Ladakh: Sindhu Darshan.

Day 2 on the tour! 

Leh is a beautiful place with amazing scenic view. Anywhere and everywhere!

A striking feature that one could find in Leh is – Mountains covered with snow peaks on one end of the city, whereas the other is just sand hills with no trees at all. It was more like a cold desert. Leh is about 12,000 ft high, so to get used to atmosphere out there is quiet a task. A minimum rest of about 24 hours is more of compulsion than a necessity. We took a day rest, felt fine.

A totally unpredictable climate makes the stay bit uneasy. A minute you think its all normal and slip into a t-shirt, you realize it’s high time that you put on a coat or two to beat the cold. Plus the inexperience of staying at such high altitudes make things change pretty uncomfortable.

To start off exploring the places, we went to Sindhu Darshan Festival, celebration of Sindhu River, which gave India its name. Also, mine! ;)

Sindhu Darshan: To mark the importance of River Sindhu, this festival was started in 1997 to showcase cultural and traditional arts of Ladakh. With an eminent guest list, Ms.Vasundara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan was the chief guest to flag of the festival. It is a practice to mix different river waters in Sindhu River during this festival. We mixed Kaveri waters into Sindhu, it was divine and wonderful experience. The purity of the river is so amusing. The world seems too drowned in pollution but here is a place which is true nature's gift. The river is surrounded by the great Himalayan peaks. There were some artists on the banks of the river, sketching the scenic beauty. I was there clicking tons of photographs. A fabulous place!

Museum: Next, on the list was 'Hall of Fame', an army museum showcasing cultural and military heritage of Ladakh. There were many inspiring quotes and photographs of brave warriors and our valiant Indian armed forces, who fought to protect our motherland from China and Pakistan. It holds artifacts like diaries, letters of army men and many memories and information on Kargil war. Our Indian Flag flies high in the center of Himalayan peaks.

Leh Palace: The palace is an old archaeological monument which stands tall on peaks of Ladakh. An entire city view is seen from the palace. Inside the palace, there is a small Buddha Idol and a small archaeological museum. Though, all I could see was sand, barren lands, and half-built houses, it had something captivating about it. As we went in, it was as though the whole building was broken and fixed using Glue! No offense, but maintenance was poor. 


A tip out of experience: As the places are at high altitudes, do walk slowly and take long breaths. Sip water regularly and don't dehydrate the body. And, don't tend to wrap up all the places in a day, take it slow and rejoice.