India now has its own natural ice café, built at a height of 14000 ft above the sea level. The Border Road Organisation achieved this wonderful feat recently, and the café is now open to the public. Traditional noodles and a variety of hot drinks are served in this café. This unique café, made of ice, creates an ambiance that you might not have seen or experienced before. This artificial, but the natural glacier has been built by running pipes under frost lines and is one of the best methods to conserve water on the hills during winter.
This is how the technique works—the water is pushed through the pipes, which is then made to fall on the ground in freezing temperatures in the form of ice. This leads to building towers out of ice. When spring arrives, these towers melt, the water of which is collected in tanks, and supplied to farmlands.
This means this ice café in Ladakh will also eventually melt, but it is expected to remain till mid-May. As per news reports, the design of the ice café has been inspired by the works of Sonam Wangchuk, the famous Indian engineer. A member from ice café stated that they felt the need to build a restaurant in that altitude as people were coming to visit Ice Stupa and asking for noodles and hot drinks.
