August 7, 2009 - visit to stok and its royal palace
Today, still with our taxi from last few days
we reach stok which is about forty kilometers from leh, also gaining 200
or 300 meters above sea level
It is a small, quite remote village where the palace still used by the royal family of Ladakh is located.
You should know that, even if Ladakh is an integral part of India and the state of #039;Jammu and Cashmere#039;
the old ruling family still exists, no longer has any power but is still very respected.
the Stok Palace is one of their 2 residences
the residence can therefore be visited with a few rooms, an interior courtyard with paintings
objects belonging to the royal family and of course a small, very beautiful and very old temple.
A little story that doesn#039;t make you very proud to be French: the photographs are not
allowed inside the residence, it is written in large letters at the entrance. Of course, the only ones who took
without bothering about the flash photos there was a French couple, dressed like the colonists
from the 19th century. You should know that flashes seriously damage paints, some of which
date from the 16th century...
and to finish a little photo of the terrace where we had a drink this afternoon
just under palace 9 we were on the rightmost chairs!! (Isn#039;t that precise information?):
lt;img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LzKM5z0wSb4/R8q5RmorRkI/AAAAAAAAA9I/neccGXXo1aM/s400/IMG_1083.JPG" alt="" /gt;
lt;img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Stok_palau_1.jpg" alt="" /gt;
lt;img src="https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2630/3748323362_a1d471a38f.jpg" alt="" /gt;