It was a beautiful sunny morning. We all woke up rather late to a bright blue sky and the shiny snow-capped mountains glistening in the sun at a distance. The agenda for the day was to visit the Hanle monastery and the sky observatory. We took the morning really slow, took a nice shower, chilled outside the homestay in the mild morning sun. The sunshine really made me feel relaxed and warm on that cold morning. And after breakfast, we got ready to go to Hanle Monastery.
HANLE MONASTERY:
The monastery is perched on a cliff and we could see it from miles away as we drove towards it. The white-painted building looked so full of splendor. Hanle Monastery is a 17th century Tibetan Buddhist monastery and it is one of the most beautiful, enchanting, peaceful places with some great aerial views of the Hanle village. The village is a home for about 300 people. Yes, that’s all the population. After taking a complete monastery tour and spending some time with the monks, we sat on the roof enjoying the breath-taking view and the fresh air of the village.
The whole peaceful environment with a great view and our favorite music in the background made the moment so perfect. We didn’t realize how time flew by and within a blink of an eye, it was already lunchtime. We decided to walk down to the village instead of taking the car. On reaching the other end of the hill, we took a final glance of the monastery and left to our homestay for lunch as there are no restaurants or eating joint at Hanle.
We were welcomed at our Homestay with a Ladakhi styled nonveg meal which we were very excited about. They served us lamb curry, roti, rice, daal, and pickle. After lunch, we relaxed for a while, played with the local kids and left for the Hanle Astronomical Observatory.
Indian Astronomical Observatory:
The observatory is situated so high that it was clearly visible from our homestay windows. Hanle Indian Astronomical Observatory is the second-highest observatory in the world which is at a staggering height of 4500 Metres. An engineer over there explained to us about the operations. We had not seen telescope that big with 2.01 meters diameter till then. We also got to know that the observatory is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Hoskote, Bengaluru.
You can only see the observatory instruments and not actually operate it to watch the sky which we thought we could. As this region boasts of clear and cloudless nights almost throughout the year, make this spot an ideal location for astronomical observation. After we took a full tour of the observatory, we spent some time outside on the beautiful pebble filled area around the observatory enjoying the view from above. I also collected some beautiful stones. After a while, we left to explore the village.
CRICKET MATCH WITH LOCALS:
While we were casually driving across the village, we stumbled upon a bunch of school kids playing cricket. We asked the PE teacher if we could join them and he was more than happy to have us all play with the kids. We then made teams and I was the captain of team ‘A’. 😀 It was a 7 over match and energy had reached the sky. Hanle is that one place that offered us more than I could expect, and my heart was full. In no time the match was over. We conveyed our heartfelt thanks to the PE teacher and bid goodbye to everyone.
DANCED TO LADAKHI MUSIC:
Later, we drove to the mini bridge which was our love at first sight. Hanle is a paradise for those who come seeking peace and a perfect location by all means away from the maddening crowd. On reaching the bridge the sun slowing started setting and that was probably one of the most gorgeous golden hours I have witnessed. Also, it is not at all crowded unlike other parts of Ladakh. Hanle was an unreal way to spend our time. We hanged on to the railings of the bridge, took a million pictures, sang and danced our hearts out to the Ladakhi songs. It was the most surreal moment of my life. We went back to the homestay feeling super blessed, blissed-out and what not.
Hanle is one of the most beautiful places I have been and experienced; In fact, it is one of those journeys which I can do ever and ever again without having to think twice. If you are planning to visit Ladakh, don’t forget to include Hanle in your itinerary. You won’t regret and you can thank me later. 😛
I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Also, click below to read my previous blog posts from the Ladakh series if you haven’t yet,