[kpzen]

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

Awesome pics!!! The one in the moon light with tall shadows and the camera stand in between is classic. Looks like three zombies.

The place is awesome and so are the pics?

@kpzen : Is that a wind jacket or a life jacket that you are wearing in the Best Pic?

Thanks.. Thats a wind jacket...

Here's a pic with life jacket

[tsk1979]

Hmm so you did boating in pangong..!
Thats nice!

[rkbharat]

what beautiful pics, Pangong is so blue

[kpzen]

Some random ordinary shots of seagulls.

[Ushuaia]

Spell bound! The shots are simply amazing!

@Ramky sir, 5-star for the thread, and Prajesh bro you are too good with the cam!!

[ramkya1]

As most of the photo load on Pangong is over, shall we continue?

27th June, 1030AM: Photoshoot over, biscuits for sea-gulls over, camera memory almost over, battery powers almost over, time to reluctantly move on. one could just sit at the lake side, watch the wheel of colours turning, ever changing keleidoscope of vibgyor magical; time can disappear here. Given a chance, I would have prefered to gaze at the ever changing moods and colours playing concert to the light and clouds. Psychologically, this was one of the most painful moments of the trip, the panaroma of the lake was so famous, we were raring to see it, what we saw was overwhelmingly delivered, going away was an anti-climax. But then, promises to keep, miles to go .......... practically so.

A word of caution again on this road, 2-3 kms after Pagal Nallah, the surface improves, you would be tempted to rip, but don't. Just when you pick up speed, you would DROP into ugly dips on the road (for water crossings when it rains) this would go on for the next 30 kms, unexpected ones; cars with low GC's would get their bottoms torn and mangled, pictures of some dips would give you an idea. Could not catch the lethal ones, two below are tamer ones...





Tangse TCP, sign in and talk to an excited family from Baroda who saw the GJ registration and were all over us. They could not believe we drove all the way from A'bad, their Innova taxi has come through Manali and the driver summed up their travel as painful, he cautioned us about the Baralacha la and the water crossings, we knew what we would get into if we go the Sarchu way.

At Chang-La we celebrated with Chai, Aby Philip was a perfect host. He introduced us to the camp doctor, he was checking a patient. Surprise, Surprise....., it turned out to be our paranoid friend from Pangong, he was still not over the phobia that he's going to die of AMS!!!! The doctor checked all of us with the fingertip oximeter, I was not keen to know as I feared mine would be dangerously low. Everyone was cleared and the doctor told me to extend my finger into the crocadiles mouth; I waited with baited breath, the docror said with a very sad face, "this is very bad", all my fears came flooding back, my pulse must have dropped and my heart was in my mouth, the thought of catchig the next day flight back to Delhi was not far from my mind, leaving dear Wolt behind and the best part of the drive was another nightmare!!!!

The doc said, don't worry, you would survive, I asked him, insisted that he tell me the reading, he said it OK, I wanted to see, he showed it to me, it was 74, meaning oxygen saturation 74%, I was confused, the doctor and his friends broke into peals of laughter ................. they were playing me on. OMG, I was so relieved, not really worried about health, happy that I could drive.

The medic said, my value was one of best in our group, values above 70 are very good and they get concerned when the values drop below 60, he said even soldiers get problems and hence they are posted at Chang La continuously only for 3 months, they are rotated up down to acclamatize them. Aby said, his tour to Siachin was the worst for any soldier, every intake of breath was pure torture, most would have thier skin and lips cracked and blistered, would not be able to eat anything for lack of appetite, they survive on soup and energy bars and would look forward to a duty on K-top or Chang La. Salutes to our soldiers for braving out on inhuman conditions to protect the country.

So there I was, happy with the news and saying, "bring them on, I need more". Zingral and Sakthi flashed past and we were at Karu around 3 PM, Prajesh and Kevin were virtually howling for lunch, any more travel without food would have been at the risk of my health. Fortunately, there was a lovely dhaba with chaval, dal etc., tasted like Manna from Heavan. We decided to give Hemis Gompa a try, turned around to cross the river and reached the Gompa around 340 PM.

Honestly, it turned out to be not so exciting for us, know of many people would would go ga-ga about Gompas, apologies to you folks, we're not the Gompa kind of people. Went inside saw what was on display and were back to Leh by about 520 PM. Prajesh said Moti market is a good place to try for bargains and spent about an hour there, nothing much, good for window-shopping.

Around 6, our friend Imran came and we went to the local supermarket where Chinese goods are sold. I found North Face articles pretty good bargains and bought a jacket, inner thermal T shirt and a cap. Found that the inner thermal T shirt was very warm and saved the day/ night at Sarchu. Kevin and Jiggy also bought jackets and other trinklets from there, looked like good bargains. We booked tables at a local restaurant KC-Restaurant ( Prajesh's choice, is the name correct?) for dinner, was a great choice. Went to a nearby internet place to check out conditions on Manali road to take a decision for the next day travel. Recent reports and videos at BCM, story of an I10 crossing a stream, an Endy scrapping the bottom and a 4x4 Safari turning back at Baralacha La were enough to send shivers down anyones spine. So we decided to decide the next day morning whether we would return the Srinagar or Manali route and enjoy what's left of the day.

Went to KC restaurant, the world cup footbal mania was on, the place was packed and vibrant. Great place to have a drink and food on the open terrace, lovely service too. My appetite was back; raring to go after the oxygen saturation news; Jiggy and Prajesh watched me in amazement as I devoured almost a full Tandori Chicken, this is a new Avatar of Ramky they are seeing. As far as I am concerned, I felt good, I ate good , things are back on track, the animal within is unchained !!!!!

---------

[ampere]

Amidst the diversifications thankfully some commonalities do not change.
E.g. Every One watching a soccer match, room packed to the hilt!

[hemanthisgreat]

Originally Posted by kpzen

Here's a pic with life jacket
Attachment 386649

Did the army take you boating on pangong tso. I thought only army people were allowed.

Excellent captures KP.

[kpzen]

Originally Posted by hemanthisgreat

Did the army take you boating on pangong tso. I thought only army people were allowed.

Excellent captures KP.

Thanks.

My sister is in Army and was posted in Leh for 2 years.

[TaureanBull]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

Jiggy and Prajesh watched me in amazement as I devoured almost a full Tandori Chicken, this is a new Avatar of Ramky they are seeing. As far as I am concerned, I felt good, I ate good , things are back on track, the animal within is unchained !!!!!

Nice to hear that. Thats an addictive combination.

Its nice to see arrows marked to show the direction of round to move the prayer wheel 'chokhor'. When I went to NE these were not marked and many a tourists ended up taking round from wrong direction. The monks would correct them mid-way.

[MX6]

Seagull6(Medium). Another great capture. This is a photographers paradise.

[sami316]

Just Wow. The seagull pics are too good. As MX6 has rightly said, this is a photographers paradise.

[ir458]

Awesome Pics !!
Loved the moonlight ones the most
Thanks for sharing them.

[ramkya1]

KP, I am going ahead with the story and my photos, load yours when you can.......

=====
28th June: 0630 AM: I was awake early, decision time, decision day for the route, this could turn out to be hell or heaven. I asked KP and Jiggy, which way, do we take a coin toss or do we check the internet again and decide. They both said, "your call" and there I was...... in the proverbial horns of a D.

I reasoned, even if ground info says Baralacha La is clean, there's no telling what would happen by the time we reach there, things could change with a snow fall or a landslide, either way its a risk, so going the Srinagar way is the safest bet any time. What the hell.... if there is no risk or adventure, what's life anyway, we would go the Sarchu-Manali way and face the demons.

We were prepared, to the gill, have a long list of things we carried, including shovel, planks, wire nets and what have you. Prajesh has a couple of snaps of the goodies spread out.

Tanked up at Leh and again tanked up 36 kms later at the last petrol pump before Tandi, 350 kms away, the landscape took on a different kind of barren-hill-brown with patches of green, for long distances we were travelling between mountain gorges, Sosama (looks like a Mallu Female name), Lato and 83 kms on from Rumpse the road deteriorates all the way to Tanglang La, BRO is hard at work here, its gravel all the way and down for about 50 kms.

We descent down and reach the start of the More plains, road repair, we take a detour and come dead on with a losse grave sandy section, saw an Innova struggle and thrash through the mud and slush, almost got stuck on the mud, but somehow survive and get going to the other side. Both sides were full of bog, already two tankers are mired deep, this is dead man's territory without any reference, no one to ask for directions and a decision dialemma. We stop the car and stake out the section, high probability of getting stuck there with the weight of the Wolt. Saw some taxis taking a detour about 3 kms behind us, take a U turn and gave chase in what we throught was a track, soon we realize the track disappeares, everyone is actaully making his own track to get back into the main trail, this is uncharted territory. Come to a sharp deep descent and a small rivlet, Prajesh gets down and guide me through, we are sure to scrap bottom if we go stright in and take it down on a crazy angle, the next 4-5 kms were one of the scariest I have taken the Wolt through.

The ground was loose, felt the real wheel digging in and spinning if I give it hard pedal, took it on 2nd and 3rd though the temptation was to get torque with 1st, if I loose momentum, we would surely get stuck, loose ground all the way, on and off we were being sucked down under but the smooth right pedal was pushing it forward, saw a Pajero coming dead on at us majestically, Prajesh and Jiggy shouted for me to veer right, pointed to hard ground, I streered a smooth right, any sharp move of the front wheel would make it bite-in and cut speed which was lethal in this place, the harder ground was slightly better, there was grass and we got better purcahse, another 500 mtrs we were on firmer ground.

I stopped at the nearest tent and wanted a chai badly, my hands were sweating and felt like the I was right back at the wheel of a Gypsy in Popular Rally. While we were having chai, saw an taxi innova go through the same section, 2 kms on he was stuck, people got out and were trying to extricate it, it would be quite a job once you get mired there, they would have to be toed out.

This was the start of the More plains, for the next the 40 kms, the road was a mixture of sections of tarmac, switch backs, gravel, no road, no direciton, a no-mans land if you will. Some sections were again sand and mud, needing careful work with low gears, felt the mud hitting the differentials twice, thankfully no stones. We made lots of photo stops and just before Pang, stopped on the river side to look at he natural formations on the banks, this is one of the most beautiful spots on the route, one of the most photographed sections. Stop at Pang for a great Dal Chaval combination at 220 pm, lots of tourists stop at these tents and the food was OK.
=========

[kpzen]

Let me bug u all with more shots of Pangong

Sun rise



The First Rays


Bidding goodbye to stunning Pangong


On the way to LEH


GOMPA, a boring one. Got nothing to shoot