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After crossing the Namika La and descending to the other side one reaches Bodhkharbo village located in a wide valley. Here we had a cup of tea in the Dak Bungalow. In this spot, one could see a big army establishment. Further on after crossing a bridge we ascended the highest point on the Srinagar-Leh road, the Fotu La pass 13,380 feet above sea level.
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It was quite windy on the pass and we had to put on our parkas to take a picture. By now the dramatic mountain scenery, the Tibetan type ladies in red dresses with special hats had transported us into a totally different land and we were getting an eerie feeling of being somewhere far off from our own home. After descending the Fotu La pass one suddenly sees in a bend in the road the mysterious looking Monastery of Lamayuru. It seems out of the James Hilton’s novel, “The Lost Horizon of Shangri La”. I had seen the movie based on the novel and the monastery resembled exactly the place shown in that movie. Another strange thing we had seen while descending the pass were some shiny white pieces of metal on the opposite mountain side at the top. The driver told us it was the wreckage of a plane which had crashed there sometime back. We stopped near the Monastery which is supposed to be the oldest one in Ladakh to have a look. After a short visit we descended towards the famous Khangral loops. The landscape behind the monastery visible from the road is typically lunar. These are remnants of some moraines left after melting of some ancient glaciers and resemble huge mass of kneaded clay.
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The road here looks quite scary as there is a deep ravine on the right side about few thousand feet deep. While descending these loops one can see in the front a mountain face which resembles the Mount Rushmore of USA on which faces of four American Presidents have been carved. From the top of the loops we got our first view of River Indus in the distance. There are sixteen loops in 10 kilometres. After crossing the Indus River we reached Khalsi, a small stopover for people driving to Leh. Near the bridge on Indus there is a fort in ruins which is supposed to have been constructed by General Zorawar Singh, the Dogra General who annexed Ladakh to the Dogra Kingdom. Khalsi is famous for apricots supposed to be among the sweetest in Ladakh! Here we had some tea and snacks and carried on towards Leh. The road now continuously follows River Indus on the left side. Except for the patch on Zoji La the roads in Ladakh are good tarmac roads, very smooth to drive on. Sometimes the drive is so smooth that one starts dozing off to sleep. One also gets the feeling of loneliness as no human being is visible for miles on end. On the way we passed the village of Alchi which is across the river and has a monastery famous for wall paintings. It is said that Rin Cin Zhangpo brought from Kashmir valley 100 artists who painted the miniatures in the monastery. These are rated as good as those of Ajanta and Ellora caves. There was a suspension foot bridge to cross the river and visit the monastery. Passing along we came to Saspol, Bazgo, and Nimmo before climbing the last stretch on way to Leh. Bazgo also has ancient monastery though in ruins, with frescoes similar to Alchi. Near Nimmo, Zanskar River joins the Indus and the confluence of the two rivers is dramatic. One can distinctly see the pure and green waters of Zanskar merging into the muddy waters of Indus.
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While climbing the last stretch to Leh two landmarks are passed. One is the magnetic hill. It is a stretch of road which is supposed to have some strong magnetic field. It is said that if a vehicle is parked at a specific point, it starts moving on its own. We did try it but it did not work! I have seen a better stretch in Oman near Salalah. There the vehicle really starts running! The other landmark is the Gurudhwara set up at the place where the founder of Sikh religion, Guru Nanak had stayed. After crossing the last height the road descends straight to Leh. It looks like a long black line all the way down. One can see the Karakoram peaks in the distance. Leh is visible from far off. On the way down on the left side is the monastery of Phiyang. The landscape on the left side is totally lunar or rather sometimes Martian. The presence of copper and iron in the rocks gives these a metallic shine. We reached Leh in the evening and drove straight to Dak Bungalow which too like Kargil was not in very good shape. Even though we got the best rooms yet the plumbing was not working. We had to be given water in buckets. Next morning we called on the Deputy Commissioner Mr.Mehmud-ur-Rehman and explained to him the purpose of our visit. Having been somewhat depressed by the look of the town and worried about the backlash which would result from foreign tourists arriving without proper infrastructure, we sought his advice. He did not seem perturbed at all and informed us that he has called a meeting of prominent citizen in the officers’ club that evening. He invited us to join. Those days the Deputy Commissioner of a frontier district was the most powerful officer. He had concurrent powers as the state Chief Minister.
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During the day we had a round of Leh and visited some local monasteries. One typical sight was the ladies selling vegetables in the main market on the foot path. A large number of local ladies would bring vegetables from their farms and sell these in the Leh bazaar. I was surprised to see very organic and giant size vegetables like a radish of 3 to 4 kilos. Probably it was due to extremely rich soil of Ladakh? The other interesting sight those days was long queues of men and women near the water taps in different parts of Leh. There was no piped water available in the houses. People had to take water from outside taps. They had to wait their turn and fill a couple of jerry cans to take these home for cooking and drinking. Water is a very precious commodity here. In Leh, Rauf met his friend Ashai who was working with supplies department. He had been in Leh for a long time and could speak fluent Ladakhi. He related to us some interesting facets of social life in Ladakh. There was absolute communal harmony. We were surprised to know that the same family had some members practising Islam, some Buddhism, and some Christianity. He told us an interesting story of people of different faiths cooking their meat in the same pot with pieces of thread of different colours tied to recognise the same! (To be concluded………..) |
