My First Solo Travelogue: Part Seven

Day Seven: 25.07.2018

As usual we got a wake-up knock at 6am, had breakfast at 7am and left for today's journey. It was a long journey to Kargil, but there were many sightseeing places on the way. First was a gurudwara, we reached there at 08:45am.

Patthar Sahib Gurudwara

The gurudwara was built to commemorate the visit of Guru Nanak to the Ladakh region. Vatsal did elaborate on the story. We had to cover our hair with scarfs, if not then there were orange handkerchiefs available. At the entrance, there were long seats and a section to keep our shoes. Then we walked down a few steps, walked through the water, to the entrance door of the Gurudwara. 

This was my first visit to any Gurudwara. There were photos of Guru Nanak. We had to walk clockwise, there was a big stone, outlined as if its Guru Nanak. We bowed down there and took the blessings and prasad. Photography was not allowed here.

Magnetic Hill

It is a gravity hill located on the Leh Kargil route. The alignment of the road with the slope of the background can give the illusion that cars are able to drift upwards. Vatsal did show the demo of this phenomenon using a vehicle.

Confluence of Indus & Zanskar

Indus river

Zanskar river

Sangam Point

At 09:45am, we reached the Sangam Point where the deserted water of river Indus meets the clear water of its tributary Zanskar in the Nimmo Valley. We watched this confluence from the Leh Kargil road. River rafting was on in the Zanskar river. Click here to view the video Here's a photo of our vehicle group:

Mayuri, Charulata, Supriya, Vidya, Kanta, Me

Alchi Monastery

We proceeded to the Alchi village, reached there at 10:45am. We had to walk through a market stalls full of souvenirs, to reach the Alchi Gompa. The Gompa is located on the bank of river Indus. It is known for its magnificent and well preserved 11th and 12th century wall paintings. First we entered Vairochana shrine, the doors have a small opening which means we have to bow down while entering the shrine. The walls of the Dukhang are painted with six different mandalas that surround the Vairochana, the main deity worshiped in the hall. Next we visited the Manjushri temple (Jampe Lhakhang) built around four central images of Manjushri. Each of the four images is single-headed with four arms that are adorned with a sword, a book on top of a lotus, a bow and an arrow. The Lotsava Lhakhang to its left side is a later addition. Last we visited the 3 tier temple, which included Bodhisatva, Manjushri and Maitreya Buddha. Many did go ahead to the Indus river bank, I don't know where was I lost in thoughts and missed this sightseeing.

Sometimes on a solo trip,  all of a sudden you may get a low feeling, you may feel like you are missing something, etc. But its fine, you have to come out of that mind cage. The market stalls did help me get out of the sad mood. There were numerous items: key-chains, prayer wheels of different sizes, earrings and finger rings, idols of Gods and Goddesses and Buddha of course, wheel chains, wall hangings, beads and shells necklaces, prayer bowls of different sizes, vessels, kettles, boxes, landscape images of sightseeing places in Ladakh, fridge magnets, bracelets, mantra flags, etc etc.

We had to cross the FotuLa Pass to reach Lamayuru village. On the way our vehicle got punctured. Well this actually happened on every school picnic, and we enjoyed the  free time to hang around while the tyre was replaced. Now here there was no such place to hang around the garage, so we quietly sat below a tree and watched the tyre being replaced by Stanzen. We were running late, all other vehicles already reached the venue for lunch. We reached Hotel Moonland in Lamayuru at 2pm. I was already feeling low and this incident did raised my level of annoyance.

Lamayuru Monastery

The monastery was at a few minutes uphill walk from the hotel. There were prayer wheels while going upstairs. At the entrance door, there were lamps of different sizes. We sat in the open space and Vatsal started with the story of the monastery. We went in, there were long desks and seating arrangements for the lamas. There were wall hangings scripted with mantras. We went further in to visit the protectors idol. There were many white scarfs tied to the wooden rods, same as we tie threads to a wishing wall in the mosque. We traversed the complete monastery, walking through some small doors and narrow lanes.

Done with all these, we got into our vehicles and started the further journey to Kargil at 03:20pm. Now there were just rough mountains and zigzag roads and parallel flowing water streams. 

Kargil City

Around 05:15pm, we entered the Kargil City and reached Hotel Royal Gasho at 05:40pm. We had tea and cookie break at 6pm. Few of us did go to the market. Since both Mumbai and Pune groups were in same hotel, we did get time to talk. 

At dinner, next day's program was explained by Amol Jadhav. We were to visit the LOC Kargil Viewpoint tomorrow in the morning. Post lunch we would be travelling to Drass. The return journey to Leh would be very long so we were informed to take rest today. Post dinner maximum of us were at the reception trying out the WiFi connection. Hard luck, I couldn't connect to the Internet. Actually this was a blessing in disguise, when on vacation you should cut off the social media. Informing your whereabouts at home is a must though, otherwise your future trips are at stake. I slept at 11pm dreaming about the big day tomorrow. Co-travelers do put in your experience of the day in the comments below.

Read next: My First Solo Travelogue: Part Eight