Touring The Indus Valley

20^th April 2017

Hemis monastery

Awoke to rain!  Just before my wakeup tea – thankfully black tea with sugar provided by way of teabags and hot (ish) water.  Hopefully it started off boiling but the journey from kitchen to my room has it cooled despite the thermos jug.

Running hot water is provided in the bathroom only in the mornings and evenings – heated by wood heating – obviously I was showering too early for it to be more than tepid.  

Despite the notice forbidding washing of clothes, (conservation of water in this incredibly dry land is essential) I had run the hot water tap into the provided bucket until it became less that outside ambient temperature and decided that good use of that water would be to rinse out socks and undies before using the water to flush the loo.  Shades of failure of water supply to my house in Bhutan.

Flagstones in the monastery courtyard:
all natural colours in the stone

Breakfast of chocolate pancakes were pancakes with a hint of a sprinkle of some brown powder, with honey on the side and were accompanied by a large omelet cooked in a plentiful amount of oil with ketchup on the side; the ketchup was returned before the “boy” left my room.   

Riga brought me a borrowed sim card – but it’s not going to work with data, so I do have phone contact but no internet – none over all of Ladakha.  Very sweet of him. Apparently it can take a few days for a new sim to be activated.

Attacking the day’s itinerary in reverse (ie, going to the most distant place first) we headed for Hemis Monastery. 

Young Nepali and Indian men waiting to be employed

As we passed the market place, not only were fruit and veg and assorted goods on sale, but also labour.  Groups of young Indian men milling around had come to seek employment.  I was told that this is where employers or contractors come to look for their labourers, and the term Coolie for an unskilled labourer is still much in use.

I was amused, en route, by the name given to the road building company – Mountain Tamers.  Also by the lovely homilies on the side of the road reminding one to drive safely.  “Speed kills” has nothing by comparison.  “Safe Drive Long Life”, “If you are married, divorce speed”, “Slow down, your family is waiting”  “Short Cut is Life Cut” are just some I can remember.

My guide Riga shows the large cooking pots
 in the monastery kitchen

Hemis monastery is a very impressive monastery with many separate temples and a sizeable village where the monks live.  I was treated to a long explanation about the different Drukpa lines, the red hats and the yellow hats – most of which, I must confess, went completely over my head.  The monastery hosts a festival every 12 years to honour Guru Rinpoche.  The museum provided me with some further insights, some of which I remembered.  It seems Buddhism was once much more widespread across the Asian region.  I found out that is very auspicious to see a black crane – which I have now done on 2 occasions (in Bhutan)

Crossing the bridge: just a bit of a squeeze

We proceeded to a roadside café for lunch – which was a fairly good selection of vegetarian curries, naan and rice (serving of meat is not permitted within a given distance of the  monastery; Riga suggested he should pay for it as I would be charged more and I acknowledged that I was very familiar with local price and foreigner price – to the amusement of driver Bublu.  I duly reimbursed Riga for my lunch – a very expensive R80 (about $1.60)!

Then onward to Stagna Monastery which appeared to be closed for lunch but we were allowed to enter one temple, then another was unlocked for us.

The third monastery for the day was Thiksey – with a most huge and lovely statue of the Future Buddha.  And several other temples.

Feeling a little confused by all I had seen and heard, we headed for the Stok Palace Museum – to find that it is closed until May.  Won’t mention about forward planning of itineraries… nothing to do with driver and guide on the ground here.

Accommodation for the monks: generally built by a monk
and then shared with/passed down to nephews 

It was nice to note that there were hints of spring along the Indus valley – fruit trees in flower (I would guess apricot) and the native roses about to show their first leaves.  These roses produce rose hips which, in other parts of the country, attract the brown bears in autumn – which can be a hazard to villagers.

Discussions during the journey had suggested that Tso Moriri, a rather gorgeous lake which was originally in my itinerary, would be a much better choice than Pangong lake, and there may be no apparent reason why I could not go there, so I should discuss a change with the local agency.  A visit to the agency was ambivalent, so I suggested that maybe it would be difficult to change and I should stick with my original itinerary – I think much to everyone’s relief.

Maitreya Buddha: the future Buddha

Since Stok Palace was closed and Riga suggested that the Leh Palace was not really worth seeing (and was expensive – everything is relative in India); the museum I had seen at Hemis had much more interesting exhibits, I asked what he suggested – another monastery, but not to visit, just for the views.  After a long and winding road, we hopped out of the car and I was advised I should take all my things as we would not see the car and driver until tomorrow.  Exhibiting a small degree of alarm, I asked how we were getting back, and was advised walking – about a 20 minutes walk down hill – noting the closeness of the Leh Palace and knowing where that sits in relation to my hotel, I was somewhat relieved and enjoyed the panoramic views of dry mountains, snow clad mountains (the clouds were slowly clearing) and the rapidly expanding town of Leh spread out below me.  The walk down was pleasant - my remark that there is no chance of getting lost in the forest when taking a shortcut needed too much explanation for its joke value to take effect.

Just a gratuitously stunning view of valleys,
low rocky mountains and snow covered peaks

Back at the hotel I was reassigned my original room – which had been “made up” with the application of an uncomfortably generous squirt of room freshener.  Must remember to request none when I return in 3 day’s time.  The views are so much better from here and the clouds did me the favour of clearing just on dusk so I could get my first glimpse for the day of the gorgeous high peak, Stok Khangri.

Expanding Leh viewed from our high view point

Just as my dinner arrived (including a plate of salad, about which I am not sure) Riga rang to ask if he should recharge my phone and if I would like oxygen for tomorrow.  The mountain pass is 5,500m (or so). Despite my diamox daily doses, I thought a bit of risk management would not go astray, even if it does not get used.   
We need to be on that section of the pass before 11am as the police will close it to traffic in the direction we wish to travel after that.  So there may not be a lot of opportunity to stop for an hour or so if I decide I am not feeling healthy.

I was amused during the day by the signs on the taxis, nothing so crass as labeling them with a Taxi sign, but  the words Contract Carriage, in yellow letters, across the windscreen.

There is also one bus I have seen which is labelled Stage Carriage.  Shades of wild west!