From Leh to Kargil in a day by Roopa Sreedhar

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On my journey to Kargil

I have lost count of the villages, towns, cities I have visited in all my travels & treks in India. Everywhere I went I felt at home & safe. I felt the vibes that I feel in my own city. I never felt out of place or my mind disturbed any time, whether it was trekking in deep jungles of Uttarkhand while on Har-ki-dun trek, or getting lost in Zanskar, even Srinagar with all its turbulence couldn’t shake my equilibrium. But Kargil was definitely a different story. Kargil is one of the most eerie places I have been to in all my travels in India.

We left Leh in the morning, spent some time at the beautiful Spituk Monastery. This one, with a Kali temple, was just on the outskirts of Leh & gave us a fantastic view of the city. After taking a bow at Gurudwara Pathar Sahib, we indulged in the famous experiment on the Magnetic stretch of the Magnetic Hill. Our vehicles were moving magically even when turned off, with an invisible force pulling them. Our next stop was a lovely break at the confluence of Indus & Zanskar rivers. The light brown of Indus merged with Green of Zanskar to flow as lighter shade of Gray with many names all the way & beyond Kargil.

Momos at the Tibetan restaurant at the quaint village of Nimmo were some of the best we had had. The landscape changed radically after Nimmo. We stopped by a fruit orchard, Giri helped us picked some apples, apricots & Leh berries. We felt we were in some ancient villages & ruins. Some views looked like scenes from Chinese movies of Himalayas. From bright sunshine, it felt like entering a cold gray zone. The other vehicle had moved ahead of us & we had a lot to catch up. We hurried behind them enjoying the lovely weather, barren landscape & snowcaped peaks staring at us.

Next on our list was the gracefully located Klu_Khil or Likir Monastery. The might golden statue of Buddha was most impressive. The buildings homing the monasteries looked the same every where, beautifully built on Tibetan Architecture, they looked like replicas of Tibetan palaces. Young monks were coming out from their school. Many small creeks of ice cold water supplied fresh water to the monastery.

We traversed our vehicles towards the ancient village of Alchi, set in the Indus valley. The narrow alleys to the temple had many walnut trees adorning the courtyards. This place was home to 2nd century temples of Buddha. The delicate yet surviving structure was very special. Their inner walls and ceilings were wonderful collages of ancient frescoes & paintings, kaleidoscope of bright colors made of vegetable & mineral dyes. Gardens with many flowering shrubs added color to this otherwise barren portrait. Most impressive were the various statues of Buddha in different colors and poses, placed to see 4 directions. We had lunch at Alchi in an apple orchard under the apple trees. This is one of our most memorable lunches. The hotel staff permitted us to pick some apples & we filled our bags with apples to last the entire trip. Gushing Indus making many high grade Rapids & milky froth tempted us to indulge in White water rafting!

We then set of to the most beautiful landscapes of Ladakh, often referred to as ‘the moonscape’ & the legendary Lamayuru Monastery. The serpentine curves leading to this place made a thrilling drive. We were sticking to our seats wishing for seat belts and gritting our teeth, and praying for a safe passage. This seemed to be a very dangerous drive up hill. The construction of Bridges by HIMANK & moving trucks only added to the thrill & scare.

Looking at the moonscapes was a very satisfying experience. This was like icing on black-forest cake. We felt very lucky to have done something that many just thought of. The cave where Naropa meditated in 4th century was hidden behind the camouflage of a book shelf in the monastery. The kind monk opened it up for us and told us the interesting story behind the legend.

Tea break at the hotel & lodging facility in the small town of Lamayuru had our energies rejuvenated. Bathrooms were bad. But atleast we knew that it would be easy to find accommodation in this village.

It was nearing 5 in the evening & we were in a hurry to reach Kargil before dark. We left Lamayuru & moved ahead. The sunset in the backdrop of monastery was picturesque. We were tired by the long drive. The moon was already up in the sky. Everytime we saw lights in the valley, as the vehicle went up the hills, we would wonder if that was Kargil our destination; disappointed, when we passed towns that were not Kargil. In quest for directions our driver stopped us in front of yet another monastery. It was already 8 on the watch. I got to know that this was Mulbek & the monastery had the 21 ft 2nd century Maitreya Buddha or Chamba of the Bamiyan style. This idol was so huge, that it was difficult to capture it with our lens. This was one of the few Bamiyan Buddhas left on earth after Taliban destroyed the ancient statues in Afghanistan in 2001.

Although we were all mighty tired, I urged the group to see the Bamiyan Buddha. There was only one monk serving in here. He permitted us to stay at the monastery if we needed a night halt. We thanked him & set on our journey to Kargil. We reached Kargil by 10 pm, found our hotel.

The air was different. The ambiance in the hotel was different. The way food was served was different. TV in the hotel played Al Zajeera Channel. May be it was just my mind playing up because of the blooded history & media hype. Whatever it was, with an uncanny feeling in my heart, I settled for the night in Kargil.

Next morning, we left our hotel to find Khadim. Khadim was the owner of a fleet of vehicles in Kargil. We hired TATA Winger, a 10 seater for our journey to Zanskar. After procuring the permission letters from JKTDC, we set on our way to reach Parakchik by night.

Best Regards,
Roopa Sreedhar
9886162404

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