In the Land of Lamas

Season:- June to September.

Even during my second visit to Leh I could not visit the places of interest beside the Nubra valley. So I finally decided to cover as much as places I could with some adjustment in my busy work schedule. To add up to the beauty of Leh my wife had visited me so we could explore more scenic areas of Leh. We had stayed in a beautiful room at Jimmy Guest House near Hotel Gawaling run by a family who are well known to me from couple years. So, if you happen to visit Leh I would suggest not to miss the opportunity to enjoy their warm hospitality.

Next day we both decided to hire a bike every evening to ride and cover as many places we can on the bike ride. Based on those experiences I am writing this article to help travelers to plan out their visit to the nearby places in and around Leh.

So, the trip goes as follows.

Day 1:- Leh town - Shey Palace - Thiksey Monastery - Leh town.

On the very first day after the day my wife’s arrival, we decided to ride on the Leh-Manali road, so we hired a 350 Royal Enfield, there are many option in choosing out the type of two wheeler you would go for , I opted out for a Bullet Ride as it’s the favorite ride for my wife. The two wheeler lend you the bike for a minimum of 600 rupees for a day that starts from morning 8 or 9 to evening 8 O’clock, well it depends on the bike too, so it varies. We started our journey at around 1530 hrs towards Sindu Darshan which is 8 km from Leh on the bank of Indus River but we decided to visit the same on our ride back to Leh, and so we headed towards Shey Palace which is 7 km away from the ghat.

Shey Palace was build in sixteen century AD and was the royal residence of the Namgyals which latter shifted to the Stock Palace and was converted to a Gompa (Buddhist Temples). The palace has a 7.5 meters Buddha statue made with copper and brass, plated with gold, silver studded with gems and precious stones.

From there we planned to head towards Thiksey Monastery which is 5 km from Shey Palace which resemble to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet so it is called ‘Mini Potala’. The monastery is a twelve storey complex. One of the main attractions here is the Maitreya temple which was installed to memorialize the visit of 14 Dalai Lama to the monastery.

Though our planning was to include the Stakna Monastery in the ride but as the day light was getting deemed  and it was time for the sun to take a Nap we had to rush back to Leh town to hand over the bike to the bike shop owner.

Day 2:- Leh town - Guruduwa Pathar Sahib - Magnetic Hill - Spituk Monastery - Hall of Fame -Leh town.

Like the previous day we decided to hire a bike for our next ride and to our good luck, we had the same bullet to accompany us.  The next day we planned to hit the Leh-Srinagar highway.  We decided to visit Gurudwara Pathar Sahib then magnetic hill and the Spituk and Hall of Fame on our way back to Leh town.

Gurudwara Patthar Sahib is about 25 km from Leh town, dedicated to Guru Nanak which is being maintained by the Indian army. It is believed that when Guru Nanak was offering his prayers a demon pushed a large boulder to kill him but the boulder turned soft on touching him. The demon came down and found that Guru Ji was perfectly alright and he kicked the boulder with his right foot, but as the boulder was still soft, his foot got embedded in it. After seeing this he fell at Guru Ji feet and pleaded mercy for his act. So, in return Guru Ji advised him to devote the rest of his life in service of the people.

Magnetic hill is just 5 km from Gurudwara Pathar Sahib; it’s a place to experience the unique phenomenon. There is a box marked on the road, where if a car is kept at neutral mode and positioned inside the box, the vehicle will start moving covering a short distance at a speed of 10-20 km per hour on its own.

On our way back to Leh we visited Spituk Gonpa which is situated on a hilltop just 8 km ahead of Leh and was built in 14^th century AD. Higher up in the hill there is a small Palden Lama Temple. Spituk Gustor, the annual monastic festival take place from 26^th to 28^th of the 11 Tibetan months.

Hall of Fame is a museum which is located at a distance of 4 km away from Leh town, maintained by the Indian Army in the memory of the soldier who had lost their life during Indo-Pak war. The museum exhibits memories related to the Ladakhi culture, history, animals, battles, equipments of the Indian army etc. It also includes a 30 minutes film on ‘Kargil War’. In order to visit this museum one can avail the tickets easily from the ticket counters which cost around Rs 25 for Indian and Rs 50 for foreigners.

Day 3:- Leh market - Shanti Stupa.

On the Third day we decided to explore the local market and to enquire about share taxi services for our trip to Pangong Lake, which is the largest salt water lake and is situated at a distance of 150 kms from Leh. There is not much to watch out in the city but wandering in the lanes of the market and watching the crowd is a unique experience. The antique and silver jewelry shops by the road side will have some interesting things to attract your attention towards them. After a round of the market we decide to head towards Shanti Stupa.

Shanti Stupa is about 2 km from the Leh police station. This Stupa was inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1985. There are two ways to reach this religious monument one is by drivable road and the other is by 500 steps to the hilltop; we decided to take the steps route to the Stupa. It gives you a marvelous view of Leh town from the top. It was build to promote world peace and prosperity. The stupa is open for public between 500 hrs to 2100 hrs.

After a long relaxing walk we decided to go back to the market to finalize the taxi services for the next day trip. Luckily we got a taxi service providing the service on share basis on Rs 1500 per person. It was for an Innova car service and we had two more people with us .We booked the taxi and hurried back to our guest house after an awesome dinner at a restaurant as we had to get ready for an early morning trip the next day @ around 500 Hrs.

Day 4:- Leh town - Pangong lake - Hemis monastery - Leh town.

We woke up early and walked to the pickup point near the town amidst the chilling light wind. After few minutes a white Innova arrived at the location and within another 10-15 min a couple had arrived

with whom we were going to share the taxi we greeted each other and started our journey to Pangong. On the way we had some interesting interaction by which we came to know that the husband was an Indian tourist guide and his wife was a foreigner. After few kilometers of drive we had a glimpse of the Chemdey monastery.  We cross the Chang-La pass the third highest motorable pass luckily it wasn’t snowing on that particular day. On the way we stop at a place where we met few friends the cute marmot playing in the field near the road. 

After spending few minutes there we resumed our journey. Finally we arrived at the Pangong Lake after a beautiful drive by the countryside. We had our breakfast at a restaurant nearby the lake, the blue water, the chilling wind and Colored Mountain had added a new taste to our breakfast. The lake is about 150 kms long, 2-10 km wide situated at an altitude of 14,100 ft, and nearly three-fourth of the lake is situated in China territory. Sitting ideal near the lake and enjoying the view of the birds playing in the water will surely hypnotize you.

At around 1300 hrs we headed back to Leh and decided to visit the Hemis Monastery on our way back which is around 45 km from Leh.

Hemis monastery is one of the largest and oldest monasteries in the region. The museum of the Hemis monastery has a collection of rare statues, instruments, weapons, jewellery etc. The annual Hemis festival is held here in early June.

We had reached our guest house by 700 hrs and went to bed after a quick dinner, as the next day we had our flight back to Delhi.