The Himalayan Desert: Ladakh - Day 1 & 2

Ladakh is the eastern district in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, bordered by Kargil to the west, Himachal Pradesh to the south & Tibet to the east. The region has a dry, "cold desert" climate, and is very sparsely populated. Leh is the capital city, and if located on the banks of the Indus river. Post 2009 (i.e. after Pangong Tso was prominently featured in the Bollywood movie "3 Idiots"), Leh has been known to have become very touristy. Even the remote banks of Pangong Tso are thronged with tourists during summer. So we naturally decided to go at the onset of winter... the time when all the tourists head back towards the plains.

Day-1: The First Glimpse of the Cold Desert

Flying in to Leh from Delhi, was a surreal experience. Due to the great heights of the Himalayan ranges, it seemed like our plane was just skimming the ground, and not flying at 30,000 feet.  

Feels like you can reach out and touch the mountains here.

The airport is located in a small clearing surrounded by rust-coloured craggy peaks. Despite this, the landing was smoother than some in larger cities! A rickety old mini-bus takes you from the plane to the terminal.

A small spartan airport with a rugged landscape.

Leh is situated at an altitude of 3,500 m (11,500 feet), and there are signs all over the airport on altitude sickness. This was the first time both my wife and me had ventured this high in the Himalayas, and we had been advised by doctors to start medication (Diamox) the night before the trip. We had ignored this advice, and thought we'll deal with the problem when it presents itself. While driving to the hotel (The Grand Dragon), our driver Jordan also advised us on the medication, saying in broken hindi "Aap logon ko zaroorat hoga" i.e. "you people from the plains need the medicine".

The first day in Leh is always spent in acclimatization. This is to prevent altitude sickness, irrespective of if you are popping the diamox pills or not. On reaching the hotel, we headed straight for their breakfast buffet, and enjoyed a nice slow breakfast in the sunshine outside.

 

Kawah in the winter sun.

The hotel lawns and rooms face the "Stok Kangri" range, and we spent sometime looking at the arid mountains. The different ranges seemed to be painted in different colours - deep blue for the farthest ones to a yellow ochre to the nearer ones.

Room with a view.

We started feeling the effects of the high altitude by mid-day. Although neither of us felt any nausea, dissiness or headache - all signs of altitude sickness as per the altitude sickness flyer kept in the room. However, there was a general feeling of lethargy and tiredness, and even walking up two flights of stairs got us breathing heavy. We spent the time organizing and negotiating the itinerary for the next few days with the hotel's travel agent. One of the disadvantages of the winter travel was that most tour organizers were closed for the season. So we had to deal with the higher rates of the hotel-organized taxis. The itinerary included the Indus confluence on Day-2, Pangong Tso (a lake close to the border with China) on Day-3, and Leh Palace & Hemis Monastery on Day-4. Pangong Tso was quite steep at Rs. 8,800 for a round trip, but this included packed food and oxygen cylinders.

Day-2: The Mighty Indus, Ancient Monasteries, and Guru Nanak in Leh

The next day, we woke up almost fully acclimatized, and were ready for the trip. I had asked for the same driver who had picked us up from the airport - Jordan. Off we went after breakfast - driving a short distance out of Leh town to the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers. The Indus is one of the great rivers of the Indian Subcontinent, and significant in that it gave the nation it's name. Called "Sindhu" in ancient Vedic texts, it soon became "Hindu" and "Hind" to Arabs who could not pronounce the 'S', and the French silenced off the 'H' into "Inde", which the English then called "India". The oldest known civilizations in India settled along the banks of this river. The Indus was to us what the Euphrates was to Mesopotamia and the Nile to Egypt. The might of the river is very apparent, as it changes the landscape near Leh - carving out a thin oasis of grass and poplar trees which stand is stark contrast to the slate grey mountains.

The Indus supporting tree life in the barren mountains

On the way, we also encountered the so-called "Magnetic Hill" outside Leh. The urban legend is that the hill has magnetic properties that moves your car forward with the engine off, even though it is uphill. One of the explanations is that the road looks like it is uphill due to optical illusion, but is actually downhill.

"Magnetic Hill" outside Leh.

The Zanskar is a tributary that joins the Indus at almost a right angle. The turquoise colours of the two rivers really stand out among the mountains.

Confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers.

Jordan drove us right up to the banks of the confluence. There was just one more tourist family there, so the off-season trip seems to have paid off here. We could enjoy the beauty of the place without jostling with tourists.

Confluence of the Indus and Zanskar - up close.

We sat on the banks and enjoyed a cup of Kashmiri kawah tea, before moving on to Alchi village - home to a 11th century monastery. The drive to Alchi was a long one winding through high plateaus, and interestingly, while it was cold outside, the car gets quite uncomfortably hot due to the strong sunshine. It was a very strange feeling - a bit too warm inside the car, but if you touch the window pane, it's freezing cold!

Alchi village turned out to be almost completely shut down and deserted. We could see empty guest houses, deserted "German" bakeries and tourist souvenir shops. It is probably quite vibrant in the summers, but now there was not a single tourist around. Alchi monastery is actually a collection of small shrines and temples in this village.

Sumstek temple in Alchi Monastery

Unfortunately, the Lama of the temple was also taking a off-season break, and we had to wait for him, as he had locked the main temple and gone shopping! We did visit some of the ancient shrines, and got to mix the the few locals who were praying there. The recurring theme was the four-directions Guardian Buddhist deity. We did not take any pictures inside as the shrines had wall paintings all over, and we did not want the flash to degrade the ancient pigment.

On the way back from Alchi, we visited the Gurudwara "Patthar Sahib". Legend has it that when Guru Nanak was visiting Ladakh, he meditated at this place. An evil demon was tormenting the people around this area, and this demon decided to attack the Guru by rolling a large boulder towards him. It so happened that the boulder did not harm the meditating Guru, but turned soft as molten wax and and acquired an impression of the Guru's back. The Gurudwara is built around this boulder, and hence "Patthar Sahib". It is now run by the Indian Army, and we joined in the langar or free lunch after visiting the shrine.

Next on the itinerary was the "Thiksey Monastery". This monastery has a history starting from the 15th century, and is the largest monastery in Ladakh.

Entrance to Thiksey village.

The Monastery is built on the side of a hill, in the typical Tibetan architecture. It is said to be built as a replica of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. A row of "chorten" stupas line the bottom tier, with various Monastery buildings after that, and the main building at the top.

Thiksey Monastery.

Climbing up the steps to the main Monastery building, we got to see great views of the Thiksey village.

View of the village.

 Inside, there are many temples, with hardly a soul around, as it was the start of winter. We spent some time meditating in the Maitreya Buddha temple. Unfortunately, I dont have any pictures of this , but the Maitreya Buddha statue is huge - it starts on the ground floor of the temple, and extends up to the first floor.

View from the inside the main monastery - the Maitreya Buddha temple is on the left.

 I guess photography was prohibited (I dont really remember), or we were too spellbound to click pictures. Wikipedia has a picture of the statue in their article on Thiksey Monastery.

Monastery courtyard.

After Thiksey, there was one more place to see - this was the Shey Palace. This palace was used by the ruler of Ladakh as a summer capital. Strangely, the palace did not look like a palace at all. It is a very simple - drab even - grey coloured building. Inside are some simple buildings with Tibetan prayer wheels and large chorten/stupas.

Stupa inside Shey Palace.

Overall, it does not look like a palace at all, but more like a very simple building. In fact, Thiksey Monastery looked way more majestic and imposing than Shey Palace. Perhaps it was deliberate that  religious buildings were made to look more splendid than royal buildings. A King was, after all, not larger than God.
We ended the day with a visit to the Leh market. There is a Mughal-era mosque at the end of the market street. This was built during Aurangzeb's rule, as a compensation to the Mugals for sending troops to help crush an invasion from a neighboring princely state.

Mughal-era mosque. Leh Palace can also be seen in the background (above, right).

The Leh market is a bit disappointing, as it hardly has any local shops. Sindh Bakerries and Punjab Dhabas, and Kashmiri Pashmina stores are prominent, while the local, Ladhaki shops are few. We walked in to one of these little shops, and got some tea, and then returned back to the hotel. Tomorrow we were scheduled for a longer drive to Pangong-Tso.

Dubrovnik to Split & Back: Day-4 and 5 in Croatia

The next day, after a nice breakfast at the Hotel Komodor in Dubrovnik, we got into the Peugeot 308, and off we went to Split. I had Google Maps showing the way, and the route took us over the Dubrovnik bridge, and followed the beautiful Adriatic coastline.

Driving along the coast.

With hills on one side, and the turquoise sea on the other, this turned out to be one of the most spectacularly scenic ride that I have driven on. We soon came up to the border checkpost, at Neum. Vehicles slowed down here for passport check. We made it through without any hassles, and were now driving in Bosnia. After about 10 km, we stopped at another checkpost, where again, our passports were checked and stamped. Now we were back in Croatia!

The roads widened into a expressway soon, and we were doing good speeds. We reached the hotel in Split - The Radisson - just in time for  lunch. At lunch, there was an old waiter who kept apologizing for the delay. We finally got our food - great food with hearty portions, as usual - and called for the check. It was 180 Kuna, and we intended to leave 200 Kuna as "keep the change". What we actually did was leave 200 Euros as "keep the change"! The old waiter burst out laughing, and joked with us, "Whats this! I'm rich!" Of course, he gave us the Euro back, and we paid the right amount in Kunas.
After this, we headed out to the "Diocletian Palace" - the main tourist attraction in Split.

Diocletian Palace - Split.

The "palace" is actually a small city-fortress, right at Split harbour. It was built during the Roman times - around 4th century AD - as the retirement home for the Roman emperor Diocles. Diocles was from Dalmatia - the Adriatic cost of Croatia - and that's why he built his retirement home here.

Diocletian Palace is a square fortress, with four gates in the four cardinal directions - named the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron Gates. We entered by the East Gate (which was named Silver, I think). All along the entrance are several small shops, selling mainly summer clothes, lavender, and other souvenirs. We entered and joined the "Red Umbrella" walking tour of the place, and our guide (a lady whose name I forget now), told us about the history of the place.

Inside Diocletian's palace

Inside is a small square, with a cathedral and bell tower to the left (these were later additions to the Roman palace), a narrow lane leading to museums and the Temple of Jupiter on the right, and the crypts straight ahead.

The whole place has a very touristy feel to it, with bars, cafes and restaurants all around the narrow lanes. However, one can still get in touch with the history of the place. There is an Egyptian Sphinx at one end of the square. Our guide explained that this was one of the surviving Sphinxes of many that Diocles had got from Egypt.

The Sphinx - one of a few that remains relatively undamaged.

The cathedral is also Diocles' mausoleum. It was converted to a cathedral in the 5th century AD. The legend goes that this was the ultimate revenge, as Diocles severely persecuted Christians during his rule. Our guide claimed that it was Diocles' son-in-law who persecuted Christians, as Diocles himself was too sick to rule during this time.

The Bell Tower - added in the 13th century.

Directly above the crypts, is the area called the "Vestibule", which is a room with a large hemispherical dome. This was part of Diocles' royal apartment. The acoustics of the place was demonstrated by a group of choir singers.

Inside the Palace.

Several places had Roman-era tiles and motifs. Our tour guide also showed us one gate which was decorated with what looked like Indian swastikas, and Shiv's dumru.

Roman-era mosaic tiles.

Swastikas and Dumru design on a gateway

These designs did look very much like the Hindu Swastika. It may have been Indian influence in Greek art after Alexander's failed invasion of India. Our walking tour took us from the Silver Gate to the Golden Gate, or the northern entrance of the city. Here there is a later statue of Bishop Gregory.

Statue of Bishop Gregory - no connection to Diocles or his palace.

After the tour ended, we visited the museum, and then climbed up the Bell Tower for a splendid view of Split harbor.

View of the harbor from the Bell Tower.

We still had not seen the cathedral/mausoleum or Jupiter's temple, as both were closing down for the day. So we walked around looking for a place to eat. There were a whole lot of restaurants and cafes to choose from.

Cafes all over the place.

 While we were walking around, the waitress from one of these restaurants guessed what we were looking for. "We have WiFi", she said, and that was what clinched the deal! However, the food was pretty good there too.

Leg of Ham at the restaurant.

After the dinner, we headed back to the hotel, and spent a while on the beach. It was a moonlit night, and the moon reflecting in the water made it a perfect night. Pity that my iPhone camera was not great at capturing this moment.

Moonlit Adriatic.

Dubrovnik: Day-3 & 4 in Croatia

The next day mid-morning, after checking out of the Double Tree Hotel in Zagreb, we headed straight to the restaurant recommended by the Bosnian taxi driver. Gladne-Oci was a short walk from the hotel, and we settled down for an early lunch.

At Gladne-Oci, Fried Croatian bread - an appetizer we got hooked to.

The food here was really good, and in large (really large) portions. We realized a single main course dish could have fed us both. After the heavy lunch, we set off for the airport to catch our short flight to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is Croatia's top tourist destination, on the Adriatic coastline. It has been made famous recently due to the Game of Thrones connection (episodes featuring King's Landing were shot there).
We landed in Dubrovnik in the early evening, and took a taxi to the hotel - Hotel Komodor. We realized our first mistake then - the taxi was quite expensive, around 40 Euros. The hotel itself was not very impressive. Rooms were small, not very comfortable, but still live-able for a few days. In anycase, we did not plan to spend much time in the hotel room!
 As soon as we were settled, I headed out to a nearby car rental shop, and got a Peugeot on rent. We needed the car, as we were planning to drive down to Split later. I am not a big fan of Peugeots, but this was no Hertz rental - this was the only car available, and the rental agreement was a small slip of paper with the owner scribbling the rates on it! We drove towards the old town, and I missed a turn, and almost headed half-way back to the airport before realizing this. However, this wrong turn got us to the cliffs above the old town for some great views.

View of the old town.

 We finally drove into the old town, parked in a lot, and a short walk later, were at the main "Pile Gate" entrance. There are a number of paid tours, including Kayak tours. Since it was evening, the tours were all closing down for the day. We entered the gates and started discovering places on our own.

Pile Cove - aka "Blackwater Bay"

We ended the evening by heading for the well-known "bar-on-the-cliffs" or Buza bar. A small doorway and a narrow flight of stairs leads to this place. We almost missed it, as you wouldn't realize a bar could be behind such a narrow doorway.

Buza bar - on the cliffs.

Zagreb & Pltvice: Day-1 and 2 in Croatia

We landed in Zagreb, Croatia on a rainy Saturday afternoon in July 2016. This being our first trip to Eastern Europe, I was getting a "Kings Ottokar's Spectre" vibe. Like Tintin, we traveled via Frankfurt, Germany. Unlike Tintin, the pilot did not throw us off the plane! We landed in Zagreb and took a taxi to our hotel - Double Tree - in downtown Zagreb.

View from the hotel room

The city seems to have elements of both Eastern & Western Europe in it's character. There are parks, cafes, cobbled streets, cathedrals and museums, with a tram line running through it.

"Ulisca Grada Vukovaara" street

Our first destination was the Zagreb Cathedral, or the "Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary" which is usually the top tourist destination. Even though it was a weekend, the place was not too crowded.

Zagreb Cathedral

It's a lovely Gothic-style church, somewhat similar to the Notre Dame in Paris. Two tall spires flank it, with statues and carvings all over the entrance.

Statues at the entrance

Cambodia Travelouges Part 3: Kbal Spean and Bantey Srei

While in Siem Reap, we were staying at a nice boutique hotel called "Indochine Pavillion". 
Thanks to a guide book in the hotel, we came to know of a place known as "The River of a Thousand Lingas", a.k.a. Kbal Spean. It sounded like an interesting place to see, once the more touristy temples like Angkor Wat & Bayon are already done. So we inquired at the reception and arranged for a visit to the place. The helpful staff also suggested to visit another temple called "Bantey Srei" on the way back.

Kbal Spean - The Bridge Head

KbalSpean translates to "Bridge Head", and is a natural constriction of the river Tonle Sap. The rocks on the river bed are carved with many Shiv-lingas, and other figures from Hindu mythology. Like most names in Siem Reap, "River of Thousand Lingas" does not mean that there are actually 1,000 of them, but mean that there are a "great many". The site is a bit of a way off from Siem Reap and the Angkor archeological park area, and requires a half-day trip by tuk-tuk or taxi. I opted for the taxi, as it is faster, and would save us some extra time to see other places too. We also got to know from tripadvisor that to reach the place one has to trek for about 40 minutes through the jungle. Some posts in tripadvisor forums actually discouraged tourists from going to Kbal Spean because of this trek, but for us, it was the icing on the cake (both me and my wife love a good trek, especially in when it's through an enchanting jungle path like this one). The trek is not too difficult, although at some places, the path is a bit rocky.

Starting off the trek.

Jungle path to reach Kbap Spean.

The trek leads you to a spot where the river is flowing over a number of large rocks, which are carved. The one most striking ones if the "Reclining Vishnu".

First sight of the river.

"Reclining Vishnu" in Kbal Spean.

The rocks on the bed of the river is also carved with lingas. These Lingas are supposed to signify fertility, and the people believe the Tonle Sap river is blessed with fertility due to these carvings.

This is why it's called "River of a Thousand Lingas"

On reaching the spot, we got a local guide who was hanging around there. The guy did not really push us to hire him, but offered to show us good spot for photos, and some difficult-to-find carvings.

You may miss this without a guide.

Another difficult-to-find carving hidden in the roots of a tree.

After exploring all the carvings in the river bed, there is a great spot where you can cool off under the waterfall. It's a welcome and refreshing break from the heat! Here it was useful that we had a guide with us, as he offered to hold our bags, and also click pictures for us, like the one below!

Fun spot to cool off! Careful of slippery rocks, though.

After exploring Kbal Spean, and paying our guide (he happily accepted 10 US dollars) our taxi driver took is for lunch at a nearby Cambodian restaurant. The food was not quite remarkable (not bad, either). What was interesting was the Cambodian version of spring-rolls. Unlike the deep-fried, oily variety, that is the norm in all Chinese restaurants in India,  these were very fresh & salad-y with a delicately thin steamed rice-paper & lettuce wrap.

Very fresh and green sprint rolls.

 

Bantey Srei - The Citadel of Women

I'm not really sure why this temple is translates to "The Citadel of Women". The temple is built of reddish-pink sandstone, and not as large as Angkor Wat or Bayon. But, what is really striking about it is the extremely detailed sculpture on the walls. The guidebook says that this temple is the most "Indian-inspired" of the Cambodian temples, and seeing it, I could agree that this is true.

Entrance to Bantry Srei

Close up of the entrance.

The carvings remind one of other temples in South India like the Shore Temple in TN, and Hampi, and Belur/Halebidu in Karnataka (both of which we also visited after this trip). It's almost as if a team of Indian temple sculptors landed in Cambodia, and decided "OK, let's show these folks what we can do!" 
Not a single inch is left un-carved here. It's really like there was a deliberate effort to fill in every last bit of space with carvings. There's carvings depicting Hindu gods, as well as scenes from epics like the Ramayana.

The detail is impressive.

Scene from Ramayan - Bali and Sugreeva's fight.

A lovely tree in a pond outside the temple, with red flowers scattered in the water.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video maybe worth a million. So here's one each of Kbal Spean...


and Bantey Srei...