After looking into the charming Hotel Whispering Willows at Shey, Madhu and I invested the afternoon relaxing with a book in hand, relaxing. We prepared on remaining put for the remainder of the night as well. Nevertheless, as the afternoon heat vanished, Shey's gorgeously green countryside beckoned us and we couldn't assist however step out for a walk. A roaming canine, definitely a Golden Retriever-mix, showed up at the gates of the hotel and decided to accompany us.
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Shey is a definitely beautiful Ladakhi town and most likely the most picturesque one we 'd been to. Its streets were wide and clean, and the villagers looked rich with large homes as well as bigger fields. Since the main highway going to Manali goes through it, traffic is relentless, especially with speeding traveler cars. As we strolled along, we were a little cautious not to come in the method of these. Apart from that, though, the village has a fantastic sense of calm, which was terrific! Although, we hadn't truly intended on visiting the Shey Palace, we discovered ourselves at the base of the hill atop which it sits. The primary entryway to the palace lay a more 500m down the roadway, but with instructions from a number of friendly locals, we found some approximately cut actions hewn into the mountain side by the back of the palace. The dog followed us right until the base of these actions and then decided that he didn't wish to climb, so he merely turned away leaving us to negotiate the remainder of the method.
The climb up the hill, of which we've done numerous in Ladakh, was tiring but not too hard. At the top, we emerged near the entryway of the Shey Gompa, which sits behind the facade of the palace. This exterior has actually been recently rebuilded by the Archaeological Survey of India and for that reason looks rather good. However, there's hardly anything left of the rest of the palace except the Gompa. We initially did a parikrama around the Gompa, turning the rows of prayer wheels and likewise taking in the incredible views out to Shey town from that elevation. We seemed to be the only visitors around, most likely due to the fact that of the time of the day; most visitors to Shey visit it as a field trip from Leh in the mornings.
Inside the monastery, we entered a small yard flanked by a shrine on one side and spaces for the monks on the other 3 sides. In the center was a beautiful sculpted wood structure with small windows at the bottom. When we peered in, we realized that this structure was the ceiling for a big prayer hall, which was at a level lower than the yard. We later discovered that this prayer hall is used when monks gather in great deals during festivals.
A friendly Lamaji ushered us into the shrine, which housed an unbelievably quite, 12m high bust of Sakyamuni Buddha. We had checked out this statue and understood of its presence however even then were rather stunned and enthralled by the sight of it. It had an enigmatic smile and a dark bluish black crown of hair, which was quite different from the other images of Buddha we had seen so far. The walls and ceiling surrounding this statue were entirely filled with murals. Oddly, all these murals and the Buddha image have been beautifully maintained over all these years!
The Lamaji strolled out of the Gompa with us and then pointed to a high course that went previous broken walls and debris, climbing up further into the mountain-side. He stated (in stopping, broken Hindi) that if we reached the level above, we could get wonderful views of the area around. We took up his suggestion and went up the course. It was somewhat treacherous with loose gravel and slippery rocks. But we did get to a level above the abbey and just as the Lamaji had assured found the scenery to be genuinely stunning. Spread below us were the green fields of Shey while behind us, perched on a higher elevation was something that looked like the remains of a fort. We strolled along the rim of some broken palace walls and felt on top of the world! We were in such high spirits, that we chose to climb up to the fort too; the views would be a lot more magnificent from up there. However, we had climbed about half way there prior to recognizing that the sun would set soon; descending that rocky cliff in darkness would be downright dangerous! So, hesitantly, we reversed. Later on, we sat at the base of a large Stupa outside the Gompa and watched the incredible sundown beyond the mountains in the distance. It was photo postcard perfect and an ideal end to our great evening in Shey.
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