My earlier posts from Leh trip are here
Day 13 : A ride in snow on Chang La
Our host served us hot yummy porridge as a complimentary breakfast on our last day in Leh. Dried apple & honey added to the rich taste. We shared our contacts, facebook IDs with them before we bid bye to Vishnu & Boxer Bhaiyya (he was a national level boxing player). We loaded our bags onto the vehicle and started towards Kargil. As we passed by Hall of fame, we noticed that the tankers and the military battalions were all lined up, we could sense the celebrations in the air around the place but we hardly knew the date to realize it was Vijay Diwas.
The driver refused to cross 60kmph on those wonderful roads. We threw looks at each other expressing our frustration. We could not help but to bear with the monotony of his driving. We started small talk with him & realized he dint know the way to any of the monasteries we intended to visit on our way. This irritated us little more. But finding a place in & around Leh is never an issue. Thanks to the direction boards & also the people around directed us rightly to reach Likir Monastery. This one is about 50kms from Leh.
The view outside this monastery was captivating. The inside too had a colorful prayer hall. It was filled with study tables, books and manuscripts. The wall was covered with glass showcases with huge statues of Buddha and an endless collection of manuscripts.
I was attracted to an artistic prayer bell near the Buddha idol.
There is a huge statue of golden color Buddha outside the monastery. It looked all the more wonderful against the dark mountains & deep blue sky in the backdrop.
From here we next stopped at Khalsi town for lunch. Mike, a solo traveler from Seattle had been in Leh and was on his way to Kargil. We agreed to offer him a ride with us till Lamayuru. Post lunch we headed towards Lamayuru monastery.
We occupied ourselves in an endless conversation with Mike while he shared his travel experiences in India & Nepal. By now we were cutting through barren mountains which resembled moon land. Hence this place is as well famous as Moonland. At a distance, the moonscape revealed the Lamayuru monastery on a small mountain.
The view from this monastery was spectacular. We spent sometime wandering around this gompa and we got back into our vehicle. We left behind innumerable mountains as we approached Kargil. It was evening when we made it to Kargil. Hundreds of war stories quiet naturally will occupy your thoughts from the very name of this place. We halted in a hotel which charged a high tariff and served an expensive bouquet. The month of roza does not encourage too many people on the streets, there was hardly anything we could see functioning here. We sat back and relaxed for the day to end as there was nothing interesting to see in Kargil.
Mike at Lamayuru Monastery
Those are some lovely captures!
ReplyDeleteThank you niranjan!
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