Enthralling Trails

  The Leh Palace in the City of Leh is located on a hill. The roads in Leh grow narrower between the terrains. Parvez drove the car carefully and with great expertise. A lot of women drive their cars in Leh. This was surprising since there was barely enough room for a second car to move on these narrow roads. Parvez dropped us off a short distance from the Palace, where there were cars parked for almost a quarter km. As there was plenty of sand under our feet, we moved slowly. Occasionally, a bit of the soil blew off the mountains. As we reached closer to the palace, we were able to stand on a flat platform with protected grills to view the magnificence of the snow-peaked mountains far away and the partially crowded city close by. On the other side, there were just tall mountains. The palace did not seem palatial. It was nine stories tall, but the height of each floor seemed low. The entrance had motifs just above the main doors that were swung open. People said that the view above was

  Taking a vacation to Leh town situated in the Ladakh province was a last-minute decision. It was only a brief visit and we did not have time to read about it. The city of Leh is the capital and the largest union territory in the province situated 3500 metres above sea level. It was a major halt on trade routes along the Indus Valley between Tibet and Kashmir. With its huge mountains and coloured crystals under the clear sky, it is known for its beauty. Its lakes and rivers have crystal blue water that changes its tone according to the changing light. We landed between the snow-capped mountains on our connecting flight from Delhi. It was announced that we weren’t supposed to click any photographs as it was a defence airport. People hurried out of the aircraft, a few of them had quickly grabbed their netted hoods, beanie and jackets. While Delhi was burning hot with the advent of summer, this place had cool winds blowing and was chilly. We enjoyed looking at the mountains and the initi