Himalayan India

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Wednesday 18 June

We drove to Stok 10km south of Leh, passing over a bridge over the river Indus that was so festooned with prayer flags we couod not see the river whilst on the bridge.

Stok is a pleasant village, a green oasis set in a valley between the barren mountains, with Stok Palace looking down over it from a rocky mound.

Stok Palace was built in 1840 & is the residence of the Ladakh Royal Family. The last king died in 1974 but his elderly widow still lives in part of the palace. There is a museum displaying some of the fabulous royal jewellry many made with gold, silver, turquoise & coral. There are 35 16th Century Thangkas representing the life of Buddha & a sword twisted into a knot supposedly by the enormous strength of Tashi Namgyal, a 16th Century King, to deter his would be attackers.

We visited a small monastery in Stok but it was desserted as the monks were all in Leh to celebrate a religious festival. It was an odd collection of buildings added on at different times with narrow passageways in between.

We had lunch with a Ladakh family in a 170 year old Tibetan style house. We started with salt butter tea, a local favourite but just tasted like butter to me although it looked like tea. Next we had momas, vegetable stuffed dumplings, with thukpa, a thick vegetable soup, followed by vegetable curry. The family were very welcomimg & we ate with them in their large kitchen which had a large decorated stove in the middle & shelves full of shinning pots of all sizes.

We strolled up the valley to let our lunch settle while we enjoyed the views of the mountains all around.

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