Our original plan was to visit Turtuk, the last Indian village before the Line of Control. This village was in Pakistan until 1971 in Gilgit-Baltistan. During the Indo-Pak war in 1971, this village came under India. It is said that the people of the village slept in Pakistan the previous night and woke up in India, the next morning. Well, there is another village called ‘Thang’ that is out of bounds for civilians.
Panamik
We decided to go to Panamik hot springs instead of Turtuk (in hindsight we should have stayed with the original plan to just get a glimpse of the life of the people at the border) but there were no regrets. Panamik is on the way to the Siachen base camp, the base to Siachen Glacier, the highest battlefield in the world, where our Indian Army is in constant confrontation with the Pakistani Army. A village called Warshi beyond Panamik is the last civilian village and one needs special permits from the army with valid reasons to visit either Warshi or the Siachen base camp (while the government has opened up the base camp for visitors, the army still takes the final decision in providing permits, and that won’t come easy). Since we did not have the permits to Warshi, we could proceed no further.
We took bath in the hot water and enjoyed an authentic Ladakhi meal cooked by a family that lives there. We had Khambir with curd, Chutagi, Thukpa and Momos.
Samstanling Monastery (Sumur)
After lunch we proceeded to a monastery at Sumur called Samstanling Monastery. This is a 180 year old monastery that overlooks the valley. There is a young lad in this monastery who greets people – he is believed to be an incarnation of a revered Buddhist Lama. One can see Diskit’s magnificent Maithreya Buddha statue and monastery from here. The view of the valley from this monastery was surreal - it appeared as though it was picked out of Google Maps and placed there 😊.
The paintings on the walls inside the monastery were astounding with intricate details in each painting. All monasteries had the famous painting The Wheel of Life - at its epicentre are three animals: a cock symbolising desire, a serpent for jealousy, and a boar for ignorance. Apart from these, we saw many paintings on the walls that depicted stories from Jataka tales
Rafting in Shyok River (Nubra Valley)
After the monastery, we proceeded back to Hunder, and on the way, we planned to raft in the Shyok river. Paljor took us to the rafting point where we booked an 8 kilometer ride. The guides there taught us the basics of rafting. It was only the 4 of us (along with our guide who controlled the raft). We passed through a couple of rapids as we rafted - Chirkut (grade 2) and Tiger (grade 3) to name a few. Rafting through the rapids in the muddy waters of the Shyok river was giving adrenaline rush. The guide asked the girls to jump into the water and stay afloat holding the rope of the raft on the side and taught us how save people holding their life jackets and pulled the girls in. They were shell-shocked but still enjoying the experience. I can still hear our guide say – ‘Ok team, paddle forward, faster, faster’.
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After the 8 kilometer rafting, we were exhausted but were thankful as we were at an altitude that we could manage comfortably (around 10,000 feet).
It was already well past 5 pm and we headed back to our tents. That evening we spent some time in the story-book scenery playing cards and other games, listening to music until dinner. The beautiful mountain backdrop that we could see the previous day was not visible –a sandstorm covered the view. It was so much that we could feel the sand in our mouths even while we were in our tents.
After dinner we spent a little more time outside our tents and later headed back inside to cuddle up after a long day. The next day, we were heading to Pangong Tso, so we had to pack.
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