Week 8: Nubra Valley

28/06/09

This week has definitely been a highlight of our time in Ladakh so far. As Tom mentioned last week, Jason booked us a jeep for 3 days and 2 nights in the Nubra Valley – and it was amazing.

On Friday morning, after an obligatory cup of tea at Yung Chen’s house, the five of us – Tom, Yung Chen, Yang Dul (Yung Chen’s daughter), Jason and I – began the 6 hour drive up and over the Ladakh Range, along the highest motorable road in the world, into Nubra. It took us two hours to traverse a hair-raising 40km ascent to the top of the Khardung La (18,380 ft). As we got near the top the road surface quickly deteriorated due to rivers of melted snow flowing down them. We bounced through potholes and over stones excavated by the running water with nothing but thin air between the edge of the road and 100-metre drop below. We round a blind hair-pin bend in the road and are unexpectedly confronted by an oncoming truck. Our backs are gently thrown from our seats as the driver hits the brakes, knees clench, hearts stop and then we fall back into our seats again, relieved to still be on the road and not to be at the bottom of the mountain mangled in the carcass of the car – the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of future tourists. Slowly, the two vehicles inch past each other and we’re off again. Fortunately there is a fantastic view over Leh and the surrounding mountains to distract us and soon enough we’re joking about again.

The reason for going to the Nubra Valley is not necessarily to visit some certain attraction but just to experience it. No matter how many photos we took, we couldn’t take one that really showed how spectacular the land forms were and the sheer scale of everything. Nubra is hemmed in by the Karakoram Mountains to the north and the Ladakh Range to the south. The Shyok River runs parallel to the Ladakh Range and the Nubra River flows into it from north to south. Along both of these valley floors, at the bottom of the huge, steep-sided reddish-brown mountains, are scattered a number of very fertile villages. On our second night we stayed in Panamik, a village as far north as a visitor can go, which was built on an alluvial fan which had fallen from the mountains behind it into the valley below in which the huge blue Nubra RiverGrand Canyon. A terrace was suddenly swallowed up, rivers had carved enormous gullies and crevasses in the rock until all that was left was like a bar code. Except for the villages, everything was barren. The only things that would grow were tough shrubs and the only animals that seemed to be able to live there were camels, donkeys and lizards. We flew along the mountainsides and occasionally across the valleys filled with white rounded rocks and pebbles brought down by the rivers. We kept wishing we had a geologist with us to tell us about all the rock types and landforms. braided over a width of perhaps 500m. There were hundreds of these alluvial fans, like the tail-ends of huge sandy wedding dresses flowing down from the mountains. Other parts of Nubra were like the

Our first stop in Nubra was Deskit where there is a small Lamdon school with a hostel. We had a tasty lunch of momos and noodles and then, glad for a chance to stretch our legs, went for a short walk to see the school. We met some of the staff who we bumped into the next day when we went for a 30-minute camel ride in some sand dunes (!). The school was having their summer picnic and so they invited us for butter tea after our undulating ride. The camels were two-humped Bactrian camels which are descendants of the camels who used to travel along the main trade routes through Central Asia and into Leh. They weren’t the most comfortable animals to ride on but we all enjoyed the strange experience.

After seeing Deskit we continued west along the Shyok River for another 7km to Hundar where we found a nice guesthouse and went for a walk along one of the river’s tributaries. We found an old mill and walked upstream through the trees and chortens up to a bridge which is another dead-end for tourists (very clearly stated by a number of armed military men on the other side).

On the second day we misguidedly had it in mind to go to see the Siachen glacier. However, we hadn’t yet realized that it was outside the permitted tourist area and is still the scene of military occupation as part of it is in an area which is disputed between Pakistan and India. So we gave that a miss and did the camel ride followed by a visit to Deskit gonpa on our way back and up to the Nubra River. Deskit gonpa is about 700 years old and sits majestically above the town on a big crag. Like the other gonpas we’ve visited so far, there were the usual heavily decorated prayer rooms and statues and rooms with prayer books in them. What was interesting about this gonpa was how they get their water. It was great having Yung Chen with us because of course she speaks Ladakhi and everybody likes her so whenever we went to visit places we got special treatment and found out more about where we were. In this case, we got shown around the gonpa by a monk who also took us round the back and further up the long crag to show us the deep gorge and how the monks used to climb down the almost vertical 100m rock face to collect buckets of water. Now they have a long water supplying pipe which goes far back up into the gorge to a point where the river is above the gonpa. However, sometimes the pipe needs repairing for which a rope is attached to a big rock at the top for the monks to abseil down and along the cliff face on. Om mani padme hum.

In the afternoon we drove north along the Nubra River through the village of Sumur on to Panamik. After finding a nice family-run guesthouse there and eating more momos we drove 4km upriver to cross the bridge and then 4km back downriver to the bottom of the path which led up to Ensa gonpa – a tiny, 800 or 900 year old gonpa looked after by one monk half way up a large rocky hill. The path wasn’t very obvious but it was a great climb. First we scrambled up a small steep slope of loose slate and then found a slightly more obvious path which zigzagged up the hillside, marked here and there by small piles of rocks. After about half an hour of working our way up the slippery sandy path we got to the top. Thanks to Yung Chen we got a tour around the place and got invited to have tea with the monk. We sat in a room which overlooked the valley. It was coming towards the end of the day and the sun was falling on Panamik with its tall green poplar trees and lush green barley, sometimes interrupted by a haze of purple heather and splashes of yellow mustard fields.

We all slept very well that night but woke up early the next morning to go down the road to the hot springs before breakfast. The actual spring was further up the hill but the water had been channeled down the hill to a small building of two rooms where it came out of a pipe. Although the water cools as it comes down the hill it’s still quite hot when it comes into the building. So we had nice warm showers, followed by chapattis before setting off on our way back to Leh. On the way we stopped once along the Nubra River where there was a short walk to a nice lake. It was a baking hot day and, although there was some greenery and wildlife around the lake, once you got beyond the low hills surrounding it, it was like stepping into a desert. The car in the distance was wobbly with heat haze and we were glad for the breeze coming through the window when we set off again.

Out last stop before leaving Nubra was the Samstanling gonpa near Sumur. Recently, the head lama of the prominent Spituk monastery died. His reincarnation was found in Nubra and currently lives in the Samstanling gonpa and so of course with our travel guru, Yung Chen, we got the chance to visit him. When we first arrived he was playing with his train set but when he saw us he waved his hand to tell us to come in and his minder took him through to the room next door so he could give us his blessings. We each gave him a white silk scarf and he gave us an orange string. Being only 3 years old, he was a little impatient and went to attempt to climb up a wall hanging when he was done but despite that, he seemed to be very understanding of his role.

By the time we all arrived back in Leh we were pretty exhausted but we all thought Nubra was absolutely incredible and were glad to have been.

As for the rest of the week at school, the hostel students made up some short plays again – this time about friendship/family. They all did pretty well which we were pleased with because most of the stronger students weren’t there because they’re still busy studying for their exams. This was quite good for the less confident students as they had to take more initiative. In fact on Wednesday almost all of the students at the girls hostel session were no older than 12. We were planning to do a debate but I figured we wouldn’t get very far with that so instead we played games like Pictionary which they really enjoyed.

On Thursday the huge group of 63 UWCSEA students visited Lamdon. Like the Tanglin group, they brought lots of donations of school equipment. However, this time we got something too – Tom was walking around with a big smile on his face for the rest of the day because the group brought out his nice leather basketball. I’m guessing he’ll be making the most of it next week!