Ladakh- On the Top of World - Part II

After a full dose of Colorful visits in Part I of this blog

Day-3 was about covering more historical monuments. I am quite excited to watching these places which are less cliche but equally important for many. This time we took the Leh-Manali highway towards Hemis monastery. The journey became sorrowful for some time when we crossed the Choglamsar village. A substantial part of this village was washed away in August 2010 cloudburst. Here is an image of that village

Hemis is the main monastery for Ladakhi Buddhists. We strolled inside the museum and got to see many facets. Here are some images from Hemis

There is a huge Buddha idol facing the monastery. To reach there u may need to climb some 10 steps. Other tourists were not aware of this and were going back after visiting the monastery. I saw the landscape picture of the monastery and knew there will be some spot from where I can also get this image. And there it was, Buddha's idol. We started to climb the stairs running parallel to a small stream. Water was knife cold still I felt like dipping myself in. Keeping my emotions in control we climbed to get a better view of Hemis Monastery.

Here are the images

While returning back from Hemis, we stopped on the highway when I spotted another monastery - Sakhma. Since we were running short of time, I took some far shots and moved on.

The Thiksey monastery is on the Manali-Leh highway and we took a quick break for lunch and click-clicks.

We took off to cover the Palace at Shey. More information about shey palace wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shey_Monastery

We were back to our Guest house at 5.30 in the afternoon and straight away headed to Dorji's office to get some idea about the market. I was all set to get woolen stuffs for my family members. Ladakh is famous for Pashmina shawls, but you may have to be aware since the quality and price may vary. You get to get to the right place. Dorji was courteous enough to take us to a shop which completely invisible from outside.

Please let me explain that shop in detail.

It is like a late 60s to early 70s movie where the shop is owned by an old person who will mostly have a 'bimaar'(ill) wife at home, a bin-byahi(unmarried) daughter, a teenage son who is either a goon or is struggling for a government job. The shop did not have more than say 50 shawls in total. The old shopkeeper used to talk of his own, think of his own and did of his own. The shop was surrounded by glittering shops with same boundary wall. Maybe the glitter of adjacent shops made this shop invisible. I was sure that I will not get what I am hunting for.

Dorji introduced us to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper gave a sure glance that he is not going to give me a discount even if I was married to Aishwarya Rai, forget about Dorji being our guide who happens to be his friend a best one at that. I felt like I am wasting time there.

To my surprise that person knew my requirements. He showed us best of the breed shawls and gave us an irresistible deal. I purchased plenty of shawls, so much that his half empty shop started to look as if some robbery had happened. With such a permanent sorrowful expression on his face, the whole console i.e. the empty shop and his expression made it clear that really something wrong has happened. I think that expression was more of happiness since he completely forgot about the other foreign customer waiting there. He started to serve her only after I reminded him. All this while it was one of his customer who was concentrating on this foreign customer, so bad a shopkeeper.

Those who are interested(in the shop obviously) can take down the address

Handicraft Industrial Society Ltd.
Leh-Ladakh - 194101

They do not accept cards so carry as much thousands of cash as you can if you have lot of ladies at home. BTW there is a SBI, HDFC and J&K ATM nearby.


Our Day-4 was power packed since we were going to Nubra Valley (yeah baby!) and for that we had to cross Khardung-La which is the highest motorable road in world. Some 18000 odd feet above sea level. I strolled out of the car with many warnings from Lumpung such as to walk slow and not stay more than 15 minutes due to extremely thin air. I saw an over-fashioned lady with a nauseating expression on her face supported by her husband. I was wondering how does this feel to be like that, yes like nauseating feel while in full make-up ! .
The temperature was freezing and we could see many bulleteers poising before the board which read 'Khardung-La the highest motorable road'. Proud thing to show off you know, I too bought a pair of customized T-Shirt to show it off in office lol ! .

The tar was long gone and there was more 25 kms to be covered to get to tar. This is a glimpse of road from and to khardung-la. The roads are very dangerous and is highly prone to frequent fatal accidents. As told by lumpung, there was a major accident 5 days before our arrival when an Innova fell into the ditch while trying to negotiate a curve. The accident claimed life of 5 out of 7 occupants. This news gave us chills and we told him to be careful.

After an ordeal of 25 kms or nearly more than 1 hour of organ replacements and position exchanges we reached the Khardung village. This village is suppose to be the coldest during winter with temperature soaring down to -40 degree or less.

We entered the Nubra Valley and the first village to welcome us was Khalsar where we took a lunch break.

The toilet design deserved a picture click, but I leave it to the reader to go and have a look. And it could have looked rather weird to carry a big SLR into toilet, you cannot control imagination of people what they may think you know.


It was worth noting the the landscape was changing every minute. From snow capped mountain to river to green villages etc. Worth a break to absorb the view deep inside brain and heart.

On the way we crossed many stream which were making its way to main river through the road. There was one spot where the glacier was very close and we could see how the water was melting and finding its way out. Lumpung stopped the vehicle ans advised to have a sip of that water. Being a softie, I was a little reluctant initially, but after the first sip I was so overwhelmed that I emptied two new bottles of Kinley to fill them up with this water. The natural sweet taste of that water cannot be expressed in words. The mineral water what you drink is so damn artificially sweetened.


We deviated towards Sumoor to see the sumoor monastery. The road towards Sumoor is built on a river bed. Yes we were driving on top of a dried river and it was real fun. Sumoor village is very green and has a surprising appearance in the middle of kind of sand dunes. We took some pictures of Sumoor monastery before taking off to Hunder.

Coming back from Sumoor, we had to cross this road which right in the middle of shyok river, at the same level as the river bed.

The same road when viewed from Top

We stopped to click some pics of this waterfall on the way to Diksit.

For a while I had forgotten what were going to see at Hunder. But the memories refreshed once the sand dunes started to become visible at Hunder. Welcome to Nubra Valley.
Here is a teaser pic before I get started working on Part-III of this blog.

My writing pen is running short of ink and may need a break. Leaving your broadband/wiFi/tethered/2G/3G network put to rest for some time. Stay tuned till I get the Part-III ready. Will keep you posted.