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9-Aug-2019 (Friday) Sand dunes, Hunder

Summary of the day:

Distance Travelled during the day: 140 Km
Time taken: 07:15 hours (Start time: 08:00 am to 04:30 pm)
Route taken: Leh - Khardung la, North Pullu, Khardung Village, Diskit, Hunder
Places visited: Sand dunes, Hunder

We started from the guesthouse by 07:15 am. We had our good lavish dose of electral and water to cope with the high altitude drive of the day. The route via South Pullu and after that the roads were terrible with lots of rough roads with gravel right up to Khardung la. Our first stop was at Khardungla which was 17580 ft altitude. This was the highest motorable pass in Asia. The pass is 50 Km from Leh. We decided to stop there for not more than 10 minutes to click pictures and descend quickly. At the Khardung top, we noticed women working on the road lifting heavyweights. We could empathize with them as we knew how it felt to work in a low oxygen supply. The Indian Army had rescue tents "oxygen café" for those tourists who may fall because of AMS.

As we started from Khardung top, the BRO had stopped vehicles for road repair. We were stopped at this high altitude for nearly half an hour, but nothing happened because of our high water intake and acclimatization.

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9-Aug-2019 contd.

We descended from the Khardung top and reached North Pullu via Khardung village. At North Pullu there was an army camp that also ran a canteen. We decided to have breakfast here. We had momos but soon realized it wasn't that good. We had a hot cup of tea and drove down towards Nubra valley.

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9-Aug-2019 Contd.

Enroute Khardungla to Hunder

https://youtu.be/xS0SN_jLs-A

Yaks grazing freely









picturesque photo stop with the reflection crystal clear pollution-free














the mud brick walls of most homes in leh








frozen ice along the mountain

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9-Aug-2019 contd. Diskit

The road leads on to Khalsar, following which the road leads to a bifurcation, where one road leads to Panamik and another to Nubra. Here one needs to be careful to take the route towards Diskit. We reached Diskit, and the 106 ft colourful Buddha was a lovely sight to see, we felt blessed. We visited the Diskit Gompa and monastery. It was wonderful to get some of the best clicks of our trip here.

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9-Aug-2019 Contd - Hunder

We reached Hunder, Nubra valley, welcomed by the glorious Nubra River, the golden sand dunes and the multi-hued mountains. We loved the first sight of the valley. We had made our OYO booking for Hunder from Leh when we had Wi-Fi access. We reached our beautiful guesthouse (Lossar Guest house) at 04:00 pm. The guest house was a good 2 km inside the village lanes. The guest house people were very hospitable and courteous. There were a lot of insects and moths for the company at the guesthouse and had to keep all windows closed and lights off. At the guest house, we were informed that the Hunder village ran on a generator system and had power for 4 hours from 07:00 pm to 11:00 pm. We also were ensured hot water as it was connected to solar power. The guest house had a lovely kitchen garden, flower and fruit garden that kept us busy with photography for a while.

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9-Aug-2019 Contd. Apricot fruits

We checked in, freshened up and started to the sand dunes at 05:30 pm to watch the sunset. We clicked pictures of apricot fruit trees with ripe apricots on them as we drove along. A neighbourhood boy watched us taking pictures immediately came running to us with a large two handful of apricot fruit and offered it to us. Every household at Hunder seemed to have an apricot tree/apple tree.

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9-Aug-2019 Contd.

Enroute from Hunder Hotel to Sand dune, we were overwhelmed at the beauty of the natural reflection of the mountains on ice melted water that became a good spot for a photo shoot. We reached the sand dunes and parked our car.

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We reached the sand dunes and parked our car.

It was a 300 m walk from the parking spot along the stream that was adjoining the sand dunes to reach the place of the double-humped Bactrian camels. Our excitement knew no bounds when we felt one with the extremely tourist-friendly camels. The baby camels loved being fondled. The pleasure was mutual, though, and we once again became little children. We spent more than an hour with excellent photographs along the scenic stream, the Camel caravans. According to one of the caretakers, there were more than 400 camels in the Camel camp.





Most affectionate and overfriendly double-humped camels




















beautiful straw woven basket serves as the waste bin at Hunder Sand Dunes





My wife also had the opportunity to adorn the Ladakhi traditional attire and click pictures. The costume lender also offered salted Yak butter tea, which we finally got to taste.


In traditional ladakhi wedding attire




Local ladakhi ladies who served us Yak butter salted tea.







I spoke with local taxi drivers about the route to Pangong Tso for the following day to ensure we had the correct information about the current status of passes/Nalas, just to be on the safer side. The taxi drivers advised us to take an early start of 06:00 am as the Nalas will be safe.


We drove back to our guest house by 07:00 pm. We made full use of the 4 hours of power to charge our gadgets and Wi-Fi to send messages and catch up with our city world. We dined at the guest house with excellent vege dinner Rotis, subji, dal, chawal and excellent tea. At 11:00 pm, we were forced to fall asleep as the power was shut down.

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10-Aug-2019 (Saturday) - Pangong Tso (Spangmik)

Summary of the day:

Distance Travelled during the day: 185 Km
Time taken: 09:00 hours (Start time: 06:45 am to 03:45 pm)
Route taken: Hunder – Diskit – Agham – Durbuk – Shyok – Lukung – Pangong
Places visited: Pangong Tso (Spangmik)


The following morning we started early by 06:45 am.


Early morning at hotel, Hunder





The sun was up and shining. We started with prayers for good weather and reached the Diskit petrol pump where the bunk in-charge was asleep. We woke him up, and he started the generator to get the pump working. We filled our tank with fuel and drove along.






At Khalsar, we again had to carefully watch the bifurcation inroads to take the route to Agham. At Agham, one road led to Durbuk/Shyok, and another led to Shakti. Here too, we carefully had to read the signboards and confirmed with local taxi drivers to ensure we were on the right route doubly. Enroute to Shyok, the roads were rough and gravel and required careful manoeuvring.




Video of the drive - difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations

https://youtu.be/_a3rCkkz9QA

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10-Aug-2019 contd. - Marmots enroute

We drove along with our eyes looking out for the marmot that we were too eager to get a shot off. Our thoughts were so intense that they manifested, and we spotted the marmot in a grassy patch and aside from the road. The Marmots were peeping out of their burrows. There was a pair who portrayed extremely friendly behaviour, to our surprise. They were fearless and even posed with us for photographs. Our excitement knew no bounds. My wife was euphoric to make friends with the extremely cute Marmots. Our trip was worthwhile just with this one experience.

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10-Aug-2019 Contd. - Roling Nala

We drove along, we sighted vehicles had stopped, and all tourists were onlookers to a bull dozer clearing the big stones and gravel along the water crossing called Roling Nala. Another notorious Naala along the Shyok - Pangong route. This was another challenge; however, we had the BRO bull dozer working on the waterway for hours and finally let the vehicles pass after a wait of about an hour.


Another hour at Roling Nala where water with boulders got filled overnight




Raja with the bulldozer drivers at service




Videos of our trip en route Hunder to Pangong Tso

https://youtu.be/l2cWf_OPmo4

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Raja with the yaks grazing along

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Pangong Tso Lake

We sipped into our electral and water at very frequent intervals to keep ourselves hydrated. We reached Lukung, which is the first look of Pangong Lake. The first look of Pangong is entry to paradise on earth. The majority of local taxis and tour operators stop tourists here and return back to Leh. However, Pangong stretches beyond this, accessible through kutcha rasta as no proper roads lead here.

At Lukung, a beautiful ramp naturally created is a beauty for tourists to click pictures. The scooters of the 3 idiots fame are parked at the bank at Rs 100 per photo.







1st look at Lukung starting of Pangong



































Amazing change of colours at different angle of the lake







a small pebble walkway amidst the lake






Does it remind you of the 3-idiots movie (last scene)!

https://youtu.be/8t2WJFimRcE

https://youtu.be/cmppauuwyAQ

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10-Aug-2019 Contd.


We spent some typical tourist time with fellow tourists and had fun clicking pictures. After an hour of Looking at Lunkung, we started to drive towards Spangmik, and we spotted a lot of tents at Spangmik. After entering Spangmik, we realized that there was no further road, and we had to drive along the lake. We drove and were tempted to drive along the waters, only to get stuck. We hurriedly reversed back and were out of the loose sand. We safely drove along the gravel. Some patches were filled with water, and we dared to cross the patches and reach Maan, a village along the mighty Pangong Tso. We checked into a home stay that had a room with a view of the Pangong. The village bore pin drop silence. We were served pulav lunch at the home stay. After lunch, we sat in awe at Pangong's beauty and praised this creation of the Almighty. The wind started to blow at a very high velocity, and we could hear window glass vibrating. The caretaker served us some Ladakhi salted tea with yak butter. One had to develop a taste for salted tea.


Maan is a solar-powered village but without Wi-Fi. There was also a small telescope installed at Maan for star gazing. We were to visit the Hanley observatory, so we decided not to go star gazing on a cold, windy night. We charged our gadgets and had an early dinner of roti, subji, dal chawal and Yak milk dahi. We dared not taste the dahi, though it seemed a bit gooey. We retired to sleep. I was still restless at 15,700 ft and had to keep myself erect to sleep, but my wife had a good night’s sleep.


couldn't take our eyes off Pangong Tso- view from our Home stay at Mann

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11-Aug-2019 (Sunday) Pangong Tso – Chushul – Hanley

Summary of the day:

Distance Travelled during the day: 180 Km
Time taken: 06:00 hours (Start time: 07:30 am to 01:30 pm)
Route taken: Pangong Tso – Chushul – Hanley
Places visited: Hanley


We started to drive from our homestay at Pangong after roti and butter jam for breakfast with warm milk tea with sugar. We were only too happy to switch back to the normal tea .


We drove along the Pangong lake via the village Merak. The roads were still not there, and we followed track marks all along the lake. At Merak, we spotted a lady weaving carpet out of wool with a handmade loom. The design was intricate and beautiful, and I was too happy to see such art in this remote region.







Local lady weaving a beautiful carpet near a village enroute Mann-chusul
















Raja fixing the rear lock that gave way in the rough terrain