Ruins of Hampi

One of images from hampi trip.

Mazhaye Thoomazhaye

Another of those songs that i cant stop listening to, even though i cant make out any of the lyrics. :)



Anyone who stumbles onto this post, will be kind enough to post the translation of the lyrics :P

Dudhsagar

A collage of videos taken during the Dudhsagar trek i did last week. Not being the ideal season meant not much water, so the falls does not really look as majestic as we had expected. Only means i will have to do this trek again during the monsoon season :)

Khumaar

One more from Pangong

Honnemaradu

Views: Near Honnemaradu by Adithya Kumar

in case you are having difficulty viewing this. you can try accessing this link

Zpoint, Kemengundi

Views: zpoint, kemangundi by Adithya Kumar

in case its not viewable properly, you can click on the link here.

About Rahul Dravid

These 13 Rare & Personal Stories About Rahul Dravid Will Make Your Day Today.

360° Pangong Lake

Heres something to look at, while i still try to complete the remaining posts for Ladakh travelogue. A 360° view of Pangong lake I took while I was there. Best viewed full screen.You will see a full screen button tucked away in the embedded image on the top right corner.

In case the embedded image is not showing up properly for any reason(For me it take 3-4 seconds to load, till which time it shows map of America), you can alternatively access the link from Google maps view here.

Views: Pangong Lake by Adithya Kumar

Ladakh Trip - Day 3 (Leh)

You can read the previous entries

Ladakh Trip - Planning here

Ladakh Trip - Day 1 (Delhi) here

Ladakh Trip - Day 2 (Leh) here

For day 3 we had 3-4 places as part of our itinerary. All of them around Leh, well within an hours distance. We didn't have to wake up early again, so that was a relief, but most of us were up by around 7 any ways, infact me and Jayant were up by 6. No one wanted to lose much time sleeping in this trip I guess. Anchuk was already at front gate with his Innova by 8 am itself, so we had to breeze through our breakfast and get ready as soon as we could.

On the way to Thiksay

First stop for day 3 was:

Thiksay monastery

12 storied Complex

It’s just around 20 km drive from Leh. This is one of the largest monastery in Ladakh area. The monastery consists of 12 storied complex and resembles a famous palace in Tibet. We reached here after 30-40 mins drive. Make sure you keep glasses, cap and bottle of water handy, as the complex is vast and there are several areas inside the complex where you will walk in the bright sun. We unfortunately didn't find any guide (not sure if guides were available) but this is definitely the kind of place, where having a guide makes perfect sense. Else as they say everything will appear to be "Greek and Latin" or in this case Tibetan.

One of the several stupas

The monastery consists of several Stupas, prayer wheels, praying halls. Each of the prayer halls contains several beautiful paintings of Tibetan mythologies and not having a guide meant we could only appreciate the art in terms of what we could see, but not comprehend the significance of any of it. There is also a terrace from where u can view the entire valley which consists of lush green fields, Indus River on one side and barren desert land on the other side.

Valley as seen from terrace in Thiksay

Panoramic view from Thiksay

Thiksay monastery also houses vast collection of ancient Tibetan scrolls consisting of volumes of scriptures. As you go from one prayer hall to another you will see several monks chanting prayer from these ancient scrolls. We tried to speak to few monks who were around and not praying, but they seemed to speak only a little of broken Hindi and English. They did however try their best to explain about the statues of deities that were around, which there were many.

Paintings, paintings everywhere!

After stumbling from one prayer room to another we finally came to one of the main attractions of this place, Maitreya Buddha.

This 50ft statue is housed in a two storied hall. This is the largest status of Maitreya Buddha in whole of Ladakh. This is also unique for the reason it portrays him sitting in a lotus position rather than standing or sitting on high throne. The face of Maitreya Buddha has a calm and serenity about it that you will instantly fall in love with. The image of the statue is widely used and you may have already seen it in promotions of Ladakh tours and packages. The hall as I said earlier consists of two floors, and the second floor is at level with the chest. When we reached this place, there was a big Japanese (we assumed) group of elderly folks that was already occupying the hall, singing out some prayer. We tried our best to be non-intrusive and squeezed in between them and found ourselves a corner where we could stand and appreciate the beauty of the statue.

Calmness and Serenity personified!

To give an idea of scale!

 Next was Tara temple, this building is dedicated within the complex, to Goddess Tara, who in Tibetan Buddhism is worshipped as female equivalent of Buddha. This temple consists of several status of Goddess Tara in different forms, it also houses statues of other deities, which only made it more difficult for us to make out anything. We couldn't tell one from the other for the life of us, only stressing the point more that a guide would have been so helpful in such a place.

Once we were done exploring, we wanted to now have a bit of Ladhaki food specifically Momos, so we headed into a restaurant that is housed just outside Thiksay monastery. Anchuk had spoken highly about the food here, but unfortunately around the time we went in (11 AM) they didn’t have Momos, and as we were not really that hungry we decided to just grab some cold drinks instead and head to next destination.

The next place in our list was the Druk White Lotus School or now famously called Rancho school after Amir Khans character from 3 idiots movie. This is around 15 kms outside Leh and barely 10 minutes’ drive from Thiksay. We were quite surprised that it had already become part of tourist packages. Once we reached there, we got to know that the school was closed as part of vacation. However due to its now tourist status, there will be school admins who will take you on a guided tour around the school complex. The guided tour starts from a hall where there are several photos and newspaper clippings of famous personalities who have paid a visit here. In here we also learnt how in 2012 there was a major flash flood and the school was severely damaged. Post the disaster, all these famous personalities including Amir Khan came in to help the school rebuild. There are several mementoes you can buy here, the proceedings of all which go to rebuilding the school. We were then taken around the complex, showing us the various constructions happening and also explaining how the school is playing an important role for Ladakhi kids. The school sprawls across vast area and takes around 20-30 minutes to go around completely.

Hang unto death!

Ladakhi school art!

As it was vacation time, we didn't get to see any kids, also the restaurant where we hoped to eat Momos turned out to be closed due to vacation. Disappointed again we started to the next place in our list.

Shey Monastery\Palace

Again just about 15kms away from Leh, and hardly 5 mins drive from the school is the complex consisting of a Monastery, Palace and a ruined Fort. Built sometimes in 16th century in Shey village by the king of Ladakh, at its height of power used to be the summer capital of Ladakh. The monastery is famous for its giant copper with gilded gold statue of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha. We however did not spend much time in the monastery or the palace, what we did instead was hike upto the top of the hillock where the ruined fort lies. Make sure you have shoes with good grip as the path to the ruined fort is loose gravel. There is barely a path, as the weather has worn out whatever existed of it, so you will have to improvise to reach the top.  There are colourful prayer flags tied to whatever’s left of the fort and these fluttering flags is what will welcome you to the top of the hillock. The hillock commands a panoramic view of the valley below and you can see several villages. The hike isn’t too tiring as it’s not too steep, and makes up for a good practice for acclimatizing to high altitude, so do give it a try if you visit Shey Palace. 

Stupas at Shey!

Valley as visible from Shey Monastery

A stupa visible from Shey Monastery being renovated

 

Making the climb

Top of the fort

By the time we were done it was around 1 PM, the planned itinerary had just one more place for us to visit and lunch was supposed to be back at hotel with the remaining day all for ourselves back at the hotel. This again was not how we wanted it, so we insisted to Anchuk to take us to some nearby village instead. He initially did not seem too keen on the idea as generally these guys stick to the plan as if it’s the bible. Also, he pointed out that there was not going to be any hotels on the way and we had not packed anything for lunch. Still debating about what to do, we reached the last planned place we had to visit.

Sindhu Ghat

This is a platform that has been built on the banks of river Indus. Sindhu is the historical name of the river Indus. Sindhu Darshan festival is a major festival in Ladakh in the month of June during which thousands of people flock to this place. However, while we visited there was not much to be seen apart from kids enjoying a good bath in the river. We were done looking around in matter of few minutes as there is hardly anything you can do apart from maybe get your feet wet in the river.

We now started back towards our hotel and the debate with Anchuk continued from where we had left before. We managed to convince Anchuk only after we agreed to pay for the extra distance we would travel. We made a quick pit stop to buy some bread jam and snacks as it was already close to 2PM and were not going to get any hotels on the way. 

A monastery visible on the way back to Leh

We were to drive now to a small model village very close to Leh, called Saboo. You need to take a diversion off the main Leh highway to reach this place.  The drive to this village is indeed very beautiful as you will see beautiful fields on either side of the roads and small settlements every now and then amidst the fields. The place Anchuk intended to take us was further down that road after the village ended and the roads starts narrowing and hills on both sides start funnelling. At a place where finally the road ends is where he came to a stop. At this place, you have a beautiful stream of glacial water that flows down from the hills. A small bridge lets you cross over the stream. The water here is icy cold, so not exactly the kind of place where you want to dip your feet in water. The banks of the stream are strewn with rocks and pebbles so there is enough place for you to sit and enjoy the cool breeze and beautiful view or walk upstream to see where the water leads. We tried to do both, initially hiking upstream and after a while just sat and enjoyed the view, listening to the soothing sound of the stream. You will find wild plants with beautiful pink flowers strewn all around the hill sides, this along with the lush green fields through which the stream flows makes it a picture perfect scene. We could see far off that there were tents put up so this is definitely a place where people come camping.

Notice, none of our feet is in water? Icy cold water!

Wild Plants bearing beautiful pink flowers

After an hour or so at this place, it was time for us to head back and not of our own accord I will have to add. Anchuk had to come searching for us upstream as we had wandered off some distance. On the way back, we again made him stop at one of the mustard fields for a quick last photo op before finally bidding farewell to the beautiful village. 

A video of the place:

Saboo is just about 10-15 kms away from Leh, so it was a quick drive back to hotel. Although it was already around 4 pm in the evening, the hotel folks were kind enough to have saved us some lunch. Hungry as we were, we were more than glad to eat whatever they served.  Post lunch, Shilpa and Saritha decided to get some sleep, while we guys decided to make the most of the time while the ladies slept by watching an action movie. Independence Day was what we decided to watch, no better thing than watching humans kick some alien ass, while discussing the minor technicalities of how the hero achieved to interface an apple mac with alien technology to transmit the virus.  After an hour of getting completely bored of whatever was playing in the cable, we decided to risk the wrath of the ladies by waking them up, and I was nominated for this life threatening job. I did however succeed in waking them up, after of course hearing several choicest of abuses and death threats.

In the evening, as we didn't really have any planned activity, we again decided to venture out in search of Momos and thupka(traditional ladakhi dish). We took the same alleyway that me and Abhishek had explored the previous day and started strolling. Abhishek was interested in taking a bike for atleast a day and we enquired about the rates at several of the bike renting stores, the standard price seemed to be in the range of 1-1.5k Rs per day. We however were neutral to his enthusiasm as we had only 2 bikers in our group and suggested Abhishek to take a bike on the last day of the trip instead. 


There were several hotels on this way, but pretty much all of them seemed to be empty, so we assumed they might not be popular and kept walking ahead looking for something better. After 10-15 minutes of walking we did come across one that looked quite popular and decided to try it out. It looked like a popular hangout with both foreigners and Ladkahi folks, and once we had placed orders we were told that it will take atleast 20-30 minutes to deliver. Hoping it will only take as much time as they said, we sat in for a long haul. We saw the food served to us only an hour later and by the time we were done and ready to move it was close to 8 pm. As we had a long drive planned the next day, we decided to head back to hotel and call it a day.

Next day we had the actual road trip beginning with us heading to Nubra valley. To reach Nubra valley, we have to travel via Khardung La pass,which has the claim of being worlds highest moterable road and we were quite excited about it. We had been asked to buy several bottles of Nimbupani as Anchuk had informed us that this will help us with the high altitude. Something you can keep in mind while you plan your trip via Khardungla pass, to buy a bottle of Nimbupani. This along with Diamox tablet(prescribed generally to avoid getting altitude sickness) taken before you start your journey is meant to help with the altitude sickness. More about that in the next post for Day 4 :)

Ladakh Trip - Day 4(Nubra Valley) will follow.

Ladakh Trip - Day 2 (Leh)

You can read the previous enteries
Ladakh Trip - Planning here
Ladakh Trip - Day 1 (Delhi) here

I am certain waking up at 4 am in the morning isn’t something that anyone would enjoy, but this was going to be an exception. Each one of us was up and ready without a slightest of complain. Day 2 was here and we were all set to head to Leh, Ladakh!


It’s close to an hour and half worth of journey by flight from Delhi to Leh. Our flight was scheduled from Delhi at 6:45am and scheduled for arrival in Leh at 8am. Having a hotel booked near Delhi airport meant we were in the airport all checks cleared and waiting for flight well within the scheduled time. We were absolutely glad to leave behind the hot Delhi weather.


Once we had boarded the flight, we realized there was another very important aspect of the trip that we hadn’t really planned on and this particular point was going to lead to a lot of heart burn and elbow shoving. The very important question of who is going to get the window seats! Trust me on this, you want this planned and sorted out, because there is going to be lot of pushing around to catch that first glimpse of the Himalayas and the sight is not something you would want to miss. So here was our dilemma, we were 6, we had been given the whole row (3+3) so we had only 2 windows seat ( the fools we were, we insisted that we all get the same row, alas, if only we had insisted on 6 window seats).

The system had allotted window seats to Jayant and Sundeep, Saritha and Shilpa each got the middle seat myself and Abhishek were the unfortunate aisle seat occupants.  It was agreed immediately though, that me and Abhishek will sit window seats while flying back from Leh to Delhi, thus partially satisfied we took our seats. (Not that we really had a choice, as no one else was willing to give us their seats, but enough of that!)


Once airborne when the moment actually came, the whole of the flight was up on their feet and shoving each other to catch the first glimpse of Himalayas through whichever windows they could manage. What made it unfortunate is, there was a cloud cover on the left side of the plane (that’s where myself, Saritha and Jayant were seated), pretty much ruining any hope of seeing anything from our side and this while from the right side we kept hearing all the gasps and sighs and oooh and aahs about how beautiful a sight it was outside. This meant all the folks sitting on the left side of the plane were out of their seats, and leaning over the right aisle seats to catch a glimpse. It was probably a miracle that the plane did not perform a roll considering everyone was leaning towards one side. I tried amidst all this to take turn to peek outside and the sight was definitely worthwhile all the shoving I had to do. (I am generally a nonviolent person otherwise).You will spend considerable time standing and leaning if you are unfortunate enough to get an aisle seat, so if you do plan the Ladakh trip via Delhi flight ensure you work out the window seat problem.

When it was time to land, it’s the flight attendants turn to shove us back into our seats, and amidst that I managed to get myself the middle seat. As you are about to land, you see more and more of the village valleys at the outskirts of the city which is quite a peculiar sight, patches of green amidst abundance of grey, sign of life in the middle of all the barren land. And then the mighty Indus river. The Leh airfield as you approach for the landing is quite a sight by itself, it nestles in the middle of the valley with the Indus River running horizontal on bottom side, the mountains on either sides of the runway and the city of Leh on the fourth side.

Abhishek got to be the first to set foot in Ladakhi Soil :P

If not all, most of us had imagined we would feel a little bit wobbly as we get out of the flight due to lack of oxygen or the high altitude(courtesy all that we had been informed about), but it was not to be so. We got out quite steady to a very bright and clear sky, not too cold either. Infact quite warm contrary to what we had expected. The airfield consists of a single runway, and once you get out, you have to wait for a mini bus to pick you up and take you to the terminal. Photography is prohibited so no selfies! After short trip on the bus, you are dropped at quite a small terminal. (Almost a bus terminal). The airport is named "Kushok Bakula Rimpochhe Airport", and can claim to be one of the highest commercial airport in the world at almost 10000 ft. The security at this place is quite tight considering its strategic value, so resist from making any bomb or terrorist jokes. Once we had all our luggage we were all set to get out of the airport.

Courtesy the Ezeego travel agency, everything had already been set in place for this trip. This meant our driver for the 7 day trip was already waiting for us as soon as we were out. Anchuk was the person who was awaiting us with his Innova and in course of the 7 days it was going to be an absolute pleasure to have him around.All loaded up we started towards the city. The hotel booked for us was 10-15 minutes worth of drive from the airport. The road leading to our hotel from the airport seemed to have little traffic. Turns out, as Anchuk explained that we had landed in Ladakh during the last days of Kalchakra festival. So most of the people in Leh were in a different part of the city and we were quite lucky to be put up quite far away from there as it would have been quite crowded at just about now. (Almost 1.5 lakh people were expected to be visiting during the course of Kalchakra festival) You can read more about Kalchakra here.


Karakoram hotel was where we were going to be put for the course of the trip. Seemed to be centrally located as it took us only few minutes passing through the market to reach this place while driving. We could also see the Leh Palace close by and Shanti Stupa at some distance in another direction. So all in all, seemed to be quite strategically located. Once we got down from the car, the view that welcomed us was that of a very small pond right outside the hotel and in the horizon a beautiful panoramic view of the Himalayas. We were barely half an hour in Leh, and we were already quite impressed by the sights.

Panaromic view that greets you at the hotel.

After completing the necessary formalities of check in, we were shown towards the pantry area for breakfast. Having had 1 round of breakfast already in Delhi airport didn't stop us from quickly grabbing another here.  While we sat down to have a bite, the hotel owner sat down with us to quickly run through the details of what was planned for the 7 days we would stay with them. He insisted right away that we don’t step out on day 1, and went about telling us few stories about how folks had to cancel their whole trip because they didn't give themselves enough time to acclimatize. He had our attention alright, we were not really feeling sick or wobbly at the moment, but it made us a bit more hesitant as it was in line with whatever we had heard prior to the trip . Still, we kept our options open and insisted that by evening if we were not feeling any adverse effects, the least we could do is drive up to relatively closer, Leh Palace. A slightly disappointing news atleast for half the group was, that due to Kalchakra event, there won’t be any non-veg meals anywhere in Leh. Our group of 6 had 3 non vegetarians, and this news definitely didn’t go down quite well.

Having finished breakfast we were taken to our rooms on the top most floor (the hotel has three floors including the ground floor). We absolutely fell in love with the room we had been given simply because of the huge open sit out all our 3 rooms shared where you can sit and enjoy the beautiful panoramic Himalayan view. If you guys decide on Karakoram hotel, insist on getting the top most floor and the rooms adjacent to the sit out area, you would love the sight.

Leh palace, as seen from our sit out

Tesmo Complex, as seen from the sitout

Once we had settled in and freshened up, we spent most of the  morning outside in the sitout clicking away photos. After a while, as we still seemed quite steady on our foot and none of us seemed to be having any headaches or drowsiness we decided to test the water further by going for a short walk just around the hotel to buy snacks and fruits for the trips planned in the subsequent days. Most of the shops however were closed due to the Kalchakra festival so we were left roaming around in mostly empty streets and doing window shopping in the few open souvenir shops we could find. Finding nothing more to do, we returned back to the hotel for lunch.

No wasting time :P

A light lunch considering only veg menu followed in the afternoon, and as we seemed to be fairing just fine in terms of acclimatizing to Leh, we finalized to visit Leh Palace and Shanti Stupa in the evening. Having nothing more to do till evening, the group sat down to chat and relax enjoying the view from the sitout. Me and Abhishek however wanted to still explore a bit more, so we decided to head out again. We wandered off randomly in one of the alleyways that opened up closeby to our hotel. The narrow alley way took us through a maze of houses and beautiful gardens and finally opened into city market. The shops on this road varied from tourist agencies to hotels to souvenir shops and several bike hiring. We also came across a poster that advertised itself to be the world’s highest paint ball arena, after strolling through the main road for around 15-20 minutes, we again took a turn into another smaller alley that ran parallel to a small stream with heavy tree cover. Within few step to our pleasant surprise we seemed to be in a clearing that had an old Stupa complex. Unfortunately there was no one around to tell anything about the history of the place, so we made do with exploring the area ourselves. After a while of clueless roundabouts searching for anything that may explain to us the significance of the place, we decided to give up and head back as it about time we had planned to go to Leh Palace.

A statue in the old Stupa complex

The Stupa we stumbled into!

Back at hotel Anchuk was waiting for us with his car, so we didn't really waste much time getting ready and off we were to Leh palace.

Leh palace is a 17th century palace, modelled on the same lines as the Tibetan Lhasa palace. The Palace consists of 9 different levels and consist of several big and small rooms used ages ago by the royal family. The roof top of the palace provides a beautiful panoramic view of the whole valley and the city below and as such a beautiful lure to any photographer. The Palace also houses a museum that showcases several items used by the royal family. The palace is now maintained by ASI.

Entrance to Leh palace

View of Leh from Palace.

Tesmo Temple\Fort
At slightly higher elevation on the same hill is the Tesmo temple\fort. You have two options either you can walk the steep rise from Leh palace to Tesmo temple which is a good 20-30 mins hike, or there is a slightly longer but definitely easier road option, and any vehicle can drive you till here in matter of 10-15 mins. The Hike route consists of walking a hike trail that does not consists of any vegetation or support to hold onto but a well-trodden path, advisable not to attempt unless you are well acclimatized to this altitude. The Road option is what we took, as it was just day 1 and we still had all the warnings at the back of our mind.

Tesmo complex and the hiking path as seen from Leh palace

Several rows of colourful and beautifully fluttering prayer flags greet you as you approach the Tesmo complex. One end of the prayer flags is anchored on a smaller hillock closeby which you can walk upto on a narrow pathway, the other end of the length is anchored to the Tesmo temple. The complex itself houses 2 temples and a fort (This is the highest building in the Leh skyline). The climb upto the temple complex is quite well laid, but the walk upto the watchtower is much more fun as it’s mostly gravel. The fort itself consists of brick laid walls, wooden rooms and wooden staircase that has survived the onslaught of time and the weather. Once you have reached the top there is a watch tower, where a wooden pathway that juts out from the wall of this tower lets you walk around the tower to catch a 360 view of the Leh skyline. The wooden pathway is barely wide enough for a person to walk around the tower, and would have served sentries to keep vigil over the city in the past. Abhishek who is scared of heights did manage to take a round around this He did this however, looking the opposite side(not facing the cliff) and hugging the wall with all his life. A foreign lady also helped him by ensuring she blocked his way back every time he decided to chicken out, while encouraging him instead to keep walking baby steps ahead. All in all, I would say nice little adventure hike to start Leh trip, or atleast we thought so till the time we saw a Ladhaki family with several kids walk in and completely made us look like amateurs. The kids seemed hyper and were running around all over the place and even looked amused looking at us trying to walk steady in the loose gravel of the watch tower.

  
It was already past 7 PM, and we were told we had barely an hours’ worth of daylight left. Yes, the days last longer in Leh during summer, which is a good thing for tourists as you get to spend more time exploring around. We decided to quickly head off to Shanti stupa and make the most of what was left of the day.


Shanti Stupa is a recent addition to Leh landscape. It was constructed around 1991, by a Japanese Buddhist.  The stupa is supposed to contain few relics from Buddha’s life at its base. The stupa complex was open only from outside while we reached as the inside complex had closed off for the day. However the outside complex is still a beautiful place to be as this too provides another panoramic view of Leh city. The Stupa itself consists of a Buddha status and several relief depicting stories from Buddha life. The shanti stupa was built to promote world peace and prosperity and also to symbolize the close ties between Japan and India specifically Ladakh.

We finally called it a day and headed back to hotel to have dinner. The food atleast in day one was your regular food that we will get anywhere in India consisting of rice dal and rotis. We had no luck getting Ladhaki food atleast today and still looked forward to it. Although it was quite a long day already, we still decided to push it a bit longer by spending some time sitting in the open terrace looking up at the vast number of stars. Abhishek, showed his photography skills by clicking some awesome night photos. Finally at 11 Pm we were ready to hit the bed and brought an end to a very exciting day that started 4 am in the morning.

Ladakh Trip - Day 3(Leh) will follow.