3rd Day in Leh
Trip Start
May 24, 2010
1
4
8
Trip End
Jun 09, 2010
Leh, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The day was for sightseeing around Leh. We decided to visit Hemis Monastery, Thiksey Monastery and the Shey Palace etc.
Our Love for Rivers
We moved out of the hotel at 12:15 PM and headed for Hemis Monastery. The day was bright and sunny. We hardly drove for 20 minutes and our sight fell on the nearby running sindhu once again. Rapidly flowing waters have always had a magnetic effect on from when I was very young and this time too I could not resist asking the driver to stop at a location where the water was ankle to knee deep and crystal clear. I wanted to soak my feet in the cold chilling water! The kids were also keen to wet themselves....except for m wife. Well for all first - my wife is always a no but than she is a sport and joins in heartily.
And so the driver stopped and we all reached the banks of the river. The river was probably 20 feet wide and just ankle to knee deep at the stretch where we were standing. The water as expected was icy cold. There was a small reef in the middle of the river - somewhere you could stand - subject you can reach. We all pondered for a few seconds and all of us decided at the same second - that we would wade across the 10 feet to touch base at the reef! We all except of course Falguni. The driver along with my niece Radhika went in first and crossed the ten feet wide half of the river in probably ten minutes. Pranav and Manan went next. I was the last. Honestly - the experience of wading across flowing chilled river for 10 minutes confirmed one thing for sure - I was getting old. My knees were trembling against the force of the water, my grip on the river bed was not firm and my my knee bones were frozen. But than how could I give up in front of my kids......and I finally made it! Amazing experience. It is to capture and enjoy for such experiences that I never go with tour organisers. They will never allow you take unscheduled stops to enjoy the unplanned adventures! My wife tried to take a few steps, found the water too cold and developed cold feet. She preferred to stay at the banks and take our snaps. We spend almost an hour here and than decided to proceed for Hemis Gompa.
We reached Hemis Gompa at around 2:15 PM. The Gompa is situated on the middle of a small hill. The Gompa was established in 1672 AD by king Senge Nampar Gyalva. Hemis is best known to tourists for the colorful festival held in July. Hemis also could be associated with the Hemis National Park, an area that is home to the endangered snow leopard. We of course did not have plans to visit the national park as it would have been excursion spanning a few days! Luckily, it was a special day and the monks were chanting some prayers in the prayer hall. The main prayer hall is on the right when you enter the Gompa. The chants gave a very soothing effect to the ears and heart. I will not be able to describe the sight of seeing young monks of age 10 to 15 years wearing the monk robes and chanting their mantras aloud. Being young they were getting distracted by the visitors and would every now and than turn and look around as to who all are watching and them. We came out and proceeded to visit the musuem which was on the left side. The museum will attract those who are curious to know as to how did the monks survive and make this their abode a century ago! The museum had quite a few artefacts, musical instruments, arms etc which depicted the culture of the monks that lived here hundred of years ago.
We left Hemis Gompa at around 4 PM. Lunch and a visit to the Thiksey Monastery was on the cards. Thiksey monastery was on the way back to Leh. We reached Thiksey at 4:30 PM. There was a restaurant which served veg food at the base of Thiksey Monastery called Chamba Restaurant. It was open roof restaurant. We had nice lunch there. The food was good.
The kids and my wife were not much in a mood to visit either Thiksey Monastery or Shey Palace. The hotel owner Mr. Tashi Motup did tell me that kids would not really be interested in seeing too many Monasteries. For my family it turned out that they were not interested to see the second monastery.
It was just 5 PM and we still had two and hours at our disposal. I asked my driver to take us to the Indus - Zanskar Confluence. It is a spot where the Indus River and Zanskar River meet. It was an hour's driver from Thiksey. On the way is the famous Pathirsahib Gurudwara and the Magnetic Hill Point. We did pay our reverence.
We reached the confluence point at around 6:10 PM. What a sight! No words can explain it! The green Indus waters carving its way thru the muddy brown Zanksar waters. Both rivers flowing thru deep ravines. We were awed. The kids were just dumb struck to see the sight! I asked the driver to take the car right down till the banks of the river! We spent neat half an hour just idling at the banks enjoying the beauty of mother nature. The water was deep here and going inside the water was not very advisable because the isolated spot had no possibilities to call for help! So we just sat on the rocks, dipped our feet a little at the shore and kept gazing at the surrounding. Just awesome! We left the spot with a heavy heart as we wanted to spend some more time but it was getting dark and back to Leh was around one and a half hour drive.
We reached hotel at around 8 PM. Had dinner, played cards and went to sleep. My wife was little uncomfortable as her nose was clogged and her cold was getting aggravated. A little Vicks etc and we all fell asleep except that ....before falling asleep, I decided that I would visit these rivers once again.
