My earlier posts of Leh trip are here
Day 8: Turtuk – The penultimate village!
Day 9: A hard day on the wheels
It was a cold morning when we started towards Chang La Pass. It was only me and Raja, after dropping Suma to airport, riding towards Karu after filling fuel to our desert storm. We were to join the rest of the group by noon at Pangong lake. Manu and Manju would have started their return journey towards Manali.
After having breakfast at the Punjabi dhaba and getting our permit copies done at Karu, we took a left diversion towards Pangong Lake road. The ride was boring and monotonous as there was not a single creature other than us for almost all the way till Chang La peak. The army trucks are too few in this route. It was chilling when we reached the peak. We stopped for tea at the canteen. The road was as always bad and we could not go beyond 10kmph. After climbing down on the other side of the Pass, it was again a barren land with no human existence. We stopped at an army check post to get our permits checked, the officer in charge sent us without even looking at them and we continued cursing for wasting paper on unnecessary copies.
After a while we were passing by a village and noticed few bikes racing from the other side. We were initially happy to see some visitors, later we almost jumped with joy to meet the rest of our group. It was Manoj and Manju who were on their way to Manali. Behind them followed Pavan on his bike and after a while Suhas & Vidya too joined. We stopped near a teahouse for a tea & hear from them. These guys were to stay for another day along with us but they had changed their plans and were on their way to Leh. This was not a happy development for us. The thought of just the two of us visiting the lake seemed totally boring. We were dead bored by this very journey from morning till now and it looked pointless to continue like this any further. Fortunately after pleading and discoursing Pavan agreed upon joining us to the lake.
For the rest of our journey we raced on the two bikes. The milieu also seemed getting better. We found meadows and streams along. Beautifully blossomed tiny flowers sprinkled on the green patches between the streams. On careful observation we could locate few Marmots peeping out of their burrows.
A couple of km before on the Pangong Lake road we caught the first glimpse of this lake like a small triangular patch of blue between the mountains. After clearing our way through these mountains we saw an endless area covered with deep blue water. The pitch dark roads cutting U on the brown land with the view of the lake at the back was stunning. We had finally arrived at the highest salt water lake in the world.
After reaching the lake we hungrily searched for a good canteen. There were endless hotels temporarily built of asbestos sheets with weird names “3 Idiots hotel” was also one of them. It started raining lightly by the time we parked our bikes and took shelter in a canteen. They served us endless hot Phulkas, dal and Rajma. The very famous 3 Idiots spot was already crowded with people capturing pictures in several poses. We preferred to travel further to reach the tents before the weather further worsened. The next village Spangmik is filled with tents and few permanent accommodations facing the lake. We checked into one of those permanent accommodations which were slightly costlier than the tents. Just when we reached our room it started pouring heavily. The doors refused to shut against the strong winds.
Not spending much time in the room, we took our bikes and rode along the lake side till as long as the roads got really slushy. After this, lot of slippery mud seemed risky to ride. We stopped here to take pictures and sat watching the small waves hitting the shore. The bank at several places had beautiful stones arranged like a pillar. The player flags tied randomly to these stones blow hard with the wind. While you are engrossed in your solitude watching the blue waters the bar-headed geese fly across the scene touching the water superficially and lands on the shore. Watching these birds I recollect the famous song from a Hindi movie Refugee beautifully sung by Alka Yagnik , “panchi nadiya pawan ke jhonke … koi sarhad na inhe roke”. I love this song so much that I have tears listening to it.
Inspite of the heavy wind blowing across your face, you would want to sit here till the lake disappears in the dark. The clouds played a spoil sport without giving us even a glimpse of the moon. We walked back to our rooms and got into the warm bed after a delicious dinner.
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