Leh is like the nucleus of all the places
one might visit around; all the famous places connected from it. So
one can virtually start with any place you like to visit. As Pangong Tso was on everyone’s list, we
planned our day for the majestic Lake.
The lake is at a distance of about 160
km from Leh. One third of the lake is in INDIA and the remaining two thirds is
in Tibet (controlled by China). At high altitudes, it is not recommended to
travel more than 150 km via bike. So, it is advisable to stay for a night especially
if you are riding a bike.
After pumping
enough petrol in our Royal Enfields along
with one “extra” 5 litre petrol-can per bike, we started our journey! The
petrol can and stuff like rope to tie your luggage onto your bike is easily
available in the market at nominal rates. And thanks to BRO, the roads are
perfect (not “bro” but Border Roads Organisation).
Carry the permits to Pangong and Xerox copies
of your identity card.
 |
| Get Set Go! |
|
 |
| Everything Checked! |
|
 |
| The Journey Begins! |
Riding alongside Indus River you will reach your first diversion at Karu, which is about 35 km from Leh. From Karu, the road on the left goes to Pangong Tso and the right one to Tso Morriri. You will also cross Thiksey and Shey Gompa.
 |
| Monasteries in Leh |
|
 |
| Karu Diversion |
|
 |
| Indus River |
Whenever
you see fellow tourists coming back or going for a journey, always great them
with (thumbs-up) and it feels really good doing that. And then
the DUG DUG DUG DUGGGGG….continued.
Caution: Cover your hands and face
properly to protect from sunrays and thoroughly apply a good sunscreen lotion
on all your exposed parts.
 |
| DUG DUG DUGG!! |
|
 |
| SUV FEEL |
|
Although
the journey is full of adventures but for all those of you who have Keeda of “Yaar kuch alag karte hai” like we do, keep looking for shortcuts in
your journey. If you are cognizant enough, you can find shortcuts everywhere,
be it mountains or plains.
Occasionally take breaks to avoid getting tired soon and take in lots of water
and other fluids. One BRO sign board read “THAT
IS DEEP, DON’T GO SLEEP” and you know what to do and what not to do. Once
you are at a reasonable altitude, the panorama view of snow covered Himalayan
peaks becomes clearer in view and more beautiful.
There is a rough stretch of
about 20-30 kms which I am sure most of the people enjoy. But one needs to be
very careful. One of our bikes slightly lost the balance and the petrol can
fell down. You don’t have any petrol pumps in the journey to Pangong Lake.
 |
| Take Proper Rest |
|
 |
| Hamara Enfield |
|
During
the journey, one will encounter a beautiful melting glacier with ice chilled
water. You can take rest and fill up you water bottles. This reminds of Bear Grylls of Man vs Wild show, doesn’t it ;-)? You can also cool down the engine of your bike
by pouring some water.
The temperature of the place will drop as
you gain height. Keep yourselves covered with proper clothing and always keep
your helmet with you (Until and unless you are Iron Man).
 |
| Resting Down |
|
 |
| Melting Glaciers |
|
As
one moves on, one will see a sign board with welcome sign “WELCOME TO CHANG LA (17699 FT, 5360 M)” giving you
enough joy to take down all your fatigue. Chang
La is the world’s third highest motorable road.
 |
| Welcome to Chang La! |
|
 |
| Himank welcomes you |
|
“Mountains are pleasure, if you drive
with leisure”. Burn your memory card with enough digital memories and fill
up your stomach with some fluids and chocolates. And the feeeellll of eating
Maggi at almost 18000 ft is like out-of-the-world.
 |
| Chilling at Chang La |
|
 |
| Our bikes in front of canteen |
|
After
crossing Changa La, one will land up in ChangThang region. On your way keep
your eyes and ear open because you can
get to see a variety of fauna around in this part of the world. We saw a fox
running in a huge plain ground. We also saw some horses running alongside in
the huge green fields.
 |
Fox |
|
 |
| A foal enjoying in wilderness |
|
 |
| Beautiful Horses |
The
sun was setting in and we had to increase our pace to reach Pangong Lake before it’s too dark. Speed breakers, water flowing on roads, diverging
roads for few spots will be common sights in the journey. With huge
mountains changing colours with every eye blink it was impossible to resist the
urge to stop and click some beautiful pictures.
 |
| Shades of Mountain |
|
 |
| The Knight rider |
|
With frequent
stops and enough adventures on the way, it was already night when were almost
30-40 kms away from Pangong Tso. A
stretch came in between where a huge rush of water was there which we mistakenly
assumed to be a small one. As a result we have to pay the price of our
miscalculations with both our socks and shoes getting washed in water. So an
advice-Beware of such stretches.
When we were about to reach Pangong Tso, we saw moon rise! Yes you read it
right, we saw moon slowly rising from the mountains and we just stopped and
watched silently. Although it’s risky to drive in night there but it was worth
an adventure. We reached at around 9pm. We had our dinner in 3 idiots café there.
 |
| Moon Rise |
|
 |
| White ball in dark sky |
|
 |
| Night view of Pangong Lake |
Next morning we were eager to watch sunrise from Pangong Lake. We woke up early at around 6 o’clock. With cameras in
our hand, face covered with muffler and slippers in foot (socks and shoes still
wet!) we were sitting on the banks of Pangong Lake.
There were hundreds of
prayer flags which were adding more glory to the picture. We were waiting
eagerly for the sunrise. And when it happened all I could hear was “Click
Click…Click”.
 |
| Early morning view at Pangong |
|
 |
| Sunrise at Pangong lake |
|
 |
| Picturesque Sunrise |
The
lake is crystal clear but the water is salty. At one stage one might feel that Pangong is of only one colour, and you
have been ditched. But believe me, once sun keep rising and sunlight falls on
crystal clear water, the sight of 7 different blue shades of water with a
backdrop of numerous shades of dusty brown mountains will leave a lifetime
impression in your heart.
 |
| Blue Shades of Pangong |
|
 |
| Backdrop Mountains |
|
We even
took our bikes and went very far away from our tents to explore more of the Blue lake in the desert. You can’t go very
far off as there are sign boards of “Trespassers
will be prosecuted beyond this point”.
You can do adventure at your own
risk. You will also see boards which
read “You are in ChangThang Wildlife Sanctuary”.
Spangmik village is nearby
Pangong Lake (6-7 kms).
.jpg "Let's explore more") |
| Let's explore more |
|
 |
| The three wanderers |
|
 |
| Closer to banks of Pangong Lake |
After clicking hundreds of picture of the beautiful scenery, we left for our journey back to Leh.
Caution: If you are taking shortcuts here, drive very slow and carefully in the mud holes in the desert. We got into a situation of “Man down! Turn back,man down!”.
 |
| 3 Knight riders |
|
 |
| Bye Bye Pangong |
|
 |
| Julley visit again |
We were admiring the beautiful scenery we missed in the darkness of night, and
suddenly we saw an animal. We stopped and as we went closer we saw that there
are so many Chipmunks in the field :-p
No, they are not Chipmunks although they resemble one. They are Himalayan Marmot. They are very
friendly in nature and they will not harm you. If you have something to eat,
you can feed them with your hand and they will eat quietly. It was a real fun
getting clicked with them.
 |
| Chipmunks? |
|
 |
| Kaun hai bhai tu? |
|
 |
| Hello marmot! |
The
rest of the journey was full of adventurous- taking numerous shortcuts on the
way with one of them landing our bike very near to Zingral Army base camp, bike getting punctured 10 kms before Karu,
the petrol playing hide and seek with us.
With all the fun, adventure,
trouble, we finally reached back to Leh in late afternoon. And our hands, face
were literally roasted in sun, spines ready to move out and legs and buttocks
hurting like anything. Well that is unavoidable, but the picture of pain is
minuscule in front of the fun, adventure
and the journey we had to Pangong Tso.
 |
| THIS IS FOR REAL!!!!! |
PS :
No one checked our permits and identity cards. :-D
Caution: Carry all the essential spare
parts. It might be helpful to you or someone in the journey.
Our
next THE ADVENTUROUS journey will be to NUBRA VALLEY. Stay connected for next
article. Thanks for reading and if you are still there with me, check out more
exclusive pics of the blue desert beauty in the Gallery section.
Readers
please share your feedback in the comment section below. Thanks.
 |
| Please visit again! |
To read the next article click here.
Readers please share your feedback in the comment section below. Thank you :-)
6 comments:
Pangong Tso : a breathtaking view
Shanti ki Anubhuti hoti h yaha.
Coz u have chosen one of the best places to travel. Its like nature has given some extra privileges to this place. And for animal-lovers these Himalayan Marmots are a bonus. So cute that you are definitely going to be attracted by them.
Those in search of heaven must visit Pangong Tso
A true heaven on Earth
amazing route passing through beautiful Ladakh countryside, over Chang La, the third highest motorable mountain pass (5289 m) in the world ^_^
divine ever changing hues of the lake
whats more interesting is that during winter the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water
The first glimpse of the serene, bright blue waters and rocky lakeshore remains etched in the memory of visitors :)
@Sarthak - Yes definitely a serene place it is! And yes those marmots were super cute!
@Ayush - It feels like that some artist has painted a picture , but then its all in real! :)
@Prateek - Yes you're right. People can even walk on the lake in winters. Although tourist activities are restricted in winters.
Great Post. Thanks for sharing this with us. Your blog posts are really very interesting and useful. Hopefully this may also help your readers to do affordable online shopping. Oyo Rooms Discount Coupons
Post a Comment