After relaxing for two full days in a cheap guest house in Padum, I was mentally and physically ready to explore Zanskar’s tourist attractions! Karsha Gompa is the biggest monastery in entire Zanskar valley. Karsha Village is located 7 km away from Padum and the monastery is set on a hillock on top of the village. Karsha…
Category: Ladakh
Brokpas of Ladakh – Culture & Portraits
After enjoying the explorations of the ‘Aryan Valley’ in Garkone (Also Garkhon) village in the cold of January in Ladakh’s winter in 2015, the lure of excellent wine drew me back to the Brokpa villages in December 2016 again. After visiting Biamah village and having a glimpse of this ancient culture, I had gone ahead…
Wisdom of Tradition : Food in Indian Baltistan
As a region, Baltistan refers to the area after the end of Nubra Valley in Ladakh. Before the partition of undivided India in 1947, Baltistan was a part of Ladakh. Presently, most of the region comprising Baltistan comes under Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and only a small part of Baltistan lies in India. Baltistan was once…
An Evening at Hunder Sand Dunes
We had left from Leh early in the morning and our destination for the night was Hunder. But first, bigger things awaited a bunch of us travel and lifestyle bloggers. While we were nearing 5000m on the way to ‘the highest motorable pass in the world’, I felt dizzy with excitement; don’t know if it…
Offbeat Explorations in Leh
After detailed visits to the popular and worthy sites of Thiksey Monastery, Shey Palace, Leh Palace, Stok Palace, Namgyal Tsemo etc etc, I had an urge to know more about Leh. After all, a place on the old caravan route to Central Asia had to have more to it. In summer there were so many…
Tso Moriri Lake, Ladakh : A Travelogue
When you happen to visit a place multiple times, in different seasons; all the various memories and anecdotes start coming together. After two days of deliberation, I have finally decided to let go and and start this post. This has brought about a flood of nostalgia, those were the days when Tso Moriri was pure…
Srinagar – Leh Highway, in Pictures
Sometimes words don’t type themselves out. Maybe there is a problem of plenty. Which experience should I start with? When one has traversed on a particular road many times, the memories become a veritable assortment of many crazy experiences. Even more so, when the road in question is the Srinagar – Leh highway or NH1D;…
A Day Resurrected : Visiting Diskit Monastery
I had boarded the 7 am bus from Turtuk to Diskit and the lure of observing bactrian camels in Hunder had resulted in me getting down at Hundur bridge. It was understandably chilly in the month of January and to my dismay I found that there was no camel to be spotted. I was almost…
Failures on the Road – Stupidity in Changthang, Ladakh
It’s time to get real. Travel is not a bed of roses (well, not for me anyway); I am not looking for comfort on the road, but for experiences – which may differ in variety and can range from staying with a nomadic tribe to trekking on rough paths to see a spectacular view. In…
Leh-Ladakh : Amalgamation of Cultures
Strategically located on the Old Silk Route, the caravan town of Leh has over the centuries developed into a major entrepôt giving it a very cosmopolitan air. A walk through Leh almost feels like arriving back in time to a Central Asian capital, with a mixed racial composition of its inhabitants providing a cultural experience…
Leh in Winters : A Snapshot
When I had first booked a flight to Leh in the winter of 2013, it was really uncharted territory. Everyone said that all hotels in Leh are closed in the winters and I will freeze to death. By then I had travelled to remote areas on my own and known that most things are hearsay…
A Winter in Ladakh : Masked dances at Spituk Monastery
Spituk has been a place of historical importance for centuries in Ladakh; it was the transit point for the lucrative pashm (wool of Pashmina goats) trade from Tibet to Kashmir. It is also religiously significant – (a) The lama of Spituk Monastery is the Gelugpa head for all of Ladakh and (b) Kicking off the masked…