Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Day 7 - Pangong Tso tragedy and the Leh tour

12th July 2008

Today we were to go to the great Pangong Tso (Lake). This lake is at the border of India and China (Tibet) and the amazing nature there is a sight to see.

We had hired a Qualis today and decided not to take our bikes.

Got up at 6.30am, freshened myself and woke everyone. The Qualis had come at 6.15am and the driver was in a frenzy saying hurry up because a delay could cause problems ahead where there were numerous water crossings and if we cross them earlier they would be easy because the snow doesn’t melt early in the morning but as the day progresses the snow on the mountains melt causing the streams to become raging torrents.

We finally started at around 6.50pm from the hotel with Abhijit opting out of the trip because of bad health. Adjusting in but anyways
Jthe Qualis was a nightmare for 8 people plus the driver we did it. The driver went via the taxi stand where he collected the pass or coupons for their use and we started for Pangong.

The route to Pangong goes from Karu so we had to back trace the route to Karu from Leh (around 25km) and then the left road goes to Pangong and ahead.
We reached the intersection at around 7.20am and decided on having breakfast here. We had a nice breakfast of parathas and chai and started again.

The road was amazing and the scenery was amazing too. We could see mountains covered in fresh snow ahead and the driver said that we could see fresh snow on the way too. What a treat!

We finally went ahead and in some time we could see that the road side was wow – we were passing through snow and it was all
Jcovered in snow white around and people were like crazy photographing each turn and each place. We stopped at a military outpost where the permit had to be shown and went ahead. At a short distance just before the ChangLa pass (the 3rd highest in the world) we encountered heavy snow on the road. We could see many other vehicles coming back and as we feared the worst the driver go in contact with the other drivers and confirmed our fears that the road ahead was closed due to heavy snow and more so a truck was stranded in deep snow just before ChangLa. Damn! We came from such a long distance for this and now we couldn’t do it.

Anyway with a heavy heart we turned back but not before asking the driver to stop for a few minutes and enjoyed the snow on the road and took snaps. Amit was throwing snow balls at everyone and everyone was enjoying the snow. I didn’t carry any jacket so felt the cold seeping into me so I went into the Qualis quickly. Others came in after sometime and we started back again.

We again had a stop a few km ahead where again everyone played in the snow and danced like maniacs before starting again. We went back to the main road and then we decided to see the Hemis festival which was happening at the Hemis monastery nearby.

We went to that place and asking the driver to park the vehicle as the rush was too much we went ahead. On the way we saw snake charmers showing their wares and someone said we could actually , so everyone took turns taking
Jphotograph ourselves with the pythons the tamed python on his neck and getting photographed and had a nice time. We then negotiated with the charmer who demanded 50 each for 1 photo and settled for a good amount.

Going ahead we went near the Hemis monastery and went inside. It was choc-a-bloc with foreigners and local alike and there was some dance going on. We took some photos and came out. Now the rain had started so we stopped for sometime in the sheds where locals were selling old antique wares to unsuspecting foreigners at high prices. When the rain lessened we retraced our way back to find the driver and on the way met Maharashtrian CRPF personnel and had a nice chat with them before biding them good bye and got into our Qualis.

The next stop was to be Shey Palace an old Palace. We went there and had a nice time looking at the remnants and a big statue of “The Buddha” inside the palace. Coming down we were too hungry so we asked the driver to take us to a good hotel in Leh before resuming the trip.

We entered Leh town again and the driver took us to a hotel where a funny incident happened. The waiter asked us to write the order and we didn’t know that in Leh all the hotels had this way of ordering stuff and they don’t take orders themselves so we were angry on the waiter and stormed out of the hotel unknowingly.

We went to a hotel Peace Restaurant which looked decent and ordered food and had our fill. There are quite a few incidents which happened in
JPeace which I don’t want to reveal here lest someone hits me

We came out and some people were in no mood to visit the remaining places so some of us returned to the hotel and the other enthusiasts went back to sightseeing and came back in the evening.

We had a nice slumber at the room before starting out for dinner. Had a great dinner @ Himalaya hotel and came back.

Thus the day ended with disappointment at not making Pangong Tso but we had our fill of travel adventure to other places as a lesser bargain.

The next day was free and Purvesh decided to go rafting, here too some people opted out – health was the main reason for me too for opting out!

No comments: