Pangong Tso to Leh - Final Chapter - Ladakh Diaries Page 4 Skip to main content

Pangong Tso to Leh - Final Chapter - Ladakh Diaries Page 4

The morning in Pangong Tso was the most beautiful morning ever. My window had a perfect view of the lake and between us were green crops and vegetables grown by the locals. It is too far from the world and no vegetable vendor, fruits or anything else come here. You eat what you grow beside your home. The last village was Tangtse which was 30 km back and this was the day we were to move from Pangong Tso to Leh with our bikes.

View from the window


The sun was shining brightly and the cold wind filled the dry atmosphere with a view of snow that fell last night on the mountains just a few meters above us. I went outside to the door which was already open and the sunlight was coming inside forming a door shape on the floor. Outside was a small dog, white in colour, bombarded by thousands of smells he was sensing here. All these smells made him too excited on this bright day. He had a very short concentration span. He would smell something and a second later run towards another to smell something else. I sat down on the stairs in the warmth of the sunlight and the temperature was around 2 degrees. The dog and the lake were the only things worth watching at this point.



A little later, when the dog was busy smelling all kinds of new things in life, a girl shouted from the road.

 "Karpo! Karpo!", she screamed towards the dog. 

She wore a red tracksuit, hair tied to the back and a red-black dog belt in her hand. Karpo ignored her completely at this point to the extent that he did not even look there. 

"Karpo!", she screamed and walked two meters ahead when Karpo smelled something new. That new thing was me. He ran towards me and jumped on my lap and closed his eyes. The girl stopped when she looked at this scene as we did not have any common language and Karpo had already shattered her self esteem in front of a stranger who stayed in her house. Karpo stayed in my lap for a few minutes and then he saw a goat on the road. A new creature in his area was not something Karpo liked. It spoiled his morning mood and he ran barking towards the goat when in the middle the girl caught him and put the belt around him. Although, the goat ran away bringing Karpo back to peace.


Karpo not so happy with the goat


Pangong Tso is said to change its colour according to the time of the day. I had already seen a light purple-blue shade last evening while coming here. My situation, as described in the previous post, did not let me enjoy that moment though. It was 8 in the morning and the lake had an ocean blue colour in it. The colour that we get in a few mocktails. The sun made its waves shine like the hair of a creature such as Karpo. It was as beautiful as I had seen it in the movies and pictures. We went to the banks and sat down to enjoy that moment. This was probably the only time we would see this in our lifetime. We both knew it. A lot of the places are famous and recommended to visit but in a few seconds, we realise that we can leave after one photograph. Pangong Tso was not like this. A lot was going in our minds. We had to travel 200 km on the bike today but with each passing minute, I knew I was coming close to leaving it. No picture could give justice to the view of clear blue water of which one side I was sitting and the other side brown mountains were teasing me as they will enjoy this view every day. Or do you really enjoy the things you see every day even though they are worth it?


Pangong Tso in the morning with my friend on the opposite side


We came back to our guest house and met the owner one last time. An old man with a Mexican hat and bent knees smiled at me. The wrinkles made their best appearance on his dry skin like a cat's whiskers. Meanwhile, I caught Karpo who was smelling something under the soil. His digging expedition made him deaf and this time it was me Karpo was ignoring. We left Pangong Tso towards Leh. The path was beautiful. We were driving in the mountains and the lake was on our right side. It went on for around 15 kilometres and by that time, even if I wanted to take a look at it once more, I realised we could not have got any more than this.





While riding a few kilometres ahead, I saw a pool of water in front of me. The same pool that a guy in Shyok had warned me about and I crossed a day before. But this time, I could not believe the amount of water I was seeing here. I stopped. My friend was behind me. I looked back at him and he was staring at the water like someone who is just about to jump. A car was approaching from the other side and it looked like a perfect way to measure the depth of water and the path below it. If the car bumps in, it is probably a hole on the road. We need to remember that. The tyres touched the water and started going deep. The bumper of the car had now touched the water and tyres were all inside it. The water crossing was way too deeper than I thought. The first thing that came to my mind was the guy that warned me by saying my bag would immerse inside it. He was right. They would! I looked at my friend again. He looked at me and laughed. "There is no other way. We have to do this.". "Yes, let's go," he said.


I started towards the water and a few inches before touching the crossing I realised, there was no road beneath the water. Only gravels. The car was much easier to drive than a bike now and we did not realise that when the car was passing. The water was flowing perpendicularly from the mountains towards the river on the right. Flowing water, so much depth, a bike and gravels beneath. It could not get any more than this. Slowly slowly I moved in the water. Other bikers saw me while I looked like a broken ship that was going deeper and deeper inside. My side bag and the bike's cylinder were immersed completely inside. Half of my tyre was inside and the handle became heavier and heavier. I didn't know how my bike was still burning the fuel when half of it was inside water including the silencer. My friend followed me in the crossing and we crossed it slowly but safely. Now it was the turn of another crossing. This was much harder as it had a road beneath but with holes. My bike bumped inside one hole which made me immerse even deeper into the crossing. 75% of my shin was inside while I crossed the most dangerous crossing with a flowing river in Ladakh.





Pangong Tso or Ladakh had challenged us and asked from us more than we had imagined or done in the past. My friend was an inexperienced motorcycle driver and while he rode safely on these roads, I was impressed every day by how he passed through these hurdles easily. The challenges were extreme in our journey in Ladakh. The road towards Leh was beautiful. We crossed Chang La on the way which had very little oxygen in the air. So little that even my bike was not getting enough to burn the fuel. I started feeling headaches. I could realize now that I had to snatch oxygen from the air rather than get it involuntarily. I was breathing with effort now while riding the bike above 5500 meters from sea level. Soon I had to try even harder to breathe.



While everyone had praised Khardung La to be an oxygen-poor area, I felt Chang La was much more difficult. The roads to Khardung La were awesome. Here, they were broken to the point that there were only stones. This made our speed even lesser especially when our bikes were not producing enough power. The more time it was taking to climb to Chang La and cross it, the more air we had to breathe for oxygen. Soon I reached my saturation point. I could not inhale more air than I was already and the lesser oxygen in my blood made my eyes tired and banged my head harder. Fortunately, without any emergency requirement, we both crossed Chang La.


A few hours later, we started seeing more and more homes, government buildings and traffic. All those scary brown mountains with full-flowing rivers and deserts and super-fast winds had disappeared. We came back to the hostel. I remember on our first day in Leh how people were telling their stories, experiences and giving everybody tips to follow. It was our time now as the table had turned. We started giving tips to people in the hostel and I was careful to always mention Chang La and the condition of the road towards it. Nobody knew about it as Khardung La had more precedence. 



Ladakh was one of the places that had nothing - no big monuments, no fancy malls or no man-made wonders. You just go from one place to another and just live there. You are not here to see anything but feel the depth of warmness in the people and just enjoy the pure untouched natural beauty. A beautiful Ladakh that has the scars of our wars and soldiers is much more than it is hyped to be. It was a place that I believed and still do, should always be visited once in a lifetime. I looked out the window of my aeroplane and did not see the airport building. I saw those dusty roads leading to Nubra Valley. The sound of Shyok river. The water crossing. Military guys recording our videos when 30 bikes passed in front of them. The blue water of Pangong Tso. The man I gave a lift to. The pink rocks. The clear night sky. The people I met. The experience I had. The memories I took and a lost me in those memories. 


Thank You

Harish Rajora

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

A Day's Tale In Meghalaya

It has been a long-awaited trip to Meghalaya. I always wanted to visit the states far in the east and experience their culture. In the December of 2021 by booking tickets for Meghalaya, me and three of my friends decided to explore this state navigating our ways by an i20 car that we took from Guwahati. Since our entry and exit point was Guwahati, it made sense.  Meghalaya is a small hilly state with a population of around 75%  Christians. This was one of the reasons that we had planned a trip during the last days of December to celebrate Christmas Day. The day around which this story pertains is the same day that we wanted to celebrate and came here for. Trekking in Mawryngkhang Trek On 25th December 2021, four of us decided to do a nature trek in Meghalaya around 50km away from Shillong where we were staying till now. Today was the day for which we didn't have any bookings done as we were not able to find any hotels online. A unanimous decision pointed towards " we'

A meet with the Backstreet Boys

 Okay, tell me who is this one. I plugged in one earplug in his ear, rewind the song, and asked my friend. That's Nick? He said in a rather "I am not sure" voice. Ah! No that's AJ. Isn't this song great? Yes, it is really! We listened to the song "Show Me the Meaning of being lonely" together on my Sony Ericsson phone which had only 200 MB of space. It could accommodate only four songs if I could balance the weight of pictures and other files. All those four songs belonged to the Backstreet Boys. The four songs I listened to before sleeping and after coming from school. While the mobile phone did not get me enough freedom, the computer I had hosted 80 GB of space. This was enough to satiate my new exploration. I couldn't care much about the lack of internet at my home and just a simple question "Do you know any internet cafe?" to my friend in school gave me a quick answer! "Near the shopping center on the main road". I was looking

My Trip To Vietnam - Peace in the Chaos (Ho Chi Minh City)

Vietnam has always fascinated travelers all around the world without actually pointing out any one thing specifically. You might be traveling to India to visit just the Taj Mahal but why do you want to take a trip to Vietnam? There is no such thing. You just want to visit Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. But why do you want to do that? I don't know! And perhaps I did not get this answer from all the videos describing the beauty of Vietnam. This was something that had been playing in my mind ever since I saw a guy crossing a road with a million scooters coming at him. That looks like India though! Would that be the reason? I don't know! And so I pinged my friend Sudhanshu if he'd be interested in taking a trip to Vietnam with me - a beautiful and mesmerizing country. Ah! Sure he is. I knew the answer before even asking him. He and I have made and canceled plans a lot of the time. The one thing that we decided on our trip to Ladakh was to visit Vietnam (or maybe another south-east

Food You Should Not Miss In Rajasthan

 Rajasthan is a state in the northern part of India. Many tourists visit yearly to witness its rich culture, colorful and vibrant arts, fascinating landscapes, graceful dance, exotic folk songs, and tempting food. If you are one of those planning to visit this beautiful state and looking to satiate yourself with the best dishes, this post is for you. Before listing down, let’s quickly brief ourselves about the source of food in Rajasthan. Rajasthan cuisine - A brief synopsis The climate and the temperature have never been in favor of Rajasthan. It ranges from arid to semi-arid throughout the year. This is why green leafy vegetables are hard to grow in these regions. The main crops of Rajasthan are bajra, ragi, jowar, ground nuts, pulses, etc. So that would equate to all the crops that need significantly less water to grow. Also, you will observe a lot of spices, pickles, and chutneys in Rajasthani cuisine. It is because the land has faced many ravaged wars and shortages of food because

Bhutanese Food You Shouldn't Miss If You Are In Bhutan

Bhutan is an adventurous place for all nature lovers. Bhutan provides us with things that very few countries have to offer. A country that has a negative carbon footprint and is the happiest place on earth deserves at least one trip to it. Is Bhutan famous for anything other than its naturistic landscapes? Yes, it's food! Bhutanese food is one of its kind and will remind you of the Tibetan culture that you might have just read in books or watched on television until now. In this post, I bring to you Bhutanese food that you absolutely cannot miss if you are visiting Bhutan! Let's see our specially curated list of Bhutanese food: 1. Ema Datshi We will start our list with one of the most famous Bhutanese dish called Ema Datshi. Ema Datshi is also recognized as the national dish of Bhutan which makes it worth trying when you are visiting Bhutan! So, Ema Datshi is the combination of two words: Ema which means chilli and Datshi which means cheese. Chilli can be of any

Best Places To Visit In Winters In India

 India is the “land of diversity”, which is glorified worldwide. From food, culture, and language to religion, climate, and festivals everything varies here. While the north of India is covered with extensive massive icy glaciers, the south is surrounded by oceans like the Arabian sea and the Indian Ocean. The barren wilderness of the deserts in the west, and the wild tropical forest in the east all dignify the beauty of India. From Holi to Diwali to Onam, various festivals are celebrated all throughout the year. This diversified nature attracts people and makes India a country that you can visit any time of the year. But in this article, we bring you the places from India that you can visit to start your new year or end this year with great joy! Jaipur Jaipur is the capital city of Rajasthan. It is also known as the “Pink City” because of the pink and saffron colors of the buildings. The architecture and structure of the city are designed as per the ancient science of architecture. Th

Visiting Pangong Tso Lake from Nubra Valley - Ladakh Diaries Page 3

Nubra valley in Ladakh was a pleasant scene to stay in. It had an almost white desert, a vociferous river, brown mountains and considerable vegetation which was hard to find in Ladakh. We visited Turtuk the next day which was 2 km from the Pakistan border. We came back the same day and enjoyed live music and a group of travellers who came from Gujarat. They were financed by their company on a yearly holiday. I remember when we went into the hall to eat dinner a man came to us and said "Bikers?" and I said "Yes". His eyed gloomed in the dim light and a smile appeared on his face. An expression that looked like he wanted to switch places with us and kick start a bike and run into the mountains. He lifted his hands and signed a thumbs up towards us.  The next day was a major day as we were about to visit a place that had become a signature location for people visiting Ladakh. Thanks to the movie 3 idiots , the lake Pangong Tso has seen record-breaking footf

How to plan a budget Kerala trip?

Kerala is one of the most popular choices for people looking to wander around the southern part of India. With its coffee plantations and hazy roads, a budget Kerala trip is what brings happiness and refreshes your mood from your daily lifestyle. In this post, we will discuss how to reach Kerala from anywhere in India, the places to cover, and what season would be the best for your upcoming Kerala trip. A brief introduction to Kerala Kerala is an Indian state falling in the southern part of the country. The population of the state stands at a little higher than 3.5 crores or 35 million. The state is 21st largest state by area in India and borders the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The language popular among Keralites is Malayalam and therefore if you learn a few words before your Kerala trip, it would help you on the road. How to reach Kerala? Kerala is easily accessible by all types of transport modes. So, you can use either land, water, train, or air for your

Independence Day in India: Just A Holiday?

This 15th August, India celebrates its 74th Independence day as we complete 73 years of independence. A national holiday and the birth of a free and independent nation. Or is it? In this busy and self-centric world, as time has passed, people have started to shift their focus to things which are devastating culturally rather than positive changes that have taken place. " I know there are a lot of bad things happening all around the world, but there are more positive things happening which people overlook ", said The Dalai Lama in one of his speeches in front of thirty thousand people. That is indeed true in today's times!   As time has passed with we all standing here decades after that iconic "Tryst with Destiny" speech by Pandit Nehru, we have started to take this freedom too lightly and seeking freedom in things that are of very little relevance to us. It's like a caged parrot when freed is asking for the same level of resp
Managed and maintained by Harish Rajora