Leh

Today we proceeded towards leh.WE missed alchi on the way.For those interested alchi is about 20-30 kms from lamayaru and its on slight deviation from leh road.We reached leh after our futile attempts to experience magnetic hill experience enroute.We reached leh at around 12:30 pm .We then checked in oriental guest house,changspa.Its a really great guest house and facilities are great.there are three classes of rooms and we stayed at highest A class which we were charged 1300 rs per day.Facilities include restuarant,internet center,laundry,library.In the afternoon i went for short hike to shanti stupa.Its perched at top of hill and there is about 500 steps leading to it.There is direct road connectivity to the stupa.I prayed for few minutes at gompa there and paintings there illustrate life of Buddha.Then i took snaps of shanti stupa.The paintings on the stupa are amazing.It also provides panoramic views of leh town.Recommended .In the evening i went to bazaar and bought some souvernirs.Bring some excess cash as i found a lot of copper artifacts worth buying.Besides there are goods with nice embroidery.Throughout leh i found lots of restuarants having israeli,french,german,english,chinese receipes in thier menu.SO NO FOOD PROBLEM.

The next day we went for local sightseeing of Shey,Thikshey and Hemis gompa.Shey Gompa was top of a small hillock and nothing special.It was touristy and lacked the effect as in Lamayaru monastery.Next we moved to Thikshey.In Thikshey there are two entrances.we took the back entrance and had to climb a lot.But the Front enterance probably had less climbing as people of all ages came through that way.We were charged rs 30 for the gompa and museum visit.It had a huge Buddha and the statue was magnificent.It would be more beautiful in night i guess.The museum contained artifacts of various buddhist gods.We proceeded to Hemis then.The gompa was had fairly large number of visitors and it lacked the atmosphere we found in Lamayaru.They charged 50 rupees per person for entering and it included the visit to the museum.the museum was quite big and informative .In my opinion if you visit lamayaru and alchi you can very well skip these monasteries.

Third day we went for rafting arranged by splash adventures.It was my first time and ride from leh to chilling took about 2 hours.most of time we rode parrallel to the road and river sometimes looked tame but in certain spot it looked ominous.The rapids were frightening and deep inside fear started to engulf me.We finally reached the rafting point and after wearing the safety equipments we were given instruction.Then we started rafting 12 am .Its only the first raide you fear the most.in our case it was flowing with quite some force.our raft went down and i amost fell into water and one side of raft went high with water and other side low.iwas on the lower side.I managed to keep my balance and soon we managed to cross the rapid.we were six in number and people of age groups.In between rafts we would chat and enjoy the calm water but when rapid came we followed the instruction and throughout the journey of about 1:30 minutes nobody fell into water.we went through many number of rapids in level 2 -3 and everytime it was a great experience .The raft would would sway with the water and sitting on its sides , we had to maintain balance.we also went through gorges and scenary was amazing.It was great experience rafting an i would raft everytime if i get a chance.