Pangong Tso again!
Late September last year I visited Ladakh over a weekend with my friend Peter. I wrote about that trip here. It was obviously a spectacular weekend trip. However, the trip didn't do proper justice to the place. I thought at the time about doing three things:
- I have to bring my family here, soon
- I must do a longer trip, at least 6-7 days
- I must stay in Leh longer to help with acclimatization
Pangong Lake near Spangmik, where the movie 3-Idiot's final scene was shot
You will see a lot of Indian Flag in this area, place is 15km from Chinese border, so govt. and people both like to show off their nationalism
So I acted on all three this summer. Our family takes at least 3 weeks off during summer. Typically we do a big trip and a small one. This time we decided that we will visit India to see family and during that trip, we will do a trip inside a trip. We will fly to Ladakh and spend a week there.
Indus river valley near Thiksey, outskirts of Leh
Capital of Ladakh is Leh, and it is easily accessable from New Delhi Airport. It is a 1 hr flight and there are multiple carriers serve this route. If you go there, I strongly suggest taking the flight, and NOT do the 400+ km road trip from Manali or similar distance from Kargil or Srinagar.
The only downside of taking the flight is acclimatization. As you get from 700 ft (New Delhi) to 11,500 ft (Leh) in one hour. However, this can be easily mitigated by staying 2 nights at Leh. Staying 2 nights at Leh has many other perks. Leh is a beautiful clean mountain town, with many places of interest nearby. It is possible to spend 2 weeks staying in Leh alone, visiting surrounding areas for day trips. Bottomline, you won't get bored in Leh for 2 nights.
The easiest way to get to Pangong Tso is to take a car for hire with driver for a few days. The road over Chang La is currently beautifully paved and the drive is about 4 hours. Unfortunately we got there on a cloudy day, so that partucular aquamarine blue that Pangong Lake is famous for, we didn't get. Refer to my old post to see the 'correct' color. I put this image above unedited so that you have the right idea that Pangong is not always aquamarine! This might save you from dissapoitment.
The other thing to write about is the commercialization of this area. Pangong is still remote, but the bollywood movies 3-idiot and Jab tak hai jaan, which were shot here, put this place on 'ultra-tourism' map of India. Post-Covid, there is onset of 'revenge travel'; and believe it or not in India it is still going strong. This place is the victim of over-tourism.
Thankfully, we manage to hit this area on a relatively quiet day, and since we were staying at a little cottage by the lake, we did manage to stay by the lakeshore fairly late in the day.
Girls thorwing rock!
Nice cottage, recommended
The Iconic Royal Enfield Motorbike
Lots of people do this trip on motorbikes like this one. This is a 'thing' in India right now. Bikers travelling to Leh-Khardung La-Pangong! I have a lot of thoughts about this 'bike travel bonanza', I will do that on a future post.