We try out Bullets, Ladakhi chai and meet a film star!
Statutory Warning: this is a real long blog. Please read at your leisure...
The day started as usual by gazing clear blue sky, decorated with white clouds and lined with snow capped mountains... And of course as usual not being the first one get ready completely. Well, wasn't the last one also. That was my first day of riding a Bullet (not technically, the day before we got bikes from hire shop to guest house, but i dont count that as a ride); so completed all the things as quickly as possible.
With all the biking gears on; helmet, neck warmer, jacket, hand gloves, goggles etc; we got onto the bikes. My pillion rider didnt have any experience in riding a bike, which was something which i just couldnt place whether good or bad. Good - I love bike riding, Bad - I love photography. Our landlord told us to leave early, as Dalai Lama was visiting Ladakh. He told there would be some traffic build-ups, diversions on the way, so if would be better if we could pass through that area as early as possible.
We left from the Guest house, fed the bullets till they were full and started the journey towards Pangong Lake. On the way, there were people lined up on both sides of the road, to welcome the Dalai Lama. Talking about the road; it was a straight line of black tar, extending into brown landscape, decorated on both sides by the people in colorful attire... A view of the lifetime!
In just 35km of our drive we reached a place called Karu. We stopped there for breakfast, Had Aloo Parantha, fruits and tea. Just after Karu, there is fork, one road going to Pangong and other to Shimla. We got onto the one which was significant, and continued the journey. Again a long patch of tar but this time lined with some greenery. After quite some kms, we finally reached foot of the mountain and thus unit of distance became mountains again...
While in the Ghat road, something weird happened. I felt the mountain just beyond the valley is closing in on me. Trying to shake off the fear of being disillusioned because of deficiency of oxygen, i tried to concentrate on the road. But i just couldnt ignore the approaching mountain. Fortunately we made a stop, for capturing good captures. I took a deep breath and started wondering about the earlier experience. Finally the analytic part of the brain sprung to action and told my scared self, 'this is all just because we havent experienced this before. We havent experienced riding besides an empty field, we just think when we ride, things beside the road are supposed to go behind. Now that the mountains are so far, and we dont have vision of anything going behind, relatively the mountains are closing in on us.' I had to agree to the logical explanation and took time to take a look at the breath-taking beauty of the surroundings.
Before going forward, some words of caution which i got from a fellow traveler back at the Guest house. 'Dont put down your foot in the water. Stop the bike before pool of water on the road, no matter how small it is, think of the way before going forward and go on it. If by mistake you had to put your foot down, after crossing the water immediately stop and change the socks. The water is freezing cold!' This is where i learnt one of the learnings - never trust a pond of water on road, no matter how small it is...
Keeping this in mind, we were going at a leisure speed, taking looks and pics of the surroundings. This is where my mind played another trick on me, smaller one this time. The road felt like an infinite loop (...engg term) with continuous series of bends. It didnt even seem to have any incline, nor any end. 'Seem to'!!!
After we came down from hill, we suddenly hit the reality. There was a patch on the road, on which most of the tar had flown away with water. Hence only part that was holding that black line together was a patch of pebbles, rounded off to smooth edges by water. Thats when the thought of the person back at Guest house hit me. He had told me to try and not put the leg down in water. Well, the thought was a li'l late in hitting me, coz by that time something else had hit me, and grounded me back. I had kept foot in water, and Gosh it was ice cold! It seeped through the sewing on my shoe, entering the socks letting my feet experience the 'temp'. Somehow i rode through the patch, and after the patch was over we stopped to change the socks.
With a little experience earned the hard way, we cruised on slowly towards the peak of the mountain - Chang La, 17586 ft above sea level. After reaching there celebrations, photoshoot, tea etc followed. After a little rest, we started down the other side of the mountain. With almost similar experiences as of while coming up. Only difference being, the control needed this time was much more than on the other side. At the foothold of the mountain, we saw a beautiful white patch in between a green landscape. We could recognize it to be the frozen lake only after reaching within a 400 m radius of it. Just at the looks of it, we were all at the height of euphoria, jumping all over the lake. Well, not literally..walking would be perfect word. But even at that speed, one of the footstep sounded *creak* and in an instant we were off the lake. Getting your foot soaked by the cold water is one thing, but getting yourself entirely under the frozen lake? No way!
Then there was a long stretch of awesome road, breath-taking mountains, clear blue sky, snow white clouds..usual stuff!
After much of Left-right-left-right-left finally at a bend we had to stop because of a military convoy passing through.What a scene that was! The road was just about to end, so decline was up ahead. Could see at least 5 km of road ahead, all taken up by the military trucks... Waited for about 15 mins, once all the convoy had passed, we started again. This time we saw one more addition to the beauty. An horde of sheep grazing on the landscape full of grass.
Finally we reached another small villa in the mountains - Dangtse (or Tangtse). There we searched for a guest house; ended up literally as guests at one of the house. We rested our sore backs there for some time and left for Pangong lake. Just beyond the villa, the road leading to lake, there was a dramatic entrance marked by two majestic mountains. They stood there like faithful guardians. In just 35 kms of road, we saw clean tar road, rugged cement road, the tar roads flanked on both sides by white sand dunes, and of course at the ends of the sand dunes, the mountains. Never seen such variety of nature packed together!
At one of the turn, the board said first glimpse of the lake 1 km away. We were happy thinking we are this close. But, as the board specified 'first glimpse' turned out to be the turn from where descent started and we really had a 'Glimpse' - A small part of the lake peeking from the edge of the mountain. After 5-6 km of descent we finally reached the lake, and gasped with the look of that sheer beauty. Again a rich combination of colours: royal blue waters of the lake, marked by the brown outline of white snow-capped mountains, and beyond that, again clear blue sky decorated with white clouds... Photogenic!
After spending about an hour (and about 100 photos) at the lake, we thought we better leave. Sun was just about to set. So we waited to see the addition of the red colour to the collage. As soon as sun took the leave for the day we 'sayonara'ed the lake because we wanted to come out of those 'check-post' mountains before it was dark. The ride back was almost as smooth as towards the lake. Except for the part where finally it became dark and headlamps were turned on. In that travelling glow everything turned psychedelic! The white sand turned almost yellow in that light. All the brown earth and mountains faded into black. The bright blue in sky also started showing steady defeat under the advancing dark, the fight only holding up in the west with red splashes. I had to pray real hard not to get lost in all those colours and stay on the road. And i think i did good, coz i have lived to tell the tale...
Once we were back in the guest house in Dangtse, we started talking to our host family about the place, their living, and of course: about shooting of '3 idiots' This was the time when we got to know that the chief of the hosts was a school teacher. And he taught the only Ladakhi dialogue from the film to Amir Khan. We also met both the sons of the house- Elder, a ice hockey player; younger, still in school. The elder one showed us his ice gear and told us his stories, which you need to hear from the resident directly, to feel them... Younger one brought an album to show us which had pics during the shooting of the film, and that was the eureka moment for us when we finally figured out that the kid was part of that film. We had some pics with our little filmstar, and by the time that finished, the host presented us with Ladakhi chai. It was yummmyyyy! Quite rich and buttery...but delicious indeed. Some more talked followed and by then we were called in the kitchen for dinner.
After the dinner, all the rush and hush from whole day started taking its toll. We were slowly drifting into sleep. The host got all our beds ready, with proper warmers and everything. Just to be on safer side, the pillion riders took Combiflam and got into bed. Sleep was just waiting to take over to make ourselves ready for the long ride back to home we came from i.e. Leh. Yeah, nice hospitality and good atmosphere does that to you... Makes you feel home...
Statutory Warning: this is a real long blog. Please read at your leisure...
The day started as usual by gazing clear blue sky, decorated with white clouds and lined with snow capped mountains... And of course as usual not being the first one get ready completely. Well, wasn't the last one also. That was my first day of riding a Bullet (not technically, the day before we got bikes from hire shop to guest house, but i dont count that as a ride); so completed all the things as quickly as possible.
With all the biking gears on; helmet, neck warmer, jacket, hand gloves, goggles etc; we got onto the bikes. My pillion rider didnt have any experience in riding a bike, which was something which i just couldnt place whether good or bad. Good - I love bike riding, Bad - I love photography. Our landlord told us to leave early, as Dalai Lama was visiting Ladakh. He told there would be some traffic build-ups, diversions on the way, so if would be better if we could pass through that area as early as possible.
We left from the Guest house, fed the bullets till they were full and started the journey towards Pangong Lake. On the way, there were people lined up on both sides of the road, to welcome the Dalai Lama. Talking about the road; it was a straight line of black tar, extending into brown landscape, decorated on both sides by the people in colorful attire... A view of the lifetime!
In just 35km of our drive we reached a place called Karu. We stopped there for breakfast, Had Aloo Parantha, fruits and tea. Just after Karu, there is fork, one road going to Pangong and other to Shimla. We got onto the one which was significant, and continued the journey. Again a long patch of tar but this time lined with some greenery. After quite some kms, we finally reached foot of the mountain and thus unit of distance became mountains again...
While in the Ghat road, something weird happened. I felt the mountain just beyond the valley is closing in on me. Trying to shake off the fear of being disillusioned because of deficiency of oxygen, i tried to concentrate on the road. But i just couldnt ignore the approaching mountain. Fortunately we made a stop, for capturing good captures. I took a deep breath and started wondering about the earlier experience. Finally the analytic part of the brain sprung to action and told my scared self, 'this is all just because we havent experienced this before. We havent experienced riding besides an empty field, we just think when we ride, things beside the road are supposed to go behind. Now that the mountains are so far, and we dont have vision of anything going behind, relatively the mountains are closing in on us.' I had to agree to the logical explanation and took time to take a look at the breath-taking beauty of the surroundings.
Before going forward, some words of caution which i got from a fellow traveler back at the Guest house. 'Dont put down your foot in the water. Stop the bike before pool of water on the road, no matter how small it is, think of the way before going forward and go on it. If by mistake you had to put your foot down, after crossing the water immediately stop and change the socks. The water is freezing cold!' This is where i learnt one of the learnings - never trust a pond of water on road, no matter how small it is...
Keeping this in mind, we were going at a leisure speed, taking looks and pics of the surroundings. This is where my mind played another trick on me, smaller one this time. The road felt like an infinite loop (...engg term) with continuous series of bends. It didnt even seem to have any incline, nor any end. 'Seem to'!!!
After we came down from hill, we suddenly hit the reality. There was a patch on the road, on which most of the tar had flown away with water. Hence only part that was holding that black line together was a patch of pebbles, rounded off to smooth edges by water. Thats when the thought of the person back at Guest house hit me. He had told me to try and not put the leg down in water. Well, the thought was a li'l late in hitting me, coz by that time something else had hit me, and grounded me back. I had kept foot in water, and Gosh it was ice cold! It seeped through the sewing on my shoe, entering the socks letting my feet experience the 'temp'. Somehow i rode through the patch, and after the patch was over we stopped to change the socks.
With a little experience earned the hard way, we cruised on slowly towards the peak of the mountain - Chang La, 17586 ft above sea level. After reaching there celebrations, photoshoot, tea etc followed. After a little rest, we started down the other side of the mountain. With almost similar experiences as of while coming up. Only difference being, the control needed this time was much more than on the other side. At the foothold of the mountain, we saw a beautiful white patch in between a green landscape. We could recognize it to be the frozen lake only after reaching within a 400 m radius of it. Just at the looks of it, we were all at the height of euphoria, jumping all over the lake. Well, not literally..walking would be perfect word. But even at that speed, one of the footstep sounded *creak* and in an instant we were off the lake. Getting your foot soaked by the cold water is one thing, but getting yourself entirely under the frozen lake? No way!
Then there was a long stretch of awesome road, breath-taking mountains, clear blue sky, snow white clouds..usual stuff!
After much of Left-right-left-right-left finally at a bend we had to stop because of a military convoy passing through.What a scene that was! The road was just about to end, so decline was up ahead. Could see at least 5 km of road ahead, all taken up by the military trucks... Waited for about 15 mins, once all the convoy had passed, we started again. This time we saw one more addition to the beauty. An horde of sheep grazing on the landscape full of grass.
Finally we reached another small villa in the mountains - Dangtse (or Tangtse). There we searched for a guest house; ended up literally as guests at one of the house. We rested our sore backs there for some time and left for Pangong lake. Just beyond the villa, the road leading to lake, there was a dramatic entrance marked by two majestic mountains. They stood there like faithful guardians. In just 35 kms of road, we saw clean tar road, rugged cement road, the tar roads flanked on both sides by white sand dunes, and of course at the ends of the sand dunes, the mountains. Never seen such variety of nature packed together!
At one of the turn, the board said first glimpse of the lake 1 km away. We were happy thinking we are this close. But, as the board specified 'first glimpse' turned out to be the turn from where descent started and we really had a 'Glimpse' - A small part of the lake peeking from the edge of the mountain. After 5-6 km of descent we finally reached the lake, and gasped with the look of that sheer beauty. Again a rich combination of colours: royal blue waters of the lake, marked by the brown outline of white snow-capped mountains, and beyond that, again clear blue sky decorated with white clouds... Photogenic!
After spending about an hour (and about 100 photos) at the lake, we thought we better leave. Sun was just about to set. So we waited to see the addition of the red colour to the collage. As soon as sun took the leave for the day we 'sayonara'ed the lake because we wanted to come out of those 'check-post' mountains before it was dark. The ride back was almost as smooth as towards the lake. Except for the part where finally it became dark and headlamps were turned on. In that travelling glow everything turned psychedelic! The white sand turned almost yellow in that light. All the brown earth and mountains faded into black. The bright blue in sky also started showing steady defeat under the advancing dark, the fight only holding up in the west with red splashes. I had to pray real hard not to get lost in all those colours and stay on the road. And i think i did good, coz i have lived to tell the tale...
Once we were back in the guest house in Dangtse, we started talking to our host family about the place, their living, and of course: about shooting of '3 idiots' This was the time when we got to know that the chief of the hosts was a school teacher. And he taught the only Ladakhi dialogue from the film to Amir Khan. We also met both the sons of the house- Elder, a ice hockey player; younger, still in school. The elder one showed us his ice gear and told us his stories, which you need to hear from the resident directly, to feel them... Younger one brought an album to show us which had pics during the shooting of the film, and that was the eureka moment for us when we finally figured out that the kid was part of that film. We had some pics with our little filmstar, and by the time that finished, the host presented us with Ladakhi chai. It was yummmyyyy! Quite rich and buttery...but delicious indeed. Some more talked followed and by then we were called in the kitchen for dinner.
After the dinner, all the rush and hush from whole day started taking its toll. We were slowly drifting into sleep. The host got all our beds ready, with proper warmers and everything. Just to be on safer side, the pillion riders took Combiflam and got into bed. Sleep was just waiting to take over to make ourselves ready for the long ride back to home we came from i.e. Leh. Yeah, nice hospitality and good atmosphere does that to you... Makes you feel home...
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