The drudgeries of life
Saturday, August 29, 2009
The Dream Trip: Day 5 - Adventure Unlimited, courtesy Pangong Tso!
That was what August 14, 2009, or Day 5 was all about B)
Our destination for the day was Pangong Tso (Ladakhi for Pangong Lake). It's a place you have to see to believe... miles and miles of crystal clear blue water cradled in the mountains, away from all pollution! I'm sure you've caught a glimpse of it in the movie "3 idiots". If not, be ready for truckloads of pics... day 5 is all about showcasing Mother Nature's pristine beauty!
The day started off pretty early. Everyone was awake by 4:15 AM, and by 5:15 AM we were on the road enroute to Pangong Tso (some 150 odd kms away from Leh).
The main reason for leaving early was the hurry in returning courtesy the Paagal Nala (meaning Mad Stream) that gets out of control post 11 AM! The Paagal Nala, we were told, cuts across the road which leads to Pangong Tso... vehicles normally don't cross this stream, rather people cross it on foot and walk till Pangong Tso.
The spectacle of the morning was Guru waking up the poor sleeping attendant at the Petrol Pump. As if disturbing the attendant at this ungodly hour wasn’t enough, Guru pulled off the blanket the guy had covered himself with! LoL! We sure expected Guru to get beaten up, but sadly drivers of other vehicles arrived and joined him in waking up the sleeping attendant :P
The vehicle started giving some problem or the other, and Guru couldn’t raise it beyond 2nd gear! We had given him one whole day for repairs yesterday, yet this nuisance! The drive to Pangong was slow, to say the least :x
The scenery on the way towards Pangong was spectacular, and that was more than a consolation:
We reached Chang La, at 17586 feet above sea level, the 2nd highest motorable pass is the world at 8 AM. It was freezing cold, and the complimentary cup of tea courtesy the Indian Army was a relief!
"To do" list when at Chang La
We travelled till 10 AM when we reached Paagal Naala. Even with it being a small stream then, the rocks on the bed prevented our Innova from crossing over. Oh well! We were told Pangong Lake was 2.5 kms from Paagal Nala... a trek was due!
So it was fun crossing the not-so-mad stream... we scoffed at the idea of this stream being the crazy Paagal Nala everyone spoke about with respect :P
We moved off the road then, and started wading through the “desert”. After the childhood days when we used to go treasure hunting in those crazy open fields in our colony, I have not witnessed a place which deserved to be called “open space”. But the “desert” stretched on and on... and it taught me another thing that I had forgotten of late – to look up at the sky and follow the clouds!
One of the best pics of the trip - no effects at all!
Our 'longer than long' trek allowed us to click lots of amazing pictures! Randy discovered some wires which were barely visible above the ground... he asked me what it could be, and I replied “Dynamite” and we had a good laugh! Thank God he didn’t touch the wires!
Just to give you an idea of how long the walk was...
Manish and Rusti look like ants in this pic!
Behind Randy, you can see Sid and Chandu heading towards the lake...
... and now behind Randy, you can see Manish coming in the direction of the lake!
Yep, a long walk it was!
Sequence...
After this, we started discovering these wires along our path; at places these wires were connected to some “tins”. At one place, we found a hand grenade lying in the path! Sid, Randy and I who were leading the party almost thought of moving to the road!
Bombbb!!!
We reached the banks of the lovely Pangong Lake at 11 AM. Breathtaking! Though the numerous pics that I’m going to upload in the lake’s honor are awesome, witnessing the beauty firsthand is an experience no one should give a miss!
Phunsuk Wangdu?!
Speaking from our experience: You’ve got to see it to believe it ;)
Clicked lots and lots of pics of the lake and by it. Had breakfast at a makeshift restaurant by the lake... Rotis, omelettes, maggi and tea! Also purchased 2 bottles of water before we walked on in search of a quiet spot. Everyone was tired and groaning, yet I’m glad we moved on. Some of our best pics and memories of the trip were a consequence of this walk ;)
Magical Effects!
The walk to the final destination...
We changed into swimming gear, or whatever clothes we had brought along for getting wet in, and jumped into the icy cold blue water! Mannnn! What an experience!
We had just learned that the water was very salty, so bathing in the lake was out of the question. Instead we took lots of pics, danced in the lake, did bhasad, made videos, and took in what has definitely got to be one of Mother Nature’s masterpiece!
Woohoo!!
At 1 PM, we headed back towards Paagal Nala! There seemed to be no vehicle in sight... most tourists leave from Pangong by noon time; the rest remain stranded like us! Oh well! Got lots of time for more pics of Shangrila
The retreat!
The prospects of a long trek back to the Nala were staring us in the face when a very kind old gentleman, Mr. Mutup, offered to drop us off there... for 250 bucks of course. Phew!
Sitting up front with him, I asked Mr. Mutup about the grenade we had come across and whether he knew how it could’ve possibly reached there? The old man narrated a tale which ensured that our jaws dropped to the floor of the car :O
Mr. Mutup stated to our utter shock that the trekking route that we had followed earlier was rigged with land mines!! He said that the mines had been laid in 1962, but their placement map had been lost. And the field had been abandoned. Many soldiers and cattle have lost their lives out there ever since :O
To think of it, Randy and Rusti were closed to touching those wires... who knows what would’ve happened had they tripped the mechanism! The gang didn’t know whether to be shell shocked or plain and simple surprised!
So, Randy and I did a High Five! YO! :P
If the Paagal Nala had taken offense at our scoffing at it earlier in the day, it cleared showed how mad we had gotten it! What was earlier a petty stream was almost a wild wide river now! People weren’t kidding when they talked about the Paagal Nala...
This, ladies and gentlemen, was the Paagal Nala when we returned :O
Adventurers that we are, instead of crossing the Nala upstream where there wasn’t much gap between the opposite banks, we went further downstream thinking that the width of the stream would narrow down! Well, it didn’t. Also, the current was stronger out here! To add to our woes, with every passing minute, the water level in the stream started rising.
We had jumped and hopped to reach a piece of land bang in the middle of the nala. But soon the water started creeping towards us... it was a matter of minutes before the land we stood on would be underwater! Jumping across to the bank was impossible, so I tried to wade through but the current was too strong... add my fear of dying by drowning to that, and I had reasons enough to give up! :P
Then it happened! Like a hero taking the lead, Chandu forged ahead! He held on to Randy’s hand and walked into the stream... and stood his ground B) We formed a chain – Chandu, Randy, Zulfi, Sid, I and Rusti. This river crossing I shall never forget in my entire life J
First, there was the icy cold water. Second, the raging stream that it made up. Third, there were rocks (and yeah, there were some boulder sized ones too) that the powerful stream carried along *ouch* But we waged on!
Rusti once fell down in a sitting position bang in the middle of the stream, and almost got washed away! I was the one whose hand he was holding, and for the few moments that I saw him sitting there in the stream helplessly, grabbing on to my left hand with both his hands, taking the force of the water on his chest and getting washed away slowly, all I could see was terror and death in his scared eyes! It was one of those moments when time seems to stand still...
As a consequence of my taking Rusti’s full weight on one hand, my right hand exerted tremendous pressure on Sid’s hand who connected me to the rest of the chain! I remember having yelled at the top of my voice at Rusti to stand up... am glad he did! Else, he would’ve been history :P
Not only did Rusti stand, but he also raced to the shore... amazing feat considering the trouble you have just walking in the stream :D
One more crossing and we celebrated our Cheetah statuses... you’ve heard it “Cheetah bhi peeta hai” ;)
Clicked a few pics. We had drenched our clothes, and our shoes were soggy wet, but it was all worth it... our morale was on a total high! I personally thanked God for the gymming... it did come handy in the moment of crisis ;)
Back at the car, we discovered that a truck was ferrying tourists across the Nala in less than 2 minutes! Dammit :P
Oh well, at least we have the adventure to live with :D
On the way back to Leh, no one could come to terms with reality. This is when we made grand plans for marketing our trip and publicising it like never done before J
At 5 PM, the Innova’s engine gave loads of trouble. Then when we were on a slope that ended in a valley, the hand brake didn’t work :O Sid, Randy and Rusti actually pushed the vehicle up the slope!
We reached Leh by 9 PM. Transferred the pics to the laptop, saw our videos, bathed and shaved! All of us had dinner at Bon Appetit... this time we ordered Butter Chicken, Mushroom Masala, Dal Fry, loads of phulkas, rice and what not *burp* Dined like kings, the 6 of us J
Bon Appetit offered great food, but the service was slow... can’t blame them! Their outlet is always flooded with people! We ordered breakfast for the morning and told him to keep it ready by 8 AM... the privileges we got for being regular customers ;)
Finalized our Nubra plans and sat at one of the local cybercafés... the hourly rates were 90 bucks :O
Back at the room, Zulfi, Chandu and I confronted Guru... his vehicle has been giving way too many problems since the journey began. Asked him to get it repaired by 8:30 AM tomorrow.
Off to Nubra for 2 days... will celebrate Zulfi’s birthday there J
Very eventful day today was! The one spike in the trip? Let’s see...
Labels: Chang La, Day 5, Dream Trip, Leh, Paagal Naala, Pangong Tso
12 Comments:
oh MAN.....wat a day..Still get goose bumps thinking abt that...
>>>> World's second highest motorable pass
>>>>The 7 km long trek through land mines(live) to reach the HEAVEN
>>>>THE MOST beautiful lake in the world(snow covered peaks on one side...sand mountains on the other...endless blue water in the middle....and 6 of us...it was as if we were in some different world...)
>>>>> Singing , dancing in that beautiful clear water stream knowing that no other soul is present there other than us....
>>>>> Crossing the Paagal naala when it is at full throttle...and almost decreasing our number from 6 to 5......
PHEW!!!!.....that was some day....
All the pics are amazing especially the 'natural resevoir' one....Hats off Steve.
This day will always be remembered by us for 3 reasons 1)Beauty of Pangong Tso 2)Land Mines 3) Pagal Nala
Thank god tht Rusti didnt start the Rust Analysis with the wires:)
There were couple of moments in the trip where unknowinly life was at risk....The Land Mines was the 1st.....the moment Mr Mutup completed the Grenade mystery ...all were in a state of shock....thinkin wht were we doing...koi us raaste se nahi ja raha n we like like idiots...Y wasnt there a board..all such thoughts passed our mind....just when we realized ...its done,,,,we r still alive...n sayin"Kya trip gaya hai yaar..no1 will have such a trip...college mein toh dhoom macha denge"...feeling proud as if we were in 1962 war ourselfs n came out victorious:)
Steve tera naya naam ...Phuuuunnssskkk Waiiingduuu:)
There r some censored videos of Somalia ....ny1 interested can ask Steve to mail:)
@Zulfi
Yo! Probably the fondestest memories of the entire trip :)
Will never forget the 7 KM trek, man! Groovy! :D
I had seen pics of Pangong Tso, but was skeptical... the first sight of Pangong from far away, though, was a bolt from the blue :D
Yep, in those 2 hours of rock n' roll, not a single soul disturbed us... no one must've been within a range of 1-2 kms!
The Paagal Nala story will be a tale we'll narrate to our children and grandchildren, no?! ;)
@Chandu
Thanks man! We all made it possible ;)
Great summary!
Thank goodness Rusti and Randy didn't trigger off the mines that day by touching them... they were sooo close to doing exactly that :O
Yep, we surely felt like victorious warriors at the end of day 5! LoL!
Hehe apne liye naya naam aate dekhkar, dustbin ne mera naam bhi rakh diya?! :P
LoL! Randy's video!!! What's there in that to see anyway :P And no thanks! No MMS scandals for me... ever :P
2 observations:
1.Rusty,my neighbour for the last 6 months,has gushed many a description of dis trip.But has never mentioned a thing abt his near fatal rust analysis or his near heavely moment in d Paagal Nala.I do look at him wth a strange mixture of suspicion,respect and caution..
2.Amazing,just amazing description..photos..just too breathtaking.wud like 2 knw mre abt the lake experience and the nala one 4m the other 5 of u.
no lesson in class can ever come close 2 these experiences.
Wow I can never forget the trip to Pangong. Aug 14,2009 the day i got another life. Each moment of crossing the stream is like still fresh in my mind. Being the last guy in the chain it was tough maintaining balance in the force of the water and more so because I was wearing floaters and not shoes. The slippery pebbles added to the force of the water. I got hit by a big stone on my right foot which was flowing with the stream because of which i lost balance and almost floated in the water, as I was chest deep into the ICY water.
Luckily for me tht day Steve held on to me and was able to regain ground, else i could have flown away with water and probably wudnt been alive to write this comment.Thank you Steve for saving my life tht day so tht i can write comments and make this blog popular :)
The trek to pangong was like chasing a mirage initially as all we could jus see was the magical clud formations in the sky, and we were walkin thru the desert.
@Chandu : I cudnt have done any analysis thr only thing i was wondering was ...wht the hell is this wire here for. I didn't think in my widest dream tht these were landmines left over from the 1962 Indo-China war. The local driver Mr Mutup confirmed it when he said tht is past cattle have stepped onto it and died.
But the clear blue waters of Pangogng was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. After seeing so many sea beaches i still feel Pangong beats them clearly.
@Alekhya ...i guess i told you abt the pagal naala incident right after the trip once, maybe u dont remember it. Now u can read it in my comment . I still remember the day before we were leaving for the trip from IMT u said , " hey , this is ur farewell dinner" thinking if we wud come back or not.. Lolz!!
But hell yeah we did manage to come back ..the 6 Idiots survived :)
Helllll Yessss!!! The best day of the trip.... Infact my life too ... I am happy there was no board warning us from taking the aff-road trekking route ... atleast now that we are all alive :P ... Phew .... I can still vividly remember the moment when Mr Mutup had revealed that those wires were of land mines .. there was a prolonged silence in the car ... And then I started laughing the Ravan laugh .. I just could not be more amused at our fortune ... But as they say Fortune favours the brave.. And 6 Brave lions we were!!! Isnt it :)
@Rusty
Jeez man-u right.Thanx dat my saying didn't come true :P
@Alekho
First things first! Thanks for following this blog so closely mate... it's a pleasure reading you comments and replying to them :)
About Rusti, maaan he had the guts that day! Imagine being last in the chain, with no support on one side, and wading thru the water in floaters!! Crazy stuff, and he handled it so well... I bet he didn't talk about it cause I had promised to blog about it soon :)
Thanks for the compliment, dude... me too waiting now for Sid's side of the story... the others have put forth their case :)
@Rusti
Comon, dude... don't embarrass me :) You were in the worst situation possible... you helped yourself, I just had one hand held out like the "Harpic wala hand" :D
Seriously though, it was one helluva day!
Totally agree with the mirage point... remember we even asked a English couple "how much further" and they said "another 30 minutes"... and we were like "whaaat?! 30 minutes more!"
Who'd have ever thought even in his wildest dreams abt the field being rigged with mines?! :D
Hehe thank God the maximum damage that day was Chandu's scratched up feet... could've been much worse :O
Finally, Pangong Lake is definitely more beautiful than any beach I've visited... that said, I sure hope it doesn't become a commercial tourist spot... people will ravage this place's virginity for sure :'(
@Randy
I guess this was the first of the many adventurous days in the trip! Damn man, we had sooo much fun :D
Ditto on the absence of the board... who knows we'd have got a lift to the lake had we stayed on the road... missed out on so many pics, the adventure, the proud feeling (:D), the masti... probably we'd not have gone much further and spent so much time by the lake too...
Everything works out for the best ;)
I remember how we laughed and did that hi5! LoL! No one could believe that we got soo lucky... but the paagal nala came next :D
Yep, either 6 brave lions... or 6 idiots, as rusti put it :D
@Alekho
Saale! You were one of the many people who predicted our doom and wished us luck when they heard that we were going to kargil, srinagar et al!
All I have to say now is "HAH" :P
Fuckin chilly cold and warm quilt..a recipe for eternal hibernation.. Hope to break that with this post..Well for me the feelings were exactly the same as the group..strange..just goes to show how people think alike in group behavior.Anyways..morning..pretty sunshine..a rushed breakfast..off to Pangong..All were excited since we had heard a lot abt the pagal nullah.Guru ki gaadi broke down as soon as we started the ascent..anyways ..still managed to reach..went for a long walk.incidentally i remember asking one old foreigner for a light on the same mined route..he and his wife were probably lost souls.. Anyways first view was amazing. Did some crazy dancing..video sure is funny..came back..ate a lot ..some wanted to visit china border but it was quite far and so was the vehicle rent..came bak and then the incident..from my point of view .. i was screaming..keep moving(in hindi)..as i saw three people reach to the other side manish left my hand and went off for bhasad..at the same exact moment steve exerted a tremendous lateral force ..and i turned in time to see rusti almost toppling over..with a stunted expression on his face steve was trying to balance ..and i was thinkin if these two topple i am sure gonna leave the hand of steve..since i was close to the shore..but instead called manish to balance me ..by the time he came rusti had come to the shore and i was still in water ..i said wtf...well anyways really exciting day..and we were ready for the nubraa valley and some weird animals
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