4.100 m -> 3.830 m / approx. 1 hiking hour
So, here’s a nice better photo of Stanzin from Tahan. He’s a really nice and knowledgeable guy who is lucky enough to work for a local construction company now, but has enough time to lead some treks himself in the summer. Not only did he organise a horseman for me (with 3 horses), but he also helped a bit with the shopping. I am also responsible for this. We bought some vegetables and then everything was neatly stowed away.
A taxi was ordered and the middleman, who then knew the horseman directly but didn’t speak English, and I got in with the luggage. Stanzin went to his regular work. At first we travelled quite quickly along the road to Anmo.
In Anmo, the road split: to the right of the river, it went quite quickly straight to the pass and on to Darcha in Himachal Pradesh – another new road. You had to turn left to get to the Phuktal Monastery, THE attraction of Zanskar. This stretch was still a dust track and busy people and machines were working in various places. If it wasn’t so loud and dusty, I would have found watching the machines at work fascinating. At one point we had to wait longer and the driver hung his umbrella on the door because of the strong sun.
Just above Cha, the horseman Lobzang was waiting with his animals. Everything was reorganised (for even weight) and loaded up.
And then we were off! There are two paths to the Phuktal monastery – the upper one on the left bank of the river and the lower one on the right bank. In 2017, the last time I was there, it looked like they were building the lower path as a road quite quickly. But then it somehow ended – and now there’s a whole stretch of road on the left. I walked along it:
The river was already a beautiful turquoise colour in 2017 – and now it is again. Is it always like this or only in autumn?
The the road ended – few cars and motorbikes parked there.
I’m hoping that no more building work will be done here (but below), because the upper path is really great to walk. It takes 1 – 1.5 hours to reach the monastery. The path wasn’t really full and I took a few photos:
These reddish rocks and the turquoise river – too beautiful! And then the entrance gate appeared:
Behind it is not only the most spectacular monastery in the region, but also a guest house (very rotten) and the new guest house currently under construction. On the opposite side of the river is a small village called Yugar.
Unfortunately, the campsite was right in front of the guesthouse and not very nice – so I didn’t take a photo. But it wasn’t too bad. I was the only one with a tent and there were a few Indians and others staying in the guesthouse.
I took advantage of the late afternoon light to take some quick pictures. The location, light and surroundings make all the photos look great and it’s difficult to limit yourself afterwards. There are just too many variations. Here are a few:
Sorry, I couldn’t choose…..
I didn’t go into the complex itself, I already knew it and didn’t feel the urge to scurry around among the monks and other people there. Instead, I was a little excited about what the next day would bring. As I had already been told, Lobzang the horse man spoke less English than I did zanskari. And we were to spend the next 7 days together. I wonder how that would go?
A bit more about that in the next blog post.