Uletopo -> Leh

Sunday, 6 September 2015

Along the way to Leh we visited Alchi, an 11th Century monastery and temple complex that was just far enough off the main road to be hidden from most looting and plundering over the centuries.

The way to the monuments was lined with vendors selling all sorts of souvenirs.

Drying apricots. Ladakh grows a lot of apricots, and the apricot harvest was pretty much complete by this time.

Photography is not allowed in the temples. This is a fresco from outside the Sumtsek Temple.

The frescoes inside the temples are very similar to this one inside a stupa where photography was allowed. The temples also had spectacular clay statues of the Buddha and bodhisattvas.

Some of the larger stupas are unusual in that they are hollow with passages through them. Even more unusual, two of them had detailed frescoes in them (previous photo). On the outside they don't look very attractive!

Three little girls were playing around the stupas.

As befits a cold climate, the street dogs in Kashmir and Ladakh have much longer and thicker fur than in the warmer parts of India.

We had to wait while a large army convoy passed. The trucks just kept on coming -- probably about 50 of them.

We made a brief photo stop at Basgo to view the ruins of the fort and summer palace of the king of Ladakh. The palace is being restored and plans to open to the public in a few years.

The Indus Valley at Basgo is lush with trees and barley fields -- but only where water is available.

Eroded columns of rock along the highway.

Our second photo stop was at the confluence of the Zanskar River (middle of image, very silty) and the Indus River (coming in from the left side).

The mountains at this spot show distinct strata.