group tour to Ladakh and Kashmir (part 1)

So I moved back up from dorms-in-cheap-hostels mode to the luxury of a group tour, with private ensuite rooms, buffet breakfasts, private vehicles and guides – not to mention the mental relaxation of not needing to think where I would stay, how I would get there, etc.

We met for lunch, then were taken to see a few sights of Delhi (the Humayun’s Tomb complex and the Parliament buildings), out to dinner, then an early night before our flight the next morning to the city of Lah – capital of Ladakh.  The first place I’ve ever flown into where we all had to close our window blinds some time prior to landing, so as not to see (and record?) what was going on at the airport, part of which is for the armed forces!  Once in Leh, however, everything felt fine, with no obvious security tensions.

Surrounded by mountains and overlooked by a fort built in the 17th century, it is a stunning city.  There are two mosques on the main street of the bazaar, a Sunni one you can see in the above picture, and a Shia one which at the time of our visit was surrounded by flags and banners to mark Ashura – unfortunately we didn’t get to see the self-flagellation which marks this day commemorating the death of Hussein, as the tour was very much focussed on the Tibetan form of Buddhism which dominates the region.  After taking it easy on the first afternoon (Leh is some 3,500m above sea level) we went out the next day to visit some of the nearby monasteries.  & my goodness, they are stunning!  As in Sri Lanka, Buddhism in this part of the world was turned many centuries ago from a philosophy into a religion, but on the upside from that, the level of devotion is reflected in the most amazingly decorated monasteries, full of incredible wall paintings and over-the-top statues of the various incarnations of Buddha and other top-level gurus.  Many of the monasteries do not allow photography, as they are worried about flash or other lighting damaging these vulnerable centuries-old paintings, which is probably just as well or I’d have thousands of photos filling up my laptop memory!  This below doesn't look so fancy, but is a 24m high seated Buddha, cast from copper and covered with gold leaf.

So after a couple of days in and around Leh, we drove over the Khardung Pass (at 5,359m – on one of the highest drivable roads in the world) and into the Nubra Valley.  Greenery at the bottom, surrounded by steep, bare mountainsides, and more impressive monasteries - but with a surprising area of sand dunes!  & there just happened to be an event whilst we were there – the Hunder Sand Dune Festival – which included the offer of camel rides amongst the dunes, which of course I couldn’t resist!


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