Things to do in Ladakh
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La Pizzeria
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Pizza
Leh’s most attractively appointed garden restaurant is considerably pricier than most other eateries, but well worth the extra for thin-crust pizzas, excellent pumpkin soup (Rs90), tajines, tandoori dishes or even trout in brandy sauce. Beer is also served (Rs 150).
reviewed
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Gesmo
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Other
Loveable old-fashioned traveller haunt, with gingham tablecloths, checkerboard ceilings, and a range of cakes and breakfasts supplementing good-value curries.
reviewed
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Summer Harvest
Top-notch Indian and Chinese food, cold beers and international sports on the TV attract travellers to this warm and inviting restaurant.
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Ladakh Art Palace
Leh is packed with souvenir shops. There are some wonderful things on offer - from thangkas (Buddhist cloth paintings) and Ladakhi hats to heavy turquoise jewellery and wooden choktse (Tibetan tables) - but be aware that many souvenirs are trucked in from China, Kashmir and Nepal, providing little benefit to local people.
Probably the best selection in town is at Ladakh Art Palace, but prices are somewhat inflated.
reviewed
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Splash Adventures
In summer, agencies like Splash Adven-tures, offer daily rafting excursions through splendid canyon scenery from Phey to Nimmu (for beginners, grade I/II, Rs650 to Rs850) and from Chiling to Nimmu (grade II/III, Rs1200 to Rs1400). Prepare to get very wet. By pre-arrangement, more serious multiday rafting trips are possible for experienced rafters on the Indus, climaxing with grade IV sections around Skurbuchan.
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KC Garden Restaurant
One of Changspa’s liveliest evening spots, KC’s is the pickup point for all-night full-moon parties (Rs400 including transport; full-moon night May to August). Movies are projected at 8pm several nights weekly.
reviewed
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Lamayuru Restaurant
Surrounded by other similar backpacker eateries, this is a plain but very reliable place for good inexpensive Indian, Chinese and international snacks.
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Neha Snacks
Locals flock to this Punjabi place for pure-veg snacks like channa puri (chickpea curry with bread) and Indian sweets.
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Grill-N-Curry
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Other
Climb two flights of metal steps for un-usual palace views, then stay for the rich, spicy mushroom caju masala (Rs90).
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Tibetan Kitchen
Evening tables should be booked in the afternoon (in person) at this classy restaurant at the Hotel Tso-Kar. The menu has lots of Tibetan specialities like sha bakleh (bread stuffed with meat) and ruchowtse (cheese and vegetable momos in soup), but no alcohol.
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Leh View Restaurant
- Leh, India
- Restaurants › Balti
A Kashmiri-owned place with meaty Kashmiri curries as well as the usual traveller fare. Go up to the roof terrace for dinner with a view.
reviewed
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Stok Palace
Ladakh’s former royal family were stripped of their power in 1846 and now live a comparatively modest life, dividing their time between a private mansion in Manali and the stately Stok Palace. Vaguely potala-like and with wobbly, colourful window frames, the palace is photogenic despite a giant telecommunication tower that looms directly behind. The stylish palace cafeteria has a great open terrace. Above, several rooms on two levels form the palace museum displaying family treasures, including the queen’s ancient turquoise-and-gold yub-jhur (crown) and a photo of the young king in sneakers.
reviewed
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Leh Palace
Construction of the nine-storey dun-coloured Leh Palace started in 1553. Built by the Buddhist kings of Ladakh, it was once the world’s highest building and bears more than a passing similarity to the Potala Palace in Lhasa (Tibet). The very sturdy walls are mostly unadorned and a few interior sections remain in a state of partial collapse; only the palace prayer room gives any sense of former grandeur. Nonetheless it’s gently thrilling to weave your way through the maze of dark corridors, hidden stairways and makeshift ladders to reach the rooftop for great views across the city. Carry a torch and watch out for holes in the floor.
reviewed
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Spituk Gompa
Founded in the late 14th century as See-Thub (‘Exemplary’) Monastery, the extensive Gelukpa-order Spituk Gompa is incongruously perched overlooking the end of Leh airport (don’t photograph the militarily sensitive runway, soldiers are watching). The gompa’s multiple mudbrick buildings tumble appealingly down a steep hillock towards Spituk village on the Indus riverbank. Behind its central, gilt-roofed Skodong Lakhang shrine, the very colourful Chikang hosts a yellow- hatted statue of Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), who inspired Gelukpa Buddhism.
reviewed
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Stakna Gompa
Small but visually impressive, the 1618 Stakna Gompa crowns a rocky outcrop just 800m across the Indus from Km449 (where Leh–Thiksey buses terminate), though the gompa’s winding access road adds another 900m. The narrow suspension bridge is just wide enough for small taxi-vans. Off the gompa’s small central courtyard, four rooms with vivid new Tantric murals can be visited. Behind the main prayer hall, smaller subshrines retain 400-year-old sandalwood statues, original frescoes and statuettes of the Bhutanese lamas who founded the monastery.
reviewed
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Thekchhok Gompa
Chemrey village is dominated by the beautifully proportioned Thekchhok Gompa. A maze of pathways leads up to the main complex where the central 17th-century prayer hall has wonderfully wobbly wooden pillars. The Lamalakhang above has murals atmospherically blackened to semi-invisibility by butter-lamp smoke. On the penultimate floor the Gurulakhang has contrastingly vivid murals and a 3m-high golden Padmasambhava statue encrusted with turquoise ornamentation.
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Likir Gompa
15th-century Likir Gompa very photogenically covers a hillside with archetypal Tibetan structures. The first prayer hall to the right on entry has seats allocated for both the Dalai Lama and his brother, Likir’s honourary head lama. After two more colourful prayer halls you climb to the cute, one-room museum. The gompa is backed by a giant gilded 20th-century Maitreya statue that looks great from afar, though it’s peeling and looks rather gaudy closer up.
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Naropa Royal Palace
Once Ladakh’s summer capital, Shey is an attractively green, pond-dappled oasis from which rises a central dry rocky ridge, inscribed with roadside Buddha carvings. The ridge is topped by the small if photogenic Naropa Royal Palace. This mini-potala structure is undergoing considerable reconstruction, but its central shrine remains a very holy place, containing an inscrutably smirking two-storey gilded copper Buddha, originally installed in 1645.
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Wanla Gompa
Above Wanla village, tiny medieval Wanla Gompa is dramatically perched on a towering knife-edge ridge flanked by two shattered tower remnants of a now-destroyed 14th-century fortress. Its carved porch is reminiscent of Alchi’s and a single, spookily dark chamber contains three large statues backed by ancient smoke-blackened murals. If you’re driving to Lamayuru, Wanla is an easy 7km detour off the NH1D road: turn south at the colourful new photong (ceremonial residence).
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