The drive to Turtuk was a good 70kms from Hunder. The sand dunes at Hunder were nice, but it somehow did not fascinate either Ratan or me. So we took a couple of pictures, skipped the camel rides and headed to TurTuk. The winding drive north east along the Siachen river was nice, very quiet, and calming. Large army facilities are seen almost for 50 Kms. But for fallen rocks on the road, and the company of two soldiers for a short distance, the trip was fairly uneventful. About 55 Kms into the drive, we signed into a military check post on a really narrow wooden cantilevered bridge. This point onwards belonged to Pakistan, which India captured and retained as part of its '71 victory.
Siachen merged into Shyok river, and we followed its path up to a point; the river of course benefits by not having to deal with political boundaries and so enters Pakistan about 10 Kms after Turtuk village.
Turkut is as different from the rest of Ladakh as it can possibly get. To begin with, the people are Baltistanis, who are of Turkish/Iranian stock and not of Tibetan stock like the rest of Ladakhis are. And Balti language is presumably similar to Farsi spoken in Iran. The men folk look very Turkish - fair, medium height, with sharp features. The women are stunning - pink cheeks, with awesome features.
TurTuk village is made of 480 houses with a population of 3,000+ people, making it the largest of 60+ villages in the Nubra valley. The houses are closely packed, and not necessarily clean, what with fowl, cattle, and humans sharing tight living space.
I presume the reason they are so tightly packed is because the land is very fertile. Wheat is now ready for harvesting, and the place is bright in large patches - with apricot, walnut, apple trees along with veggie patches everywhere. Given that they have a longer 6-month warm season, they grow between 3 & 4 crops each season.
We are at Abdul Karim's extremely well fitted-out house. After a short intro to the village, he took us out for a tour. We first went to the "palace" of the former sultan here. Of Turkish origin, the tour was conducted by the present prince - a vacationing eleventh grader at a boarding school in Srinagar. The tour around his really, really, run down home aka palace was short. I felt extremely awkward tucking a rolled up hundred rupee note into his palm at the end of the tour as our "fee", much like one would to a traffic cop in Mumbai. Yeah, I've done it all now - even bribed royalty!!!
Abdul then took us around the wheat fields to a (usual) mountain top monastery which is now closed (recall, this is a Sunni Moslem-only village). The walk seemed easy to start with, but as we started skirting the wheat fields, we found ourselves walking on a foot wide path at the edge of a sheer cliff, about 200-300 feet above street level. Streams, loose gravel, and the fast paced walk of Abdul did not of course help. After recovering from the initial shock of finding myself on such a flaky surface, I nervously evaluated options. Following Abdul was by far the safer option; turning back on a one-foot wide mud track high on the edge of a cliff was not exactly my idea of a run for safety. We reached the base of the monastery after a half kilometer edge-of-the-precipice trek, only to encounter a hundred odd steep rock cut steps, some sharp turns, and mountain streams. The base also had the remnant of a fairly large Pakistani bunker. The top of the monastery (which incidentally is a converted temple) had a breathtaking view of the road below that is headed to the border. On the east, say 11 o clock position from our vantage point is a snowy peak where Post 45 of the Indian Army is located (13K' above MSL). On the right, say 2 o-clock position is Pakistan's Reshma post on the Karakoram range, possibly at at 15-17K feet.
The Baltis are apparently known for their workmanship, carving beautiful sculptures of Ibex and other local fauna, and pressure cookers (yes you read it right, pressure cookers indeed) from locally available stone. The women seem to be working real hard managing homes and fields, while menfolk seem to be having an easier life - as cops, military personnel, and as small merchants. Isn't that the story of the world though? wink emoticon
Am signing off now. Tomorrow, Monday, we head to Leh back via Khardong La, and on Tue, we are out of Leh to Delhi and then Bangalore, ending a fantastic 13-day trip to the Indian side of the Roof Of The World, living with/amongst some of the nicest people I've encountered, dealing with the strangest of weathers that I've ever had to deal with, and seeing places I am unlikely to see anywhere else.
Ciao folks!
Ciao folks!
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