Thu, May 18: Leh, Ladakh, India

The light was beautiful on the Shanti Stupa as we headed out of town. 

And again we retraced a fair amount of the long roads that we traveled over the previous days.  

Our drive is again along the Indus River today...

is headed to our main destination in the countryside, Basgo Temple and Palace.   This site is high on a hillside...

with phenomenal views of the area.

We walked around the grounds some but were only able to see inside a few of the temples as several were locked and no one was around to sell tickets or provide keys to the lock. Part of the sorting out process on a discovery tour.

There was a very interesting bird around the palace that we spent a lot of time trying to photograph...with marginal success.  Nearest we can figure it may be a Eurasian Magpie.

Along the route we also stopped at the Gurudwara Sri Pathar Sahib.  The Gurudwara Pathar Sahib stands at the place where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion and the first guru, is believed to have vanquished a demon.

This is a Sikh Temple that is maintained by the military (that has a huge presence in the area).  We visited the temple where a lesson was in progress.  Sikh Temples generally have kitchens that feed, for free, anyone who would like a meal.  However, because this one is so isolated that just provide tea and snacks.  But it is still in their tradition of providing sustenance to all comers. 

And we had yet more views of the Indus River and surrounding mountains.

There are more sights to see today in Leh...

with our next stop being ancient Leh Palace.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the Palace was the views of the town and surrounding mountains.  

There was even a good view of the polo field.  It looked like they were setting up colorful chairs for some event.  No horses in sight.

We had a little time to walk around downtown Leh.  Pretty small town.

Last stop of the day was the Shanti Stupa. From there we had great views of a monastery across the valley...

and views of other parts of the city and valley.

Plus of course we got quite close to the stupa itself.

The Buddha in side the Stupa was particularly beautiful.