High up the mountains where Mothers is in its best form, Aparana Chauhan shares a first hand experience about her tour to the isolated, largely undiscovered but naturally bewitching Ladakh with Journey to India.
My excursion trip to the scenic land of Ladakh began even before the plane landed the rugged Leh airport. Before landing, even the travelers from United States, Netherland, Germany and other places, plus a fair dispersion of fellow Indians could not withstand the immense awe inspiring beauty – while looking at the snow cladded mountains and majestic peaks providing a compelling contrast as the vibrant Sun rays added to the grand view.
The first day in Leh was spent without doing any arduous physical activity due to the high altitude and need of adjustment. It is not recommended through posters at many places but is almost compulsive. But, I had no such plans to waste my precious time, so I did next best thing. At Hotel Kang Lha Chen,which has been named after the peak, I got talking to Mrs Zena Samuel and Pitra from United States who were on a two week tour to Ladakh.
What destination you covered in Ladakh? I asked as we sipped hot coffee in the lush hotel garden overlooking the amazing Himalayas. Without taking a minute, they told that they like Leh Palace, Hemis Monastery, Sankar Gompa, Shey Monastery and Lamayuru Monastery.
Pitra quickly added that the monks praying at Thiske monastery offers you a lifetime experience. They were quite impressed with the life of monks and their devotion towards their Lord. Mrs Zena told me about her last trip to Tibet in 2007. But for them this tour was truly divine as they find more feeling and realization here that is devoid of any sort of superficiality. They got the chance to spend some time with the monks here. Travelers are passionate about polo being played at such an altitude here.
As I already got idea about major attractions of Ladakh, next day I decided to visit the Thiksey Monastery located on the hill top north of Indus river, which is still inhabited by sher number of monks. My next destination was Stok Palace dating back to the time when invading Dogra Forces kicked out the ruler of Ladakh. My tourists guide Robin Tunney, who is well trained trekker and a photographer took me to the other popular monasteries and gompas in Ladakh.
We took a turn to International Meditation Center run by Bhikku Sanghasena since 1986. It is a center of education and meditation for monks. Here I got the chance to meet Thupsten Cheweng, member of parliament who watched development of this center. Next day, In the morning I met Jigmed Wangchuk Namgyal, who propagated the concept of long tern sustainability of all the major attraction of Ladakh, particularly the monasteries. He said UNESCO has also shown interest in this....adding that is important to preserve the attractions for which the travelers come here.
Before the end of my short trip to Leh and Ladakh, I got the chance to meet Tundup Dorjey, who has done his masters in Tourism from Pondicherry and now runs the renowned travel agency making sue that domestic tourism grow, so that both the visitors and hosts, gain through tourism.
Aparana Chauhan
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