Leh Travel Blogs - Kettik.

palace under renovation, not much to see inside but great views of the valley

Saravana@kettik.com (Saravana Kumar) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:23:20 +0000

The Shey palace is pretty impossible to miss when you are driving on the road out of Leh (towards Manali).

For me personally, the best part about visiting Shey is the expanded view of the valley and its villages. From one of the vantage points (a little up the hill above the palace) you can spot the Thiksey, Stakna, Matho and Spituk monasteries. Goes to show how important this vantage point is and it is no wonder that the ancient kings of Ladakh built their capital there.

a memorable visit to Hemis during the Angchock festival.

Saravana@kettik.com (Saravana Kumar) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 09:50:00 +0000

The Hemis monastery may not look as pretty or spectacular as some of the other monasteries (Thiksey, Chemre, Spituk etc) in Ladakh. But i love it for its simple and practical design which makes it easily accessible by the visitors.

For starters one does not have to climb a plethora of steps to enter the monastery. It is easily accessible by foot. The entrance opens up to a vast courtyard where the annual mask dance festival takes place. The monastery's main building is on the right side, facing the courtyard and a beautiful two-tired viewing arcade lines the other three sides of the courtyard. The walls of the arcade facing the main building are adorned with beautiful stone slab paintings.

Overall you get an overwhelming sense of openness and space here when compared to any other monastery in Ladakh.

My home in Leh on and off for a month..

Saravana@kettik.com (Saravana Kumar) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 05:13:38 +0000

With a plethora of guest houses and hotels in Leh it can sometimes be hard to pick one. I have a feeling that you can walk into any guesthouse and more often than not the place would be warm and welcoming. Atleast thats how i stumbled upon the Kurja garden guest house.

I arrived in Leh, mid-October, after cycling the Manali-Leh highway. After the long, hard journey i wanted to indulge myself in a little bit of luxury. Luxury for me would be to have a nice large room to sleep in, preferably with an attached bathroom with running water and hot showers.Â I also wanted to avoid the commercial looking establishments (like the ones close to the Leh market are) and find a more homely place to stay in. My wanderings led me to the Karzoo pond and there i was greeted with numerous signs advertising various guest houses.

Jackpot !!. The guest houses around Karzoo were all farmhouses, extended with a fee rooms in the upper floors to accomodate guests. They definitely had the homely feel i was looking for. And i picked the house with the smallest sign and walked in. The family was nice and friendly, they asked me to help myself to the apples collected from their orchard and then showed me the rooms. The rooms were all bright and roomy with spotless attached bathrooms. Some rooms even came with small working kitchens.

Since it was the end of the season, i was able to negotiate good rates for the rooms. 200Rs for the basic one and 250Rs for the one with the attached kitchen. Even though i was not planning on cooking much, i took the room with the kitchen as it would save me from the long walks to the market area on the days i was feeling lazy. And it definitely came in handy.

The room had a large double bed, kitchen and a sitting area by the window with a small couch and a traditional center table. The big ladakhi sun widows opened up to a gorgeous view of the Stok Kangri peak to the south. Every day i woke up to the sight of the morning light climbing across the Stok mountains and i never grew tired of it.

I used the guest house as my base for the next month or so. I'll stay there for a few days of rest and relaxation, and then ride out to explore a different part of Ladakh (Pangong, Nubra, the monastery circuits etc), come back stay in the guest house for a few days and venture out again.

For the first couple of weeks the weather was nice and we had running water in the bathrooms, but once the first snow fell the running water was cut off and we were left with getting hot water in buckets. This is a common issue in all of the guest houses in Ladakh as they are worried about the pipes cracking with frozen water. Only the more expensive hotels seem to have running water even in winter.

The family was nice as well. Tashi, the owner, speaks good English, so does his wife. Everyone else speaks good Hindi, so communication was never a problem. The'd always help me with the travel information for visiting different parts of Ladakh. And once in a while they'd invite me to have tea with the family and on days i arrived late from somewhere far they'd invite me to share their dinner as well.Â

Into Ladakh: The Baggage incident..

Saravana@kettik.com (Saravana Kumar) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:56:28 +0000

My general policy with people is to trust until that trust is broken. But as i was sitting in the van, i started wondering what his game could be. "nobody's that nice", i thought. Especially since he was tout for a hotel and has nothing to gain by giving me this free ride. With my suspicions gradually growing, i suddenly jumped out of the van, grabbed my backpack and went back to the pre-paid taxi counter.Â
I got a taxi and as i was entering it i realized that i did not have my camera bag with me!!. Calmly, I thought i must've dropped it at the taxi counter but it wasn't there. Then the realization dawned on me that i must've left it in the hotel van that i abruptly jumped out of. PANIC !!, the prospect of losing my camera and lens collection was a little too much for me to digest. I didn't know the name of the guy i was talking to nor the name of the hotel he worked for. As i wandered around, slowly resigning to the fact that i've lost all my photographic equipment, i spotted him by the edge of the parking lotÂ chatting with his buddies.Â Hope trickled in. I told him what had happened, and he immediately offered to help...