'Gormo' time in Ladakh

Eating 'phey-marr' in Ladakh's Nubra Valley is a tangy, buttery and warm experience

- Shirin Mehrotra

After walking for over two hours through the rugged yet gentle slopes of the Nubra Valley in Ladakh, I finally see our destination—a pale yellow house—at a distance. Two boys dressed in identical shirts and jeans greet us with "juley, juley" (Ladakhi for hello) and escort us to their house in Hunder Dok, where we are being hosted for lunch.

Hunder Dok is the highland set south-west of Hunder village in Nubra Valley. A 15km car ride from the village, through the unpaved road, takes you to a point from where the trek to Hunder Dok begins. The 5km stretch takes you through a landscape that's both rough and breathtaking at the same time. Rocky paths that require a steady foot, green meadows with clusters of golden-yellow long tube lousewort, stalks of barley swaying in the wind, and the glacier water flowing all along on its way to meet the Shyok river.