To visit Ladakh, the best time is from June to October. During winters, Ladakh gets totally isolated from rest of the Indian mainland. You can fly to Leh, but somehow it is less beneficial as you cannot get acclimatized to the thin air in Ladakh, road travelers have that advantage. We set off from our hotel at around 8 in the morning, and drove towards Alchi. Alchi lies just 67 kilometers from Leh and so the journey from Leh to Alchi was not a tiring one. On our way we stopped to explore the Maitreya fort in the Bosgo village. It was a quick stop over. As we resumed our journey, I and my friend Mahesh were totally awed by the spectacular landscapes around. Ladakh has contrasting landscapes, snow capped mountains and valleys dotted with trees on an end and desert dry terrain on the other end. The color of the sky is absolute blue, but there is a lot of UV radiation, better to apply sun block. We soon arrived at Alchi. The Alchi village has four different settlements and every settlement has monuments dating to different periods. The Alchi monastery is said to be the most famous and the oldest of the four. It exhibits exquisite Indo Tibetan art of India, houses huge statues of Buddha, wood carvings and art work. There are beautiful Thangka murals inside the temple; some of them were faded due to ageing. Conservation projects are being carried to protect this work of art. Also there are wooden statues of Avalokiteshwara, Maitreya and Manjushri. Some of the most prominent temples in this monastery are Vairochana, Sumrtsek, Lotsa and Manjushri. After an easing visit to the monastery we were invited by a monk to have our morning tea, we drank the butter masala chai( made of tea leaves, yak butter and salt) and were also offered biscuits. Later we left to get back to our accommodation, it was a fabulous day, we took a lot of photographs at Alchi and the trip to Alchi was a memorable one.