Thursday
There are three ways in which one can arrive in Leh. There is a road which connects Manali in Himachal Pradesh state of India to Leh via Rohtang Pass. Alternatively a road from State capital Srinagar, (Jammu & Kashmir State, India), connects to Leh via Zoji La, Drass and Kargil. It takes minimum two days of crowded bus travel to reach Leh by any of these two routes. The third way is obviously to fly in from Delhi directly. Many people prefer to come by road. The advantage here is that you get acclimatized, while on your way to Leh. I preferred to fly directly from Delhi because firstly I hate such long road journeys by bus and secondly I wanted to spend maximum of my time travelling in Ladakh and not travelling to Ladakh.
My plan for today is to travel to the village of Lamayuru, to visit the Monastery there. The village of Lamayuru is situated about 100 kilometers from Leh on the main Leh- Kargil road between Khaltse town on the Indus river and Buddhkharbu town. In fact this road is now preferred to the old Leh-Kargil road, which was all along the Indus river and passed through Batalik, because it is much safer. People who come in to Leh from Kargil, anyway travel through this village, but seldom stay there. They just have a cursory glance at the monastery and leave. My plan is to stay in the village. My travel agent belongs to this part of Ladakh and has suggested that if we leave early from Leh, we could be in Lamayuru before noon, to watch the annual Pooja ceremony at the Monastery, performed on the day after the yearly festival. This is the reason for my plan to leave Leh town early in the morning.
