Basgo Ruins Of A Bygone Era!

Among the many stunning stops on the Kargil Leh highway Basgo ruins was like a crown of jewels. Just a small detour off the highway took us to these ancient ruins where once stood a massive clay castle and Maitreya temple. This is one of the most treasured monuments of Ladakh. The views from the highway were so captivating that we were attracted towards it. The most unbelievable fact is that this monument was built using clay, stones and wood. These colossal ruins are such treasures not just of Ladakh but the whole World. It is a must visit while on a trip to Ladakh.

Basgo, once capital of Lower Ladakh, was a political and cultural center and now overlooks the ruins of an ancient town. The Basgo Monastery was built by Namgyal rulers in 1680 on top of a clay hill. Later on a castle, also known as Basgo Rabtan Lhartsekhar, was built by the father-son rulers Dharamraja Jamyang Namgyal and Singay Namgyal.

The entire castle is now in ruins and only two temples stand today. Of what remains the massive Maitreya Buddha statue, natural color paintings on the walls, centuries old thankas paint a beautiful tale even today. The folks inside the temple were making miniatures religious offering using clay and butter and some of the offerings were getting a fresh coat of bright red paint.

This historic monument offers breathtaking views of the surrounding hills with different shades of colors. It was really disheartening to see that there are not many visitors to this spectacular sight providing an insight into a bygone era. Soaking in the views for one last time, we continued our journey to Leh. 

The road to Basgo ruins adds on a dash of adventure. En-route on the highway, very close to saspol we really enjoyed our breakfast. We had one of the best maggie thanks to the homemade masala they added. Also, we had "Maiyas" fresh badam milk that was free off any preservatives, artificial flavor and color and had plenty of real crunchy badam flakes. 

One thing we consistently noticed and were in awe with across Ladakh and Ladakhi business was their absence for greed. At every purchase, no matter how remote the village was or how small the business was, we were charged only on MRP every single time especially "In remote corners such as Diskit, Suru just to name a few." In such locations, we totally understand if they would charge us a few more rupees. We were so impressed by their ethics when it comes to running a business. This was in stark contrast to what we come across in the city where from milk packet to bottle water "Cooling Charge" and other dismal reasons are given to charge customers more than MRP. It is not about a rupee or two but the cheapness that most of the businessman in the city go to to make a few extra bucks. Ladakh truly left a brilliant image in our minds.

The entire stretch of highway is adventurous and memorable. Our deepest gratitude to BRO and several hundred others who have toiled real hard to build and maintain such amazing highway so people like us can have an adventure of a lifetime. It was such a joy to ride on these roads that we did the Kargil - Leh stretch not nice but twice and of the 230 km highway the best part in our opinion was the amazing stretch between Likir and Nimmo. The entire stretch had absolute stunning views of the hills and the lengthy stretch is free of any obstacles hindering our view. We simply stood there soaking the views and forever etching them in our memory. 

Soak In Views Of Mesmerizing Moonland From Lamayuru Monastery!

Leh to Srinagar highway is one of the best National highways in India. Apart from the stunning Natural beauty, massive perennial rivers that form deep gorges, high altitude passes, indomitable Buddhist monasteries and sculptures beautify the highway. We rode on this beautiful highway and were on our way to another amazing monastery- Lamayuru Monastery crossing the two awesome passes on the way- Namika La and Fotu La. The highest point on the Srinagar-Leh highway is Fotu la pass and the most challenging one being Zojila Pass while Namika La offers grander views of the surrounding valley.

After crossing Namika La enroute Fotu La, we were stuck for a very long time. A mourning procession was being carried out by the followers of Islam. It was a religious event for which the followers had occupied the entire National highway for quite some time. Vehicles had piled up on either sides for a considerable amount of time. While it is perfectly right to celebrate or moan any religious/ historic event, it is nuisance to occupy a National highway and bring traffic to a standstill in the name of Religious freedom. If any religious ceremony has to be taken out on the streets then why do we have exclusive places of Worship? This was the only sour part of the entire ride as there was no need to occupy a National highway.

After the traffic was cleared, we headed to Fotu La. It was a pleasure riding on these roads and was brilliant to see sheep graze on these steep mountains and at the same time balance themselves. The roads are beautiful and its a sheer delight to ride on these perfect hairpin bend curves and we beamed with pride when we saw an old bajaj scooter turn on these sharp curves with as much ease as our bullet. It was such a beautiful moment.

We finally reached the celebrated 11 century Lamayuru Monastery. Lamayuru is also known as Moonland for it's lunar like landscape. One of the oldest and largest monasteries in Ladakh, Lamayuru means eternal in Tibetan. Also know as Yung Drung, the monastery is home to more than 150 monks and is 127 km from Leh. Legend has it that area was once a lake that dried up and is believed to have been home to around 400 monks earlier.

With most of the structure in ruins, it also houses a cave and is known as cave monastery. Naropa a Buddhist Indian scholar spent years meditating in the cave here. In the 16th century the monastery was declared a holy site where even criminals could seek sanctuary.

The mighty Indus makes this barren land fertile and there are several wooden bridges that connect the highway to the other side of the hill across the river. Like several monasteries in Ladakh region, this centuries old amazing monastery has extensive places of worship, stunning natural color wall paintings, beautiful thankas.

This was the first monastery that we saw which was more like a maze. Narrow pathways led to many chambers and alleys. All religious instruments in this monastery seemed to be covered in gold or silver including the conch. One of the highlights of the monastery is the stunning views of Moonland from here. The entry fee is Rs.50 per person. The highly commercialized monastery has plenty of stay options around.

Alchi- The only Monastery Built In Kashmiri Style Architecture!

On the banks of Indus river, some 65 km from Leh lies the beautiful village of Alchi. We took a small detour on the Leh-Kargil highway and a massive bridge along with a series of small chortens lined across the road welcoming us to the village of Alchi. It is renowned as the oldest Buddhist learning center in Ladakh.

The monastery in Alchi is one of the oldest monasteries in Ladakh and is famous for its Kashmiri style architecture. Another interesting aspect about Alchi monastery is that it is the only monastery that we have been to and know of that is built on plains/low ground unlike others that are usually atop a hill. Administered by Likir Monastery there are several temples within the monastery complex and the Kashmiri style architecture is very evident in the the assembly hall and the main temple which is a three storeyed structure.

The main temple has a stupa in the center surrounded by three gigantic incarnations of Buddha. It is known for its age old paintings that are very well preserved. The wall of the monastery have elaborate paintings depicting teachings of both Buddhist and Hindu kings of that time. These paintings date back to nearly a thousand years and this is one of the reasons that has made the village famous as these paintings have been well preserved. There are elaborate carvings on the wooden doors and pillars of the temples. We were left spellbound by the attention to detail on these paintings and massive carvings. The temple is surrounded by chortens as they were given equal importance during that period.

There is a Tibetan handicraft market that has engulfed the monastery. The massive entry door of Alchi monastery seemed tiny in front of the hundreds of shops around that sell souvenirs. The array of shops selling souvenirs reminded us of many famous Places Of Worship where the stall owners try to sell their products and make you feel guilty for not offering anything to the Gods. While this kind of put us off, the simple and stunning monastery was worth it.

Alchi was not just home to an age old monastery but was also home to a palace which now is in absolute ruins. This palace compound was strikingly similar to that of Leh palace. The views from atop the palace ruins of the surrounding hills would be captivating to say the least. It would be a perfect place to watch the sun go down behind the hills.

The Alchi monastery is mobbed by several guest houses and stay options and you would be spoilt for choice. The village is super commercialized with many fancy restaurants and posh hotels catering to different budgets.

Home stays always give us an amazing comfortable experience that no posh hotel can match up. We strategically chose our home stay a kilometer away from the monastery- "Chhoskar Homestay." The distance made sure that we had a very pleasant and serene stay experience. We picked a room at the top most floor that offered us amazing views of the abandoned palace compound and the hills. The best part about the home stay is the magical lawn that has amazing seating arrangements and a hammock which made it the ideal place to sip mint tea and enjoy lovely evenings. Their garden has several apricot and apple trees.

The comfortable rooms had clean sheets, geyser fitted attached bath and wifi. The hosts were very nice and kind people. They treated us with fresh apricots right from their garden and amazing mint tea. We got a steal deal of Rs.800 per day. The icing on the cake was we had an open terrace all for ourselves and at nightfall we had amazing views of starlit sky.

Taking a stroll around the village, we were surprised to see so many apricots not just in the locals' homes but strewn around the streets and it looked like an apricot village. This beautiful sight continued on the Kargil- Leh highway as well. We were way too tempted and decided to stop on the highway and treated ourselves to these yummy fruits. Most of the highways have trees that are not fruit bearing and the fruit bearing ones are usually a part of a farm. This was our first time spotting such yummy fruit bearing trees on the highway for all to enjoy.

Abode of Stunning Waterfalls & Caves- Cherrapunji!

The last leg of our 50 day backpacking trip across Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya took us through some of the extremely beautiful rural villages of India and what better way for a grand finale than a stop over at Cherrapunji. A place that held the title of "The Wettest Place On Earth" for years is now in competition with Mawsynram for the title. A friendly tug of war for the title 'wettest place' is for sometime going on between Cherrapunji and Mawsynram.

Meghalaya is famous for a number of scenic waterfalls, natural living root bridges, caves and some brilliant landscapes. This journey around Cherrapunji on beautiful mountain roads with stunning green scenic valleys, monoliths and very few homes on the way makes you feel like you are in a different country.

Cherrapunji aka Sohra has some incredible attractions and can be done as a day trip. But apart from these attractions Meghalaya is famous for Living Root Bridges, the only one of its kind in the whole World with the most famous and challenging to reach is the 'Double Decker Root Bridge.' This incredible man made Natural wonder is in Nongriat Village, 20 km from Cherrapunji, and can be reached by trekking over 3500 steps. The trek takes anywhere between 2 - 2.5 hours down and 3- 4 hours to climb up. It would require an overnight stay at Tyrna village as it is not feasible to do a day trip from Shillong.

Cherrapunji is also home to the incredible Nohkalikai Falls, the tallest plunge waterfall in India. It was a mesmerizing sight to watch water cascade down the hills over a height of 1100 feet and plunge into a deep blue natural pool formed at the base of the falls. Even when she is not at her full throttle, it is still captivating and makes you fall in love with Nature. Standing in the viewing gallery we promised ourselves we would be back during monsoon to experience her splendor.

Nohkalikai in Khasi means "Jump of Ka Likai." The story is that a widowed women 'Ka Likai' remarried and her second husband was jealous of her daughter as she would spend most of her time looking after her girl. While, she was at work, he killed the daughter and prepared a meal from her flesh. Upon returning from work, Ka Likai who was hungry finished her meal. Only later, she found her daughter's severed fingers lying around and realized what happened. Unable to control her anger and grief, she plunged to death from the same cliff and the falls has been named after her.

Right adjacent to the view point of Nokalikai Falls small shops set up by villagers sell organic local herbs, spices, pure mountain honey and something similar to a bark of tree. Looking at the sheer size of the bark, we could have never guessed that they were actually selling nothing but 'Dalchini' (Cinnamon.) This amazing spice with medicinal property was being sold at dirt cheap price. At the parking lot, we got a taste of organic fruits from one of the local stalls. They were selling farm fresh fruits neatly cut and plated in leaves. For the very first time in our lives we tasted wild bananas that had seeds the size of pepper corn. It was an awesome experience to relish juicy fruits with the views of the amazing waterfalls.

Meghalaya has plenty of caves to boast and many of them are totally unexplored and un-mapped. Some of these magnificent caves are believed to be the largest in Asia if not the whole World. Cave exploration is yet to take off here with just one initiative taken by the Government of Meghalaya. While most of the caves require proper cave exploration equipment and the guidance of an experienced explorer, Mawsmai cave gives commoners like us an awesome experience of wriggling around and exploring a well lit and traveller friendly cave, minimizing any risk. An entry fee of Rs.20 per head gave us access to this amazing limestone cave. We felt like we were teleported to another World. A relatively large entrance continued to steadily shrink and at one point we had to squeeze ourselves through certain parts.

The stalactites were such amazing work of Nature that certain sections looked like sets of the movie Star wars. The total 150 meter experience unfolds very unique and amazing stalactites and stalagmites formations. Kindly do not wander off the designated trek path as the other larger sections of the caves are cordoned off and are not lit up. It is very easy to get lost and you can forget about any rescue or help arriving.

The exit of the cave is very small and narrow. As we stepped out we were so overwhelmed by the fact that despite having trekked down the 150 meter it was quite unbelievable to imagine that a massive cave lay in front of us. The entire section was completely covered by wilderness.

There are quite a few good restaurants around the caves and it would be the best place to break for lunch.

During our visit to Meghalaya unfortunately the much hyped seven sister waterfalls or Nohsngithiang Waterfalls was dry. It is said that sighting a rainbow here is pretty common which makes this place even more scenic with the water cascading down the hills surrounded by lush greenery and the rainbow in the backdrop. This definitely calls for making another trip to Meghalaya to experience it at its best- during the monsoons.

Apart from the two massive well known falls another falls en route Cherrapunji is the 'Wah Kaba Falls.' A ten minute hike from the main road took us to a view point from where we could see her in full flow.

Another interesting stop over en route is Ramakrishna mission. The place, the person who set it up and his mentor needs no introduction. Their Legacy lives on! "Awake, Arise and Stop Not Till The Goal Is Reached."

While you visit Cherrapunji, try and figure out if it is the weekly market day. A congregation of massive number of local farmers sell a wide range of products here and the best among them are super sweet oranges. It is a must try as this part of the country is very famous for the yummy oranges and is named after it too.

Another product in the market drew our attention- we were baffled to see locals selling a very different looking leaf that was pretty large in size. In a matter of few seconds our curiosity was put to rest. They were nothing but tobacco leaves and a couple of seconds more, we could feel the strong scent of tobacco.

It would be perfect to visit all the places of interest and then head to Tyrna village, the basecamp for the Double decker Living Root Bridge and retire for the day. Early morning next day, would be perfect for the hike to the Root Bridge.