Day 2: The once-in-a-lifetime experience that it is -Leh Ladakh!!

And the morning sun shone bright into our rooms invitingly. Since its on the heights, the mornings are pretty early in this part of the country. After having a hearty breakfast, we headed to the very famous "Hemis Monastery " across the rivers, barren mountains, white sand plains spreading out to infinity. The Hemis Monastery is the largest monastic institution in Ladakh. It was a huge square shaped area comprising of two temples and a museum. The architecture bore the the minute writings and paintings dominated by red,white,blue, and green color. While the temples has deities symbolizing the Hindu gods and goddesses, their names and appearances were very interesting and equally intriguing! There was a priest reciting their holy scripture continuously in a microphone; his voice and chants resounded the whole monastery giving it a pious feeling. One of the most interesting things I found there was that In front of every deity, there were seven bowls filled with liquid (the numbers five, seven and nine hold a lot of importance and significance),  and there lie bottles of liquor. They say it is the way of praising the Lord and offerings such as these makes their wishes come true. Strange but similar to the Hindu and Muslim culture too.

The monastery was designed in the 17th century and it's architecture boasts of the years it has survived. The wooden flooring and ceilings, the narrow wooden stairs leading to the third floor of the monastery giving you a picturesque view of the rocky Mountains and barren surroundings are truly breathtaking!

The next most interesting place is the Hemis museum that keeps you glued with each passing miniature. When you enter, there are souvenirs in the forms of paintings, t-shirts, fridge magnets, wall hangings, books, maps, flags, jackets, shawls, engraved pens, dragon miniatures, diaries et al. very reasonably priced. One can buy the souvenirs from here as there's a huge variety of almost everything. The museum further leads you to the locker room wherein you are supposed to deposit your stuff including the handbags, phones, wallets, and  cameras as photography is strictly prohibited there. The museum is totally kept under CCTV surveillance as the privacy and security of the artifacts is to be maintained. After taking the entry tickets for the same, you enter an altogether different Era of Buddhism! From the earthen pots to the cutlery, from the oldest scriptures to the found -from -under -the -earth-sculptures, from the weapons to the dead preserved animals!! From the costumes and attires of those times to the antique clocks and watches, from the footwear of the oldest monks to the cooking earthen chulha -there's literally anything and everything that transfers you to another generation and doesn't let you leave soon.

This is evidence enough that I had to be pulled out as it was their lunch time and we were supposed to visit our next destinations or else I would spend all day there!
The area also had numerous prayer wheels on all its four sides which are supposed to be rotated towards the right side as it is believed that they make the chants written on then travel across the universe purifying it and reach the Almighty!


Taking along thousands of thoughts, memories and realizations, we now were Enroute to the "Leh palace ".
Aptly called so, it is situated in the city and is An absolute treat to someone interested in the ruins and mystics of palaces. It has a ramp sliding upwards which has to be climbef as the vehicles are parked way beyond. It makes you so so breathless that you need to stop several times before you reach the top. There was a troupe of bikers hiking along at the palace and they seemed way too intrigued by the remains and secrets that this palace bore!

Opposite the palace was a little exhibition of the intricate jewelry pieces of precious and semi precious stones and metals. The absolute beauty of Leh is that at such a place, there was also a fishing  pond!

And after some thoughtful shopping, we headed to the much awaited part of the whole trip -WHITE WATER RAFTING!!

That too at SANGAM!! It's a river where two rivers meet - the Indus and Zanskar. Parts of Zanskar tend to freeze during extreme cold conditions, Indus on the other hand,never does. That's because the waters of Indus are warmer. Zanskar looks muddy, while Indus looks more greenish (sometimes bluish). All these features made the route to Sangam all the more curiously fascinating for us! The route had a cool breeze blowing making the weather cloudy time and again. This also made us fearful of the rafting being closed due to the weather conditions, but the weather gods supported us and we were finally on!!

Now, there were certain rules and regulations for rafting, the first being until there are 6 physically fit adults (there was a medical ailments form you are made to sign up authorizing our own selves responsible for any sudden calamity or happening during the whole rafting!!) The excitement of going and experiencing this thrill made us fill this form instantly,and we were aboard!

So this end was the place where the rafting ends, which means we were taken to around 20kilometers ahead in a bus on an even more rocky road -like -stretch which had huge rocks on one side and the Sangam deep down on the other! The amazing stretch lead us to the the starting point of our rafting. We were ready in our raft suits,life jackets, and caps and handed over our rafts. We were then taken near the Riverside  where the trainers and life guards were present to give us a briefing. There were three rafts ready to be boarded by 18 people. The training made us literally think and rethink our decision of doing this adventure! The warnings like -"you must fall on your back and not face down ", and "if by chance due to the high currents, the boat upturns, try not to get under it as then there are bleak chances that even the life guards help you survive "!! Your swimming lessons are of no use here as it is nearly impossible to swim through the current.

Such lines made us realize about the form we were made to sign and wonder what all was written there.

Finally  we entered the boats and that's when we knew the Sangam was made up of glaciers -melting!! And it was bone chilling and spine freezing cold!! After an hour of training around the Riverside, and the lessons of taking and acting on the commands like -forward, backwards, stop, move, and hold on, we headed towards the central stretch. There was one life guard rowing his single seater boat who was supposed to stay behind us, suddenly moved ahead and ours was the last boat!! If this wasn't a reason enough to scare us, there came a huge current making a whirlpool right in front of us!!

Our coach instructed us to move forward and to our utter shock the current rose upwards!! Each one of us looked wide eyed at the waters rising and trying to enter our boats, totally shell shocked!! The coach kept yelling to row forward but the waters seemed to make us deaf and watch the horror enter us. The waters splashed onto each one of us and entered our boat freezing us all the more and made a few of us row here and there due to which we managed to come out of it!! Phew!! Those  horrifying moments were still lingering when we realized that our coach was yet again yelling at us that the boat could have upturned because of our act of not acting in danger!! Ironical as it was, we yielded to his words and promised to act on his commands in order to save our lives and his (as he also didn't know how to swim!!! :-o :-D). That was another moment of extremity which made us laugh and cry at the same time!!

We were rowing to our utmost best when there was another current right in front!! And this time we successfully crossed the whirlpool by climbing onto the rising waters and coming down shakily!! There were 7-8 such currents during the complete two hours of rafting when we saw the coast and rejoiced!! It felt victorious approaching the end and this extremely thrilling adventure was about to end!

The three hours of rafting taught a lot about life and made us believe in life all the more as we had faced few of the most horrifying experiences of our lives. The other boat mates even shared the fact that they were remembering their loved ones and God as if they were to breathe their last!!

Reuniting with your own people was a sight to cherish! The windy cold weather added to the shivering caused by the ice cold waters making everyone sneeze and quiver. But WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!

We then headed towards the "pathar sahib gurudwara "and had a wonderful Darshan. It has the back of Guru Nanak Dev ji imprinted on a huge rock which was supposedly thrown at him by monster,and it melted leaving an imprint! What stories and wonders our country holds! We helped ourselves with piping hot tea to soothe down the chill and headed towards Leh, the base.

Enroute to Leh, comes the "magnetic hill "- where there's a certain portion on the road that defies gravity! So the vehicles (with off ignitions) move by themselves on a straight plain road (no slants!!). Yet Another wonder!!

Upon Reaching Leh, we were taken to the local markets to look around and shop. Left with little energy and lots of enthusiasm, we shopped around, exhausting ourselves by the night and feeling feverish! There were body aches and shivers and mild fever everywhere around leaving us doubtful to be able to go as per the schedule of day three..