Asia

India

153 photographs · 20 venues

Photographs

Places worth going

Diskit MonasteryDon't missLandmarksThe big monastery of the valley, stacked up its cliff with the whole of Nubra and the braided Shyok below it. The view from the road is the photograph; go up for the chapels and the giant Maitreya Buddha on the ridge opposite if you have the legs for the steps.Khardung LaDon't missJourneysThe road to Nubra goes over it, so you do it whether you plan to or not, and it's worth stopping for. Switchbacks up from South Pullu with the Stok range across the valley, fresh snow on the rock at the top the morning I crossed, and a sky that goes nearly black. Don't hang about at the pass - take the photos and drop down the other side.LehDon't missTownsLeh is where every Ladakh trip starts and ends, at 3,500 metres, so the first day is for walking the bazaar slowly and drinking water. Prayer flags across the main street, the mosque at the end of it, the old town stacked up the hill behind, and the I ♥ LEH sign everyone photographs. Go back after dark - it's a different place with the lights on.Nishat GardenDon't missOutdoorsThe big one: a long central water channel between beds of flowers, running straight down twelve terraces to the lake with the mountains across it. Walk it top to bottom. Busy, and rightly.NubraDon't missTownsYou come over Khardung La out of bare rock and grey scree, drop for an hour, and Nubra is suddenly green - poplars, running water, birds in the trees, and a dragonfly sitting on a wire while you stand there adjusting. Then you look up and there is a stony desert valley a couple of kilometres wide with snow on the Karakoram closing off the end of it. Both things at once is what makes it. The drive is the attraction as much as anything at the far end, so do not treat it as transit - stop, and give it two nights rather than one so you are not turning round the moment you arrive. Take a day to acclimatise in Leh first.Pangong TsoDon't missOutdoorsThe reason most people come to Ladakh, and it earns it. A strip of water in three blues between bare brown mountains at 4,300 metres, with nothing green anywhere. First sight of it from the road above is the one that stays; then the shore with the tricolour flying and the 3 Idiots props. Stay the night - the dawn light is the best of it.Pari MahalDon't missLandmarksStone terraces stepping down the hillside under arches, with lawns and clipped trees between them and the lake spread out below. The best-placed of all the gardens, and the one to keep for last light if you can manage it.Sumoor Sand Dunes and Wet LandDon't missOutdoorsSand dunes at 3,000 metres with snow peaks behind them, which makes no sense until you're standing on them. Go at the end of the day: the sand goes gold, the Karakoram goes pink, and I had dinner laid out on a table in the middle of it with nobody else in sight.The Kyagar, NubraDon't missStaysTwo nights in Nubra, and the best place I stayed on the trip. A garden with the Karakoram across the valley, a fire pit that got lit both nights, a calf that had the run of the car park, and birds in the trees all afternoon. Book it for the view from the lawn as much as anything.Char Chinar Dal lakeWorth a stopOutdoorsThe little island with four chinar trees in the middle of the lake. You don't go to it so much as past it, and the sunset from the water beside it, with Hari Parbat fort in silhouette across the lake, is a good reason to be in a shikara at six.Chashme Shahi GardenWorth a stopOutdoorsThe smallest of the Mughal gardens, built around a spring, and in September full of dahlias the size of dinner plates. Twenty minutes of flower beds and terraces with the hills behind, and the mynas working the lawns. Do it on the way up to Pari Mahal.CHOSPA HOTELWorth a stopStaysA Ladakhi-style hotel in stone and timber a short walk from the bazaar. Dosas for breakfast, a quiet terrace, and an oxygen cylinder in the room when the altitude caught up with me on the last night - which is the thing to know about staying in Leh.Dal LakeWorth a stopOutdoorsThe postcard version is real for about an hour at sunset, when the shikaras go to silhouettes and the herons work the reeds. The rest of the time it is hard to look past: weed choking the channels, rubbish along the banks, houseboats that haven't been painted in years. If you're in Srinagar you'll end up on it anyway, so go late in the day and keep your expectations where the light is.Misty Hills Cabins, PangongWorth a stopStaysWooden cabins on the shore, a goat at the gate, and the lake right there when you step out at five in the morning. Basic, cold after dark, and exactly where you want to be for the sunrise. Bring a proper jacket.Moonland LamayuruWorth a stopViewpointsPale yellow hills eroded into ribs and folds that really do look like the moon, with the road hairpinning down through them. Pull over at the viewpoint at the top and again at the bottom - it's a different landscape from each end. Lamayuru monastery is just beyond if you have time.Sangam Point Leh LadakhWorth a stopViewpointsWhere the Zanskar meets the Indus, thirty minutes out of Leh on the road west. The two rivers arrive in different colours and run side by side before they mix, and there's a viewpoint above the junction with the I ♥ BRO sign to pose with. Ten minutes, on the way to somewhere else.Shri Shankaracharya Temple SrinagarWorth a stopLandmarksThe temple sits on the hill above the lake and the climb is sold on the view. The morning I was there, the haze and the pollution were so thick you could barely make out the city below, let alone the mountains, and the photographs show it. Phones and cameras stay at the checkpoint. Go only on a clear day, first thing, and treat it as a temple visit rather than a viewpoint.SrinagarWorth a stopTownsGreen after Ladakh, which is a shock in itself. Four days is right: the lake by shikara, the Mughal gardens in a morning, the old city's timber-and-brick lanes, and the view from Shankaracharya before the haze comes up. Eat the wazwan, and stay on the water if you can.Wari LaWorth a stopJourneysThe back way from Nubra to Pangong, over a 5,300-metre pass with nobody on it. Fresh snow on the road and not a building from one side to the other. Only if it's open, and only if you like your roads empty - otherwise it's back through Leh and over Chang La.GulmargSkipTownsA green bowl of meadow at 2,650 metres with pine forest round it, and on paper the best thing in Kashmir. In person it is run down: litter in the grass, half-built and half-abandoned huts, the place looking like nobody has cared for it in a long while. The drive up through the forest and the goats on the road were the good part. Hard to recommend the hour it takes to get there.