Suru valley has a beautiful landscape to view, especially when it gets dotted by flowers in the summer. The valley expands from Kargil town upto the Penzi La watershed, from where the Suru River rises. The valley constitutes a large population, mainly of Tibetan-Dard Muslims, who converted to Islam in the 15th century. The peaks of Nun (7,135m) and Kun (7,035m) Massif add to the beautification of this region.

Kartse Khar: The Kartse Khar (palace) is an ancient village known for its 7 m tall rock carved statue of Maitriya Buddha which is an evidence of the presence of Buddhist community in the valley in the past. There are other magnificent Stupas and rock carved statues to be seen in Suru valley, if one wishes to explore.

Drass is around 60 kms to the west of Kargil on the road to Srinagar. The place has beautiful pasture grounds and majestic mountain peaks surrounding it. Drass is the second coldest inhabited place in the world, where the temperature goes as low as -50 degrees in winter.

Drass has become famous in recent years because of Pakistan’s misadventure in the Tiger hill and Tolloling areas. One can have a lovely view of Tiger hill from Drass village.

The inhabitants in Drass consist mainly of the Dards stock, an Aryan race believed to have originally migrated to these villages of the western Himalaya from Central Asian steppes. The language they speak is Shina, which is very much unlike the Ladakhi dialects spoken elsewhere in the Ladakh region. Polo is the favorite time pass of the inhabitants of Drass.