Had set my alarm for 7:30 am but got out of bed only at 8. The destination for the day was the most picturesque place in Ladakh, Pangong Lake. Many travellers just go to Pangong, see it and return to Leh on the same day. I don’t understand how anyone could do justice to that beauty within an hour. I had not traveled the entire length of the country just to see Pangong Lake, but to experience Pangong to the heartful. I packed all that I needed for the trip leaving behind my rucksack and my gumboots with Ali at Skitpo hotel.
The ride started at 9:15 am. While crossing the Choglamsar village, I saw a few traditional tandoor huts whose only business was to bake bread and nothing else. They were open only in the morning and by the volumes of production, it was easy to judge that their breads were selling like the proverbial 'Hotcakes'. The aroma of that tandoor hut fueled my hunger, so I immediately stopped at the next restaurant that I saw.
No sooner had I stopped at the Zakir tea stall to have my breakfast, then I saw people running around in panic. I also rushed outside to find out the cause of the commotion. It turned out that a naked electric wire had fallen on a moving van with passengers and it immediately turned into a moving ball of flame. With a collective effort of the bystanders, the flames were doused in no time and miraculously no one was hurt.
Just when the ascent to the Pangong lake started, a line at the army check post reminded me of how harsh the conditions can be at that altitude.
Reached Changla (5360 meters), the third-highest pass in the world at 12:30 am. After a brief stop and praying at the famous Changla Baba Temple, I continued with my riding as I wanted to reach the beautiful Pangong Lake as soon as possible.
I saw some SUV’s taking a shorter route, so I followed their trail. The off-road track was much shorter than the conventional route, however, as it was all sand, I was riding Chitti (that's what Linda calls my Royal Enfield .Inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors - RAJNIKANT !!! ) at 10 km/hr. My recent experience of riding on the sands of Moore Plains helped me a lot, but this time balancing Chitti was a different game altogether as it was a downhill ride. Then, it happened. Just when I was negotiating the last corner before joining into the main route, the tyre lost the grip of the sand, Chitti slipped and we fell. By that time, I was so tired that I didn’t even try to regain the balance and neither did I jump out of Chitti. This captain went down with his ship. And besides, when a Royal Enfield decides to fall, fall it will. Thankfully, as I was riding at a low speed, the fall was not a very serious one. I had landed on my elbow and the elbow pads seemed Godsent. I would have suffered some bruises, or even worse, had it not been for those elbow pads. I didn’t have a single scratch on my body. I picked myself up and checked if Chitti was hurt. There was a slight bend of leg-guard and the foot brake but otherwise, Chitti was just fine. I dusted Chitti and myself and continued with the ride.
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| The protective elbow pad |
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| The short cut joining into the main route |
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| Roger that. |
The route took me through a marmot sighting area. I stopped by to say hello to some camera-friendly marmots.
Six hours of riding in the brown mountains had made the colour comprehending part of my brain numb. So, when I suddenly saw a patch of turquoise, I didn’t know how to react. The colour of the lake was, for lack of a better word, peaceful.
2 km short of Pangong Lake, I had a situation. About 80 meters of the road was submerged in the icy water. I stopped and watched the other SUVs navigate through the mess. From the struggle of the SUVs, it soon became evident that the murky water was hiding some huge potholes. Riding past those potholes meant that I had to balance Chitti by putting my feet down in the water. What added to my problem was the fact that I had left my gumboots at the hotel in Leh. I didn’t want to spend a night in Pangong with a pair of wet riding boots, so I chalked out a safe route strategy. The strategy was to avoid the middle of the road and stick to the extreme side of the road because potholes are usually nastiest in the middle of the road and not so much on the extreme sides. I also had to cover that waterlogged stretch without stopping so I waited for all the vehicles to clear that stretch. Once all the vehicles had crossed, I revved up Chitti and started riding into the unknown. I don’t know if it was due to lack of oxygen or lack of clarity of the way, but I was breathing heavy. I was concentrating hard on seeing through the murky water when the front wheel of Chitti suddenly plunged into a pothole. I put my left foot down to balance Chitti. The water was so cold that the 'response to stimuli' mechanism of my body took over and immediately lifted my foot back again. My foot was down for a fraction of a second, but it was long enough for the water to seep into my boots.
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| The tense moment |
As soon as I reached Pangong, I saw a cluster of restaurants. All of them had one thing in common – Aamir Khans picture. The movie 3 Idiots starring Aamir Khan which was partially shot in Pangong Lake had helped boost the inflow of tourist in Pangong. Pangong is to 3 idiots what Waikato is to Hobbit. The entire settlement seemed to be themed around the movie. I had my lunch at Rancho Café. For all those who have watched the movie, Rancho would sound very familiar.
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| Cheers Aamir |
Once I was done with my lunch, I started to look for a place to stay. After checking out a few places, I decided to stay at Martsemik camp. It was a bit expensive for my budget, but it looked like a very comfortable tent with an attached toilet. To my surprise, it was the same camp where the crew of 3 idiots had stayed. Pangong is a very windy place, so I requested the guy in charge there to give me a tent which was the coziest of them all and he happily agreed to give me one. The staff were very friendly, and it was just the kind of place which would make my stay even more memorable.
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| Martsemik Camp |
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| This was Kareena's room during the filming |
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| My Tent |
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| Inside my cosy tent |
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| The attached toilet |
Sitting there, staring at the mesmerizing Pangong, I unconsciously started talking to myself. It was something that I had never done before. The salt of Pangong had added a new flavour in my life. There was no other place that I wanted to be in at that moment, not even my home, sweet home. Again, a feeling which I never had before.
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| The view from the Martsemik Camp |
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| My mother always complains that I never take my own photo, so this one was for my mother |
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| Drying my boots |
As time lapsed, the chilling winds started to gain more speed. Other tourist started to leave the lake and soon I was the only one at the lake shore. That’s when someone came to visit me. The inner peace in me must have radiated outside my body otherwise a shy bird would never dare come close to any human.
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| "Hey, you look happy." |
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| "Mind if I join in ?" |
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| "Lovely view, isn't it ?" |
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| "Are you clicking me ?" |
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| "Dont mind me. Please carry on what you were doing" |
Spending time inside my tent was a criminal waste of time so I headed towards the hall right next to the kitchen to talk to the staff. The heat of the kitchen made that hall a much warmer place than the tent. I ordered for few pegs of rum to warm up my body. While I was sipping my rum talking to the staff, the landlady walked in. She would personally supervise the food being cooked. Seeing her all the staff rushed into the kitchen leaving the hall to me alone. Once she had briefed the staff, she came out of the kitchen and started chatting with me. She was a very humble lady. She shared the story of how she had started her business with only two tents but by God’s grace and the hard work, she had now established a very flourishing business model. The tents were set up during the season time and it would be dismantled during the winters when the route would be closed for tourists. It would take about a month to set up the tents but just a week to dismantle them - The story of life. She said she was a big fan of Aamir Khan because when he was staying at the camp while filming 3 idiots, he would often walk into the kitchen to talk to her and learn about Ladakhi food. On the contrary, she said that she was not very pleased with Sharukh Khan’s snobbish attitude. She had a chance to interact with him too while he was shooting for jab tak hai jaan. I knew how simple her approach to life was when she said, “Paisa sab kuch nahi hai. Mujhe aap k jaisa aacha guest chahe-ay.” (Money is not everything. I need a good guest like you.)
To appreciate her hard work, I told her that I really liked the place and would come again with my family and stay in the same place.
“Aagli bar hum aapko charge nahi karengay” (Next time I will not charge you), said she.
While we were talking, a group of riders checked in the camp. The landlady left to see for their room arrangements.
By the time my drink was over, the dinner was served in the dining tent which was very well planned with a luxurious seating arrangement. The spread of dinner buffet was very impressive. It gave me a feeling that I was paying less for all that food. There were over 16 varieties of dishes served. There was pasta, noodles, fried rice, white rice, soup, rotis, desserts to name a few.
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| The dining tent |
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| Buffet |
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| Inside the dining tent |
After dinner, I was heading to my tent when one of the staff told me that a bonfire would be lit for the guest in some time. Meanwhile, I decided to take some night shot of moon flirting with the beautiful Pangong. At that moment I wished Linda could be there. I pitied all those couples who had locked themselves up in their tents missing that romantic sight.
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| The moonlit Pangong Lake |
The bonfire started and I joined the party. It gave us a chance to know other travellers who were staying in that camp. There were two groups of riders staying in the camp. One group was from Hyderabad and the other one was a group of software engineers from Bangalore. Both groups had hired their bikes from Manali and both groups had come well-stocked with Rum. The group of software engineers forced me to have one peg with them. The raging bonfire made the rum work quick on their body. Soon there were a lot of rum talks going around. Some were complaining about their work-life, some were talking about their office crush while some got over adventurous and were running over the fire. I had to wake up early the following day to capture all moods of Pangong, so I retired early and hit my bed.
At the end of the 17th day, I had covered 180 km and had reached a place which was very close to heaven.
(Do read the other days Chronicle listed on the same page)
#Royalenfield #trip #leh #bikeride #adventure #ladakh #travel
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