The many faces of Ladakh, India
Ladakh! Its one of those unspoilt areas of India that has remained so by virtue of being so inaccessible. Roads to Ladakh are closed for nearly all the year, save for three months in summer. Most of Ladakh is a high altitude (some 10000 feet or more) desert in the rain shadow of the Himalayas. It is surrounded on all sides by four different mountain ranges, the Himalayas, Karakoram, Ladakh and Zanskar.
The place is isolated, cold, dry. The people are warm and friendly. Here is my tribute to the many people I have met in my travel to this far corner of India. How can I ever forget them? Tsiring, who patiently drove us around Ladakh; Padma, and her pashmina goats, in the remote corner of Ladakh, where we stayed one night; Zarina and Gulam Nabi of the Sia-La guest house, who made us feel at home in Ladakh. They all leave behind memories that will last a lifetime.
- July 17th, 2010
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Doors of Ladakh, India
Doors of Ladakh, India are unique; a refreshing change from a world where the doors to our houses are pre-fabricated, with a handful of cookie-cutter patterns. Our doors are so perfect that it is difficult to tell one from another; In Ladakh, the doors are mostly hand-crafted, and each one is different from another.
Here in the modern world, doors are ways to keep the world out.
In Ladakh, doors can make a home.
- July 17th, 2010
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In search of the Wild West : on the Apache Trail in Arizona
When I was young, not so long ago, the West, they said, was wild. I believed it when they said so in the movies I saw, with their cowboys and bounty hunters, and the lone horseman riding into the sunset. So, when I visited Arizona recently, I decided to discover the Wild West for myself. What I found was the wild land where the horsemen once rode, but, alas, the cowboys were all gone.
The Apache Trail is where, they say, the wild west still lives. It used to be a stagecoach route that passed through the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, Arizona, all the way to the Roosevelt dam, the largest masonry dam in the world. In its heydays, where there was gold in the Superstition Mountains, they say, it was a busy, busy, gravel road, passing through some incredible scenery. Now it is partly paved, partly gravel, but still wild and beautiful all the way.
On a rainy day in Phoenix, R and I started our drive down the Apache Trail. As you can guess, rain is not a habitual visitor to Phoenix, so we were on to some stroke of luck there, seeing the Apache Trail in a different light, so as to say. A few miles from Apache Junction near Phoenix, we came upon the incredibly beautiful Superstition Mountain, shrouded in a cloud, and looking stunning and mysterious. A few miles further was the “ghost town” of Goldfield. Well, a fake ghost town, to be precise, since now its really filled with fake everything: fake saloon, fake railroad, fake bordello, fake church, fake cowboys with strange (fake?) accents, even a fake mine. Its one of those tourist attractions designed to part you with your money. You will lose nothing if you give Goldfield a miss.
- February 20th, 2010
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A day at the Tonto National Monument, Arizona
Some days are lessons in history.
When we arrived at Tonto National Monument, tucked far away from Phoenix in a bowl of red rocks and clay, the sun was high up in the sky. It was nice and mild though, with cool air blowing, befitting the early spring atmosphere. We were on the Apache Trail, a route that goes around, and sometimes, through, the Superstition Mountains to the east of Phoenix. Its wild, rugged country, desert-like, and largely empty; stone’s throw away from some Indian reservations.
So, there we were, R and I, having driven the Apache Trail halfway around the Superstition mountains, making it a day with no specific agenda, but only to see what Arizona has to bring. The Apache Trail is, to put it using cliched words, simply beautiful. It goes through mountain passes, and continuously changing landscape. And yes, lakes! in Arizona.
Tonto National Monument preserves old Salado Indian dwellings, dating back some seven hundred years. Its on the mountain side right by the Roosevelt Lake, a rather large water body, created by damming the Salt River with Roosevelt Dam, the largest masonry dam in America. Even before the dam, when this area was populated by the Indians, the Salt River provided the much needed life-giving water. It appears to have sustained a few thousand Salado Indians in its heyday. Then, from what is known, around 1450 there was a catastrophic flood which prompted a migration of the Salados away from the Tonto Basin area. Today, down on the Tonto Basin, is the small village of Roosevelt, occupied by those who came after. From the highway, the village looked rather non-descript, a collection of mobile homes or some such; so we decided to skip it.
- February 19th, 2010
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Saguaro National Park: the last stand of the Wild West Cactus
Anyone who has grown up with some exposure to western movies (and who hasn’t?) would remember the inevitable scene where the macho hero rides away into the gloriously technicolor desert sunset. In a large number of those sunsets, you would possibly have seen the unmistakable silhouette of a Suguaro cactus, standing tall and proud. This was going to be my first encounter with this mythical cactus, so with a lot of expectation I drove from Phoenix to Tucson on a bright and beautiful February morning.
The drive was boring, to say the least. (Note to myself: while driving in desert, avoid freeways). It is featureless, unexciting landscape. The only excitement on the way was provided by the aggressive driving of the eighteen-wheelers, who seemed intent on ruling all lanes of the freeway. I had to remind myself many times over: this is Arizona, the last bastion of the Wild West.
We reached Saguaro National Park (west) by noon. As national parks go, Saguaro is less than impressive. It’s smaller, and the landscape is not what I will call awe inspiring. But it was an interesting place nevertheless. It was nice and cool on this February afternoon, but awfully bright under a cloudless sky. We decided to drive the length and breadth of the park first, before embarking on any hiking. We took the dirt road (Bajada loop drive) that runs through the park. That really got us close to the Saguaros that grow in abundance near the center of the park.
- February 18th, 2010
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