tiring after a long hard day but it was definitely worth it! I got an amazing view of the entire Indus basin from the top of the monastery, from the highest point of this structure.





Subject of the day :)



Inside Thiksey, the door leading to the roof of the monastery





View from the top of the Indus basin





Some of the beautiful flowers at Thiksey





The day was hectic as we covered three different places in less than 4 hours and we decided to invest time in taking some rest as the next day we were planning to make a dash trip to Pangong. Our plans to stay in Pangong were foiled after we got to know about the unpredictable weather and the schedules for vehicles to ply from Leh to Khardung La.

Little did we know that the Pangong visit will be the highlight of our trip!