Day 19: Pangong - Leh (12th Sept 2014)

A satiated mind ensured a sound sleep and I woke up at 7 am. It was time to leave Pangong. It suddenly hit me that it was 12^th Sept. It was on the same day last year when Chitti (thats what Linda calls my Royal Enfield .Inspired from the movie of one of our favorite actors - RAJNIKANT !!! ) had come into our lives. It was Chitti's birthday, so I took him to Pangong for the last time. It was the best gift for Chitti and I knew it. He was looking handsome on the shores of Pangong. So handsome that I kissed him and thanked him for being such a trustworthy company.

Happy Birthday Chitti

After half an hour, Chitti and I headed back to the camp for breakfast. While having my breakfast the group from Mumbai who I had met yesterday started to open up. The group had a very interesting mix of a film scriptwriter, an entrepreneur and a food journalist. One of them by the name of Arjun had worked earlier with Titan Industries. As Titan was one of my clients while I was working, we found a common ground to chat. I learned that Arjun had handled some project on customer loyalty while he was in Tata Administrative Services. He now owns a digital solution company by the name Runtime Solutions. Arjun was accompanied by his sister who was a journalist once and now writes a script for some Hindi movies (Bheja Fry being one of them). That explained a lot why she was so full of energy even at that altitude. There was another journalist in the group who writes for Deccan Chronicle. A short conversation with the group over breakfast did signal a good start to the day.

After breakfast, I headed to my tent and mounted my luggage on Chitti. I think I had bonded really well with the landlady and the staff of the Martsemik camp because all of them came to say goodbye to me.

The Martsemik camp staff and the owner

 After spending 22 hours in the past one and a half day just beside Pangong Lake, I had become addicted to the view. It was certainly not an easy task to leave Pangong.

I had a final look at the Pangong and started my ride back to Leh at 9:20 am. Though it was very tempting, I was very careful not to look back at the Pangong. It would only make my journey gloomy. It was time for me to move on.   

Unlike the day I was riding to Pangong, it was an extremely cold day to ride. Once bitten twice shy, when I reached the same waterlogged stretch of the road where I had got my boots wet while on my way to Pangong (Read 17^th Day), I removed my shoes and put on my slippers. It turned out to be a good idea as I had to use my feet frequently to balance Chitti while crossing some of the hidden potholes in that waterlogged stretch of the road.

When I reached Chang La, I met a group of travelers who were driving from Bangalore in their SUV.  We exchanged our story for some time until the cold winds of Chang La forced us to part ways.

Chang La

 I wanted to have freshly baked nan from one of the traditional tandoor huts which I had seen in Choglamsar but to my disappointment, the tandoor huts were closed. In fact, for some reason, every shop in and around Leh was closed. I headed straight to Hotel Skitpo where Ali greeted me with a familiar smile. He had a surprise in store for me. He had upgraded my single bedroom to a double bedroom with TV.

“Khali Aap kay leay, wohi rate par” (only for you, at the same rate), insisted he.

Ali - The caretaker of Hotel Skitpo

 I could have easily visited Sangam (the meeting point of river Indus and Zanskar) and Pathar Gurdwara as I had good four and a half hours daylight remaining but I pushed it for the next day because I wanted a reason to spend one more day in Leh.

 When I asked Ali the reason why all shops were closed, he told me that everyone had voluntarily decided to take part in the candlelight march to express solitude for the victims of the floods. Such high thinking of people living in such altitude.

I was very hungry as I had not had anything for my lunch. I walked out of the hotel in search of some food. The only edible item on sale were roasted corns. Funnily, there was a decent crowd surrounding the man selling the corn. All of them were travelers, very hungry travelers. On any other normal day, I hate corns but that day I quickly placed my order as the stock was fast depleting. It was a survival instinct. As I was munching on my piece of corn, I recalled one of my college days in Delhi where Rahul, Khosla and I were so broke at the end of the month that all we could afford to have for lunch were three roasted corns. It was not that we got less pocket money. It was just that the three of us were not very sound with our financial planning. I can’t comment on the other two, but I have not seen much improvement since then.

While I was wandering around the market, I saw two travelers inside one restaurant. I got a hunch that the restaurant was open, so I walked in to enquire. The restaurant was open and to add to my joy, it was a Kashmiri restaurant - Wazwaan. I asked the waiter to suggest me their best nonveg dish on the menu. I should have guessed it, it was Mutton Biryani. I don’t know what happened in the following 15 minutes because when I walked out of the Wazwaan , I could hardly remember what the décor of the restaurant was like.  

As there were not many vehicles plying on the road, I explored the entire Leh market on foot. The deserted streets made the town of Leh even more tranquil.  

 I walked the deserted streets of Leh for about half an hour then headed back to the main market to get a glimpse of the candlelight march. The crowd was a good mix of the local residents, travelers from India as well as other foreign countries. When the procession began, the local participants started chanting a Buddhist prayer. 

Once the procession was over, the market slowly started to open. I quickly headed to the phone booth and called home and Linda. As my energy level was inversely proportional to the sea level that I was in, I headed back to my hotel and retired early for the day.

At the end of the 19^th day, Chitti had celebrated his first birthday by crossing 10k on the odometer, and the total distance traveled on that day was 165 km.