Alchi:
This village is located on the banks of Indus. Nearby is a huge dam where many villagers work. This place is famous for very old monastery [read abandoned] located deep in the village.
Although this is a tiny village, almost all the houses are homestays and there are a few good hotels due to the heavy tourism. We saw a foreigner who cycled his way from Leh to Alchi [60 kms]. Mostly all tourists staying overnight in this village were non-Indians, I can say there were only 2 Indian families including us present at this time over here in the only restaurant of the village.
Google says the population of this place will be 950, I say, its much less.
The mighty Indus river runs behind this village center.. Gust of wind was so strong while siting at its bank, even in mid-afternoon you can get the chill !
Best time for visit: Sunset
Stay:
We did not have any booking for this place as we did not find much data about hotels. Struggled to get a homestay, it was getting dark and cold, driver wanted to go to his village for the night instead of staying here. We made a few rounds of some homestay's who were demanding 1500 Rs per person per night.
Finally, we settled down for a homestay of a family charging little reasonable. It's a different thing that we had a very bad night stay. Which I believe would have been the case with any homestay.
Tourism:
In all, the few good moments of this place can be summarised as to sitting on the ledge behind the monastery compound with terrific wind threatening to blow us down to the river, walking through countless 'Khubani' [Apricot] laden trees, it was a full bloom season; and having freshly squeezed Khubani juice (double overpriced again)..
Few things about the temple.
You have to pass through the small lane of the village and enter through a flea market to get to this monastery. Usually, people pass by this village and don't stay overnight. They stay at nearby Uleytokpo resort. The gompas in this place are famous in history, but they are not well maintained, almost in ruins, and very few visitors, no monks, no closed rooms etc. It was actually quite scary to be here in the late evening. There is a road which runs outside the place as well.
Probably, if a guide were there, he could have explained to us something than just hurriedly seeing the place.
But this place is a treasure of history, religion and architecture. See below thousand year old prayer wheels and scriptures carved on stone..
It was July end, and we were hit by a sudden heavy sand storm while on our exit from the temple.
There are very few people staying in the main area of the village. Even then, I saw 'German Bakery' board.
Dinner:
It was an interesting incident.
We decided to eat at one restaurant we saw on our way back.
Zimskhang Holiday Home : We were bitten by variety of bugs, large bugs flew in on the table continuously due to the lights and we were just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for more than 1 hour to get 1 Sabzi and 3 rotis. It was the worse service and we cancelled the order and went back empty stomach.
Night Stay / Homestay:
We usually are very adjusting to travel woes, but this place had just woes for us all through. This house was a 3-4 room kuchha makkan (building). The owner had 2 small kids and they worked in the farms. They rent out the rooms seeing the trend in the tourism rise, they even built the house for the same reason. We didn't interact much with them as we barely were staying a few hours of the night. Price was still 550 per person and no food, no amenities.
Note: Be careful when selecting a homestay. The night was very hot, these homes do not have fans. There is no dedicated electricity either. Keeping the windows open was also not an option as lot of passerby's. Outside the window, the cowdung pile rose a stink and goblet of flies. Yay - Homestay !!
Secondly, as a local update shared by the host, the ice is melting faster than in many years, thus flood-gates getting opened in the night and water gushing down. I hope no harm comes to this village ever. We must do our bit to save Earth !
Time to get out and go back to Leh.
This village is located on the banks of Indus. Nearby is a huge dam where many villagers work. This place is famous for very old monastery [read abandoned] located deep in the village.
Although this is a tiny village, almost all the houses are homestays and there are a few good hotels due to the heavy tourism. We saw a foreigner who cycled his way from Leh to Alchi [60 kms]. Mostly all tourists staying overnight in this village were non-Indians, I can say there were only 2 Indian families including us present at this time over here in the only restaurant of the village.
Google says the population of this place will be 950, I say, its much less.
The mighty Indus river runs behind this village center.. Gust of wind was so strong while siting at its bank, even in mid-afternoon you can get the chill !
Best time for visit: Sunset
Stay:
We did not have any booking for this place as we did not find much data about hotels. Struggled to get a homestay, it was getting dark and cold, driver wanted to go to his village for the night instead of staying here. We made a few rounds of some homestay's who were demanding 1500 Rs per person per night.
Finally, we settled down for a homestay of a family charging little reasonable. It's a different thing that we had a very bad night stay. Which I believe would have been the case with any homestay.
Tourism:
In all, the few good moments of this place can be summarised as to sitting on the ledge behind the monastery compound with terrific wind threatening to blow us down to the river, walking through countless 'Khubani' [Apricot] laden trees, it was a full bloom season; and having freshly squeezed Khubani juice (double overpriced again)..
Few things about the temple.
You have to pass through the small lane of the village and enter through a flea market to get to this monastery. Usually, people pass by this village and don't stay overnight. They stay at nearby Uleytokpo resort. The gompas in this place are famous in history, but they are not well maintained, almost in ruins, and very few visitors, no monks, no closed rooms etc. It was actually quite scary to be here in the late evening. There is a road which runs outside the place as well.
Probably, if a guide were there, he could have explained to us something than just hurriedly seeing the place.
But this place is a treasure of history, religion and architecture. See below thousand year old prayer wheels and scriptures carved on stone..
It was July end, and we were hit by a sudden heavy sand storm while on our exit from the temple.
There are very few people staying in the main area of the village. Even then, I saw 'German Bakery' board.
Dinner:
It was an interesting incident.
We decided to eat at one restaurant we saw on our way back.
Zimskhang Holiday Home : We were bitten by variety of bugs, large bugs flew in on the table continuously due to the lights and we were just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for more than 1 hour to get 1 Sabzi and 3 rotis. It was the worse service and we cancelled the order and went back empty stomach.
Night Stay / Homestay:
We usually are very adjusting to travel woes, but this place had just woes for us all through. This house was a 3-4 room kuchha makkan (building). The owner had 2 small kids and they worked in the farms. They rent out the rooms seeing the trend in the tourism rise, they even built the house for the same reason. We didn't interact much with them as we barely were staying a few hours of the night. Price was still 550 per person and no food, no amenities.
Note: Be careful when selecting a homestay. The night was very hot, these homes do not have fans. There is no dedicated electricity either. Keeping the windows open was also not an option as lot of passerby's. Outside the window, the cowdung pile rose a stink and goblet of flies. Yay - Homestay !!
Secondly, as a local update shared by the host, the ice is melting faster than in many years, thus flood-gates getting opened in the night and water gushing down. I hope no harm comes to this village ever. We must do our bit to save Earth !
Time to get out and go back to Leh.
Comments
Post a Comment