A good night’s sleep in a new environment and we were up in the morning looking forward to our second day in Ladakh. Today’s travails would take us along the newly built Ladakh – Srinagar highway, covering a distance of about 75Kms. We would not be returning to the hotel tonight but would stay overnight a resort situated on the banks of the Indus River. By the time we finished breakfast, Dorje was ready with his Innova.
Our first stop was the Hall of Fame, just a few minutes from our Hotel. This is an Army Memorial to all the Bravehearts who made the supreme sacrifice defending their motherland. There is also a museum which highlights epics from the military actions that took place in this region.
A lot of military paraphernalia is on exhibition, as well as a souvenir shop selling everything from Jackets to Mouse Pads, all with an Indian Army Theme. After a well spent half hour we continued further towards Srinagar.
Our next halt was the Spituk Monastery just a little further down the road. Being on a hill, it offers a spectacular view of Leh, especially the airport. Still a little worried about my back, I declined to climb right to the top of the monastery, Tiny did that
I spent my time watching flights land and take off. The view from the hill is super. It is fascinating to see the greenery close to where the Indus flows, slowly turning to barrenness further from the banks.
A few minutes later and we were on the road again. About 12 Km further we stopped at the Gurdwara Pathar Sahib. This is a small but beautiful Gurdwara along the highway built in the early 16th Century. At that time Guru Nanak was in the region, returning from Sikkim. Nepal and Tibet. In fact he was sometimes referred to as Nanak Lama. According to folklore, a wicked demon who inhabited the hill across where the Gurdwara is, pushed a huge boulder (Pathar) down towards where Guru Nanak was sitting in meditation, hoping to kill him. The boulder hurtled towards Guru Nanak at a horrendous speed, but when it hit him, instead of killing him, it simply landed softly on his back, causing him no harm. Shortly after, Guru Nanak continued onwards to Srinagar, but a Gurdwara was built at that spot and is aptly named Pathar Sahib. The Gurdwara is currently maintained by the Indian Army. All Military convoys make it a point to stop there and seek blessings.
Other visitors routinely stop there to offer prayers, to enjoy the free Langar or to do some community work (Kar Seva) like cleaning the place or helping by cutting vegetables or kneading flour for the Langar. An extremely tranquil and spiritually uplifting experience.
After this devotional halt, we continued further, arriving at Magnetic Hill. The place has now become an adventure spot where you can rent Monster Buggies and have some fun driving them around on the hill. But Magnetic Hill owes its fame to a unique phenomenon. To experience this, you need to park your car at a particular spot, marked as a yellow box on the road, and put it into Neutral. There is a small downward incline at that spot, but your car, instead of going downhill will defy gravity and slowly edge upwards.
Apparently there is a strange magnetic force stronger than the force of gravity there, pulling it backwards. Considering that the yellow box is plonk in the middle of the highway with traffic flowing at high speed in both directions, not many people were able to hazard the experience. So it was a short halt, more photographs, and then onwards again.
We were now driving right along the River Indus, and we would continue to follow it for the rest of the journey. At this point, it is just a raging muddy (chalky grey) rivulet, and will stay that way till its confluence with the River Zanskar. Above the confluence, the highway is at an elevation and the sight of the confluence below is breath-taking from here. You can see the River Zanskar coming in from a distance with its clearer water and the River Indus with its muddy waters, merging together and then continuing their journey together.
We took a small detour to go down to the waterside, to the confluence. There is an adventure club here too and you can go kayaking and rafting in the raging waters, if you are so inclined.
Driving further, we headed to the Alchi Monastery, an 11th Century monument located off the main highway. For this we crossed the Indus River, over a quaint bridge bedecked with flags and headed to Alchi.
We reached there at 1pm, just as the monastery was closing for lunch. This suited us fine as it gave us as well as Dorje a break to fill ourselves up. We settled into an outdoor Café which said Free Wi-Fi available, which was good since we had been out of network ever since we left the Hotel. But alas, the Wi Fi was not working. Notwithstanding that, the place soon got jam packed, surprisingly, mainly with foreigners. Made us wonder, have all the Indians migrated
But Lunch was good, and leisurely since the monastery would open only at 2pm.
We walked through the local market around the monastery area, the usual souvenirs, beads, gemstones, Tibetan spinning wheels, frightfully overpriced which was not unexpected. Some good photographs though. The monastery itself was disappointing, much of it closed for archaeological restoration.
That was more or less the agenda for the day and we now headed back to the highway and on to our resort where we would stay overnight. We arrived earlier than we should have, but this was just as well because we got the time to explore and enjoy the resort. Extremely beautiful location with mountains on one side and the Indus flowing on the other. Fully self-sufficient and self-equipped. A vegetable garden to grown all the vegetables they need, walnut and almond trees, half a dozen cows to provide milk as well as a small poultry farm to provide farm fresh eggs. I greeted my morning breakfast as I went around. Then there were solar panels to supply electricity, solar heaters on top of each chalet for hot water, even a solar cooker, which of course is not something that can be used continuously.
More pictures at
