Day 15 - Scenery

People who live in the mountains have my utmost respect simply for the fact that they are very much against taking the easy route through life. Living in the middle of the Himalayas sounds like a pain in the balls. The owner of our hostel says they sometimes get “surprise customers”, as the Internet connection in the whole of Leh is often down for days in a row. The roads around here look like great fun to drive, but everyone has the propensity for taking the racing line around blind corners, so I can only imagine how often things go terribly wrong. In any case, the trials and tribulations of life at 10,000ft are all pretty insignificant when your surroundings look like this.

The plan for the day was to do a day trip that covered three monasteries around Leh, specifically Likir, Alchi and Lamayuri. On the way there, we stopped at a Sikh temple maintained by the Military, whose presence is not unexpectedly pretty heavy around here, and at the point of confluence of the rivers Indus and Lanskar. The drive alone was a pleasure, with the scenery evolving from sequences of harsh peaks to patches of green flats and the odd village scattered on the side of a mountain. Once again, India has surprised us with another place that looks like nothing we have seen so far.

Likir was stunning, both due to the architecture and decoration of the monastery itself but also due to the breathtaking surroundings. Even though we felt like we were a little bit on the tourist trail, it was understandable given the proximity to Leh and what it has to offer.

Alchi was less of a highlight as it was even more packed with tourists on all-inclusive packages than Likir, but still worth visiting as it includes the oldest temple in the region (nearly a thousand years old). It also includes seven others, which left us a bit templed-out but, in fairness, were pretty interesting in their own way.

As it was further away from pretty much anything, Lamayuru was less touristy and extremely picturesque so, despite our reluctance to take our shoes off to enter yet more temples, it was a pleasure to walk around. In the monastery itself, it was particularly funny to see the young monks (probably no older than twelve) running around like the children they are despite the solemn appearance given by their attire.

The ruins of the village around it were also fun to walk around, while the scenery that surrounds them is hard to capture in one photo - the contrast between the green valley and the moon-like landscape on the hill faces is impressive, as was following the river as it carves through the peaks on the way back, navigating around dozens of colourful Tata vans using questionable road etiquette.

While we have to agree with everyone who said three days was not enough to properly explore what Ladakh has to offer, we are definitely glad we came. Speaking for myself, I would be surprised if I do not end up here again one day.

Cheers,
J-Wowww