Nubra Valley

Nubra Valley is Ladakh at its most surreal — a place where sand dunes and snow-capped peaks exist side by side, where Bactrian camels graze in the shadow of 7,000-metre mountains, and where an ancient Silk Road trading route still passes through remote villages that feel entirely apart from the modern world.

The journey to Nubra crosses Khardung La, the world's highest motorable road at 5,359 metres. The pass is breathtaking in both senses — the altitude leaves lungs gasping while the panorama of the Karakoram Range leaves visitors speechless. Descending into Nubra, the valley unfolds like a dream: an impossibly fertile river valley of poplars, orchards, and wildflowers sandwiched between vast brown mountains.

Diskit's giant golden Maitreya Buddha surveys the entire valley from a hillside shrine. Hunder's sand dunes offer camel rides on double-humped Bactrian camels — once the workhorses of the Silk Road. Turtuk, the northernmost village accessible to civilians, preserves a Balti culture that provides a fascinating window into a different corner of high Asia.