36. Exploring Laddakh – Pangong Tso and Tsomoriri

Last month I checked off an item on my ‘Bucket List’! I visited Laddakh. I have been waiting all my life to see Laddakh – the northern most provinces of India; in the midst of the mighty Himalayas. Now while writing about my trip I have decided to write about the best first rather than start at the beginning. 

PANGONG TSO or PANGONG LAKE

A few days back it was in the news that the Chinese were making incursions into the Indian part of the Pangong Lake. Well! That was just a few days after my visit on the 18th of June and I am sure this intrusion by our neighbour felt much more personal to me because I had been there.  ‘Pangong Tso’ (the Wiki says) in Tibetan means ‘a long, narrow, enchanted lake’. Well, that’s exactly how it is. At a height of about 14270ft it is a brackish water lake 60 % of which is in Tibet. A part of the remaining is controlled by China but claimed by India. An Inner Line Permit is required to visit the lake as it lies on the Sino-Indian LOC. We had a tour operator taking care of all such issues.

We drove from Leh, starting around 10 am and reached late in the evening driving through mountainous terrain. The 5 hour drive is an experience in itself; ours got enhanced as one of our vehicles broke down and we had to wait for a replacement vehicle from Leh. We utilised the time by having lunch on the wayside.  During summer there is light till almost 8pm so we could enjoy a glimpse of the lake in the evening light too while the icy cold wind chilled our bones through our jackets and woollens. In the winter the lake is frozen despite its saline waters. We sighted some Brown Headed Gulls which breed in Laddakh during this time but not much else because the brackish water is not conducive to the growth of flora or fauna.

The lake surrounded by snow tipped mountains of all hues which change with the changing light gives a magical quality to the scene and one can do little else other than watch open mouthed to this enchanting play of light and shade, reflected on the mirror like surface of the huge lake.

Not much accommodation is available near the Lake. We had to spend the night in a very basic kind of facility with a shared bathroom but we were happy to get into the quilts.  Tara, a cook, traveled with us and she managed to make hot chicken stew for us against all odds. Some boys and girls who were traveling on bikes came to us looking for food as nothing was available at that time of the night.

Late, the next morning after a breakfast of noodles cooked by Tara in a tent outside, we were off to Tsomoriri.

A goatherd with her precious Pashmina goats on the way to Pangong

You are throughout in the midst of awe-inspiring, colourful mountains

This delightful rodent is called Marmot. We hobnobbed with a fieldful of them - quite friendly.

Kiang - wild asses of Laddakh

Pangong Tso - first view

Dusk over the Pangong Lake

In the morning light

The many shades of blue

Brown-headed Gulls. Breeding grounds

Around The Lake - places to stay

The Pashmina are not sheared but gently combed regularly for their precious hair, which is sorted colourwise

A well groomed, majestic male goat

Its cold... Didi making good use of her fur lined coat.

The last view before the lake makes a turn towards China behind the mountains.

TSOMORIRI  or  MORIRI LAKE

At a height of 15,075 ft. , Moriri with a length of 19 km and width of 3 km, is the largest of the high altitude lakes in the Himalayas. It is filled by the snow melt of the surrounding peaks and springs. When the driver of our vehicle, Javed , said that Tsomoriri was even more beautiful than the Pangong Tso, we presumed he was trying to keep our spirits up for the difficult drive ahead. We could not have been more wrong! Tsomoriri is like a brilliant blue sapphire embedded in a ring of gold and the drive was through a beautiful terrain. I felt very disappointed when I saw my pictures of the lake, because they just don’t match up to what my eyes actually saw.

We stayed in very comfortable tents with attached toilets which apart from a small PWD guest house are the only accommodation available in Tsomoriri. There were more birds to be seen here than at Lake Pangong – Shellducks and Bar-headed geese with new-born chicks could be seen in numbers. However there were no Black-necked cranes to be seen, which incidentally are one of the rarest birds in the world. A few Black-necked Cranes come in pairs to breed here every year.

A 400 years old monastery called Korzok Monastry is on the bank of the lake.

While driving away from Tsomoriri, a chance sighting, by my sister, of the Great Himalayan Golden Eagle was like an icing on the cake for me.  

The unbelievable colours of the mountains

 

Check-posts everywhere! We stopped and had lunch inside the quarters of the very helpful and polite army personnel, at one of the check-posts on the way.

Yaks crossing a river. Yaks are sacred to the Budhist Laddakhis.

TSOMORIRI!

Mountains of gold!

Bar-headed geese with chick

A Shellduck braving the chilly water

Tents we stayed in

Inside the tent. My first experience of staying in a tent was quite good.

The 400 yrs old Korzok Monastry

Himalayan Golden Eagle - icing on the cake

A chubby Laddakhi baby. We had a quick-fix breakfast of 'egg bhurji' and chappatis at this shop because Tara had a migraine.

After breakfast we headed back to Leh to halt the night before driving out to Srinagar and then again after a night to Jammu and then a train ride back to our respective cities.

What to see in Leh http://justtravelmusings.blogspot.in/2014/07/exploring-ladakh-spending-time-in-leh.html

Read about the whole trip http://justtravelmusings.blogspot.in/2014/07/exploring-ladakh.html