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Published: September 3rd 2021
Day-2: 24-08-2021 - Sham Valley
Sham valley tour includes Gurudwara Pathhar Sahib, Magnetic hill, Confluence of Indus and Zanskar rivers, Alchi monastery and Lamayuru monastery. These are on Leh-Srinagar highway.
We had not included Lamayuru because of the distance and travel time. Leh to Alchi is ~70 km one-way and Lamayuru is 125 km one-way.
Our driver squeezed in local sightseeing on Day-2. It became more tiring but in hind-sight, we would have missed local sightseeing altogether as there was a strike in Leh on our Day-6.
We started with Shanti Stupa. One should visit in the morning as evenings become very windy up there. You can see the whole of Leh from here.
Our next stop was at the “Hall of Fame” - a war museum by the Indian Army. . The museum is very informative about the wars fought by the Army and gallantry of our soldiers. There are many good, interesting exhibits. More emphasis is naturally on the Kargil war of 1999, efforts of BRO (Border Road Organization) - post Kargil in establishing road connectivity in Kashmir and Ladakh and the Siachen sector. It highlights
the strategic importance of the Ladakh region.
Next was the Magnetic Hill: This is an interesting natural phenomena. There is a small depression just before climbing a small hill. At a specific point (marked on the road), you bring your car, switch off the engine, and the car starts rolling forward, for a few feet, uphill.
According to Wikipedia, this is optical illusion-
“Magnet Hillis a "Cyclops
hill" located near
Leh in
Ladakh,
India.The layout of the area and surrounding slopes create the
optical illusion of a hill. The hill road is actually a downhill road. Objects and cars on the hill road may appear to roll uphill in defiance of gravity when they are, in fact, rolling downhill.”
This version does not appear to be true. If in reality, it is a down-hill slope, the car should continue to roll and accelerate. Whereas, it actually slows down after a few feet and stops.
Anyway, an interesting spot.
Moving further, we passed Gurudwara Patthar Sahib (driver suggested a halt on the way back).
Confluence of Rivers - Indus (Sindhu) and Zanskar. After having seen the confluence of mighty Alaknanda and Bhagirathi (to form Ganga)
at Devprayag, this was very ordinary in comparison. From here, the river flows into Pakistan as Sindhu. River rafting is done in this area. There is a very small canteen for food. For us, this was just another tick in the sightseeing list - not impressed. It was too hot. In entire Ladakh you don’t get tree shade anywhere.
Alchi Monastery (defunct - in ruins): Reached at 1.15 pm. Lunch time. First restaurant was serving traditional Ladakhi food like Thukpa. It was overcrowded and we are not adventurous - food wise. The second one - we tried - served Momo and Veg fried rice. Both were simply horrible. Momos are quite popular in Ladakh. On the internet I found many varieties of it. We had Momos twice - and both were absolutely and similarly tasteless. I would prefer to go hungry…..Third restaurant we came across after visiting the monastery - Zimskhang - appeared to be much better. The monastery is not worth visiting - for that matter, Alchi can be skipped. Either you return from Confluence or go all the way up to Lamayuru. As non-Buddhist, Hemis and Thicksey (Day-3) and Diskit (Day-4) are enough.
On the way
back, we stopped at Gurudwara Patthar Sahib, constructed and maintained by the Indian Army. Very nice, very peaceful, well maintained - true to the traditions of the Army. They serve a wonderful cup of tea (the best in 6 days). There is a historical boulder (stone) associated with Guru Nanak - and hence the name.
It was a tiring hot day.
V-1: At Shanti Stupa:
