Our taxi driver for the day turned up in an eighties style car that looked moderately road worthy. He drove at a snail’s pace. I’m not sure if that was because the car wasn’t capable of being driven any faster or because the driver had taken to heart my request for slow and careful driving.

We headed to Stok village first, where the kings of Leh were banished by the Dogras of Jammu in the 18th century. Unfortunately it was soon clear that our driver had never been there before so we resorted to trying to direct him via google maps. This had limited success as our mobile reception wasn’t great. A road seemed to have disappeared into the river, so maybe the issue was not the driver at all, but a changing landscape following a flood. After a lot of driving around bucolic countryside studded with fruit trees, rivers and remote dwellings we reached Stok Palace.

If I had been living in Leh Palace, Stok Palace might have been a let down, but it didn’t seem too bad a place to be relocated to me. It’s now a hotel, but part of it houses a small museum. Royal clothing and jewels are displayed. Some local women who were looking round at the same time as us were fascinated by these.

Plenty of animal heads graced the walls.

We had a quick look at the local monastery and the big golden Buddha nearby. The monastery seemed to be empty and in the process of being rebuilt. We spotted a couple of friendly monks who pointed us in the right direction. Everywhere we looked we spotted white stupas.

Next, we headed for Shey Palace. A modern Guru Padmasambhava statue (also known as Guru Rinpoche – revered in Tibetan Buddhism) towers next to it. We headed up the long flights of steps that all Buddhist monuments seem to require you to negotiate prior to entry. We were rewarded by views of the surrounding countryside and a temple containing an enormous golden Shakyamuni Buddha statue (Siddharta – historical founder of Buddhism). This is contained within several floors of the monastery, so inside the temple we could only see his head.

A monk was performing a ceremony inside the temple which involved local people picking up stones and circling the Buddha accompanied by chanting. We entered quietly and sat watching for a bit.

After a short break for refreshments opposite Shey Palace (ok coffee, terrible food, even more terrible loos) we drove to Thiksey Gompa. This had five fascinating temples and ornate decorations. In one of the temples all the statues were covered. This was because they represent wrathful deities that are too powerful to be viewed by the human eye except once a year.

We spent some time wandering around and enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the monastery . Tim had a chat to a man from Mumbai who was travelling through Leh on his motorbike.

On the way out we took advantage of icecream served by monks. I noticed that the monastery had a water bottle recycling machine for visitors.

Next we visited Hemis Monastery. Although there were less temples here I think it was my favourite. The location was out of the way and nestled against the mountains. I wished we had time to hike to the cave above the monastery but it was late in the day and a light rain started as we arrived. There were two big temples and a fascinating historical museum.

My favourite museum exhibit was a bike that the abbot of the monastery used to travel through the himalayan region from Leh to Kathmandu, spreading the message about green issues. He has also written a book which is sold in the monastery shop. I spoke to Czech guy in a cafe in Leh later who had bought it – apparently it is mainly addressed to young Indians, helping them to integrate Buddhist practices into modern life.

Other museum exhibits included ancient swords, temple decorations, jewels and the bones and skulls used in Tantric Buddhist practices. It was all displayed and explained very effectively, a priceless cultural collection.

By this time we were exhausted and happy to head back to Leh for pizza in our favourite cafe. Our next adventure would be our trip to the Nubra region of Ladakh.