Information on my Leh Ladakh Trip

The township of Leh, an oasis in a snow desert extending over hundreds of kilometers, is a strange mixture of old and new structures, of large buildings with narrow window openings and clusters of chortens standing against the huge backdrop of a granite hill, Leh is an extraordinary town. Its most impressive sight is a massive stone castle rising almost vertically into the air. This was the seat of the rulers of Ladakh. In the 1840s, after the Dogras took over Ladakh, the ruler of Ladakh who lived at Leh Palace was deposed and Stok village on the left bank of the Indus was given to him as jagir (estate). Thereafter he lived at Leh Palace during the winter months when most of the festivals were held and in summer he shifted to Stok. The palace is like a tower on the lofty hill overlooking the entire city. It has nine stories. The outer walls rise steeply with their thickness decreasing gradually with the increase in height. These walls have been pierced at a number of places to provide windows for the building. The upper stories have long balconies and the beams of the roof are supported by carved wooden pillars. Also Visit - Kashmir Tour Packages

The main street of Leh is the new bazar which was laid out by Captain Trench in 1897. The few shops on both sides of the street sell the general merchandise which one finds in any bazar in India. But the singular difference here is the absence of noise in the bazar. There was no shouting by shopkeepers or vendors although some of them had spread out their goods on the pavements. Except for the passing of an odd vehicle there was complete silence. I understand that this is a characteristic of this region. Even in the past, it was noticed by many travelers who walked through the bazar without even guessing that there was a big caravan camped close by.

Towards the end of the bazar, there are pavement vegetable sellers, who at this time of the year were selling vegetables of the season. The carrots were rather sweet. I had never seen such jumbo-sized cabbages, turnips, carrots, radishes and cauliflowers. The tomatoes-too were unusually large. I wonder whether this was due to the nature of the soil, or to the pure rays of the sun, which act as a natural feed. In olden days, this was a very popular bazar where people used to buy and sell their wares, and also a place where many races met. Tibetans came here from Lhasa, after a three-month journey. People from Peshawar and Baltistan, whose grey costumes blended with the grey-white rocks of this area, also jostled in this bazar—with the clumsy Kashgaris in their chogas. Polo, a popular game in Leh, was regularly played in the bazar every afternoon. It was a practice which continued till as late as the 1950s, when all the shops closed every afternoon to enable people to participate in the polo match. Anybody with a horse, a polo stick and plenty of guts could join the game.

In those days, one could see many varieties of dry fruit, gold, silver and all kinds of precious stones Clothes ranging from coarse cloth to pashmina (fine wool), costly Chinese velvets, and expensive skins of otters, weasels, lynxes and snow leopards were sold. Also Visit - Vaishno Devi Helicopter Booking

It is not easy to photograph the locals here as some of them are terribly shy of the camera. Bholi tried to photograph a beautiful Ladakhi girl with Caucasian features, but without success. She was beautifully dressed and her costume looked as if it had been designed by an artist for some opera. Her eyes were like black cherries. On her head she wore the usual cobra-like headgear called Perak, studded with turquoises falling down on her back. Around her waist she wore a girdle. With her slender figure she made a pretty picture. But in spite of our requests she did not allow herself to be photographed. The girls selling vegetables were more obliging.

Leh is a town both interesting and strange. Its historical importance lies in its having been in the past the principal station on the Central Asian highway from India to Yarkand and Kashgar. The caravans usually arrived in the spring and autumn and gave the town a very busy look with its bazar crowded with people of all Asiatic races. The merchants and caravans were accommodated in sarais (inns). For the convenience of the traders from Central Asia, the British government had constructed sarais at all stages from Panamik in Nubra to Sringar. The biggest was in Leh, where the traders stocked such commodities as silks, namdas (rugs), velvets, tea (which came from China via Lhasa) and Indian products such as cotton cloth, dyes and coarse sugar. Trade activity was at its peak between July and October. An interesting feature was that the traders stocked their goods here without fear of pilferage. There has been instance when packages were left for years without being damaged or tampered with. The sarai consisted of a two-storeyed building around an irregular square while animal and piles of goods were neatly stacked in the square, the traders lived in the building. The goods quite often changed hands here from the merchants who brought them from Kashgar, Yarkand and other places with those who carried them and disposed them off in Srinagar, Lahore or Amritsar. Often the packages would be opened in the sarai itself, before changing hands, giving it an appearance of bazar. Carpets from Khotan and namdas from Yarkand were two prominent items of trade. Also Visit - Srinagar Gulmarg Pahalgam Tour

It was late in the evening when we returned to the Mess. The cool breeze that had begun to sweep the valley just around sunset seemed pleasant then. Now, with the sun gone, a sudden chill gripped the valley. We were in for a cold night. I decided to go to my cottage. Alpha Mess had two such cottages beautifully laid with a garden in front and poplar and willow trees all round. The cottage, where I was staying had two rooms and a lounge and they were all well heated.

The army had made excellent arrangements for me and I knew it was going to be a very comfortable stay. The Alpha Mess staff was extremely cordial and served us piping-hot dinner in our cottage. There was no difficulty in getting chilled beer. All one had to do was to keep the beer bottles out in the open for a few minutes. After the meal, I relaxed near the fire-place and picked up the book Moved On by P.S. Nazaroff, in which he has described his fascinating journey from Kashgar to Srinagar.

A number of my old friends, with whom I had served earlier in the army called on me. It was a happy reunion. I had served in the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. The officers graciously invited us to a weekend dinner at their mess which is picturesquely situated besides the Indus. I was particularly happy to meet my coursemate,.Col. S.P. Nijhawan.

The night fell over this enigmatic land with the sky deep blue and the silhouettes of mountains looking aloof and desolate. The silence was broken by the noise of the swift and harsh winds, which at times broke into a howl and shook the roof of the guest-house so violently, that it threatened to blow it off. But suddenly the fierce wind would die down into a gentle breeze and it would be calm again. This phenomenon continued almost throughout the night. I happened to look out from my bedroom window, and found the strange town enveloped in complete calmness. The gompas and the fluttering of the flags tied to the poles combined in a fantastic view. Also Visit - Best of Kashmir Tour

I was told that Sir Francis Young husband had stayed, where I was staying at the Alpha Mess. As I lay in bed, trying to get some sleep, I thought how fortunate I was to be at a place where once stayed one of the greatest explorers of the time. I have a very special fascination for Sir Francis Young husband as he, with Captain Bruce, was the first man to propose a definite expedition to Mount Everest in 1893, when they were together in Chitral near Gilgit. Their proposal was to undertake a highly adventurous journey from Chinese Turkistan across Tibet by ascending Mount Everest.

The next morning, we woke up to the strains of the villagers' melodious harvest songs. The sun was bright and we could see the golden foliage of the trees through the windows. The air was fresh and bracing. The sky was absolutely blue and clear. The temperature inside still remained very low and I could not sit in the room without a bokhart—a heater in which oil is burnt in a closed container which makes the room warm and pleasant. A clever tap-like contraption is attached to the bokhari to regulate the flow of oil according to the heat required. Also a bucket hill of water is kept ready to compensate for the loss of the depleted moisture, as burning of the bokhari makes the air even drier. No heater or bokhari must be burnt of even half burnt right through the night as it can cause suffocation by making the air completely dry and burning away its oxygen content which is already quite low. The temperature outside was 10° to — 20°C, and I am sun' the temperature inside the room was quite low too. In fact, I

have never felt so cold in my life, not even at the final camp on Everest, where we spent the night. I had to double the number of blankets here in my bed.

For more information about Leh Ladakh trip and Leh Ladakh tour packages contact Swan Tours one of the leading travel agents in India.