It’s been more than 24 hours since I’ve had any sleep, but to hell with sleep, I wanna write this. It’s been a long enough time since my first “Ladakh Diaries” post. So here goes.
Pangong Lake is one of the two places on this trip that deeply appealed to my senses and carved an everlasting spot in my heart. The other being Nubra Valley, but well, that’s a story for another day.
We started out fairly early in the morning. It was a long drive from Leh to Pangong, but I enjoyed the journey thoroughly, what with the beautiful views of the Himalayas and the occasional halts we took to play in thick patches of fresh, white snow. Yes, I was quite lucky that I got to witness snowfall, even though it wasn’t snowfall season.
It was evening by the time we finally reached our destination.
The view from our camp.
What a view!
The water reflected rich shades of blue. I had never seen anything so spectacularly lovely! We had tea and snacks at our camp and headed down to the lake. The water was clean and pure. I could see all the round pebbles and stones in the clear water.
The weather was slightly cloudy and windy; and as always, chilly. The wind felt nice in my long hair. I got some great photos thanks to the beautiful background.
After having a great time at the lake, we walked back to our camp. Well, to be honest, we had to go back because on my quest for getting some good photos, I got a bit carried away and took off my gloves. And my cap. And my jacket. And I was freezing. (And the photos turned out to be not-so-good, due to some weird Titanic pose I had tried which was an epic fail. ) You could say I succeeded in trying to look cool, just not in the way I had wanted.
I dunno what they were kept for, but these bricks looked like a good subject for photography.
Now back to the camp. We were to stay in tents. Hats off and big thanks to those people as they had really done a great job by providing electricity and hot water in such a remote place.
The tents, big and spacious.
Limited to the capabilities of my phone, I longed for a camera. The lake looked really beautiful at night, and the silence was broken only by the sound of waves breaking on the shore. All in all, it was a wonderful night.
Fast forward to fifteen nights later, where I am sitting at home, doing absolutely nothing. One of my friends – Aashay – calls me and says that he just got back from Ladakh. Well. Okay. Nice. We are going to have a great conversation! The discussion begins. He tells me that on his visit to the lake, it was still as a sheet of glass; there was no wind, the sky was as clear as it ever could be, and he saw more stars in the sky that night than he had ever seen. To top it all off, he spent the night outside, under the stars, with a bonfire.
Great. Huh. Alright.
I have never felt more jealous in my life. Nevertheless, it still was a great day, one I will remember forever. After all, where’s the fun in life if you get everything you want, when you want it, the way you want it?
The next day, we were to go back to Leh after visiting some popular spots near the lake. I will talk about the next day in my next post.
Cheers!
Ashutosh.
