Pangong - Lakeside

I have developed a love for coffee shops apparently… Wonder when I'll find one like where I am sitting in right now, back home in India. The décor is perfect for me to work in or just relax with my laptop but more on that in subsequent posts (so keep watching this space… ;P). I do want to take you, my reader, on a trip to Heaven on Earth (nothing whatsoever to do with the movie namesake though!! Climactic with reference to it in fact…), across a few seas and way up in the sky. To My Paradise and one that definitely tops the Most Favourite Places in the Universe list. Among the highest lakes in the World nestled at a majestic 4350m (14200ft approx.). Its recent claim to fame being the stunning backdrop of the climax of 3 Idiots (Apparently the crew had just cleared out a week or so before we visited!! :O). Among God's greatest creations, yours truly introduces you to Pangong Tso.

Last time we were on the journey to Pangong having just left Chang La behind. The landscape was evolving with the barren lands suddenly sprouting shrubs and tiny streams as the road rushed down the mountain side hurrying with hairpin bends giving way to the expansive valleys I had seen there yet! In front, the view encompasses a tiny tar road about 1.5 car widths wide snaking its way on a carpet of brown highlighted with the occasional green of tundra growth and shrubs. One's ear is occasionally tickled with the gleeful chattering of a whimsical brook which decides to join the party for a while coming from a source unknown in the muscular mountains. Passing through another checkpost and military outpost /barracks later calls for more change in scenery.

The hues of brown in the vista before ones eyes is quite stunning to take in. However, one is sure that every remotely brown skinned person would find themselves represented be it in the mountains which have taken on an endlessly sweeping countenance seeming friendly and welcoming even in this new form or the sand which suddenly looks to have been imported from Rajasthan!' Cold Desert' does make sense after all! Turning ones head and a close scrutiny to the mountain we were driving on led to the development of a theory. Irrefutable proof almost of how India broke away from Gondwanaland and decided to 'nudge' the Asian landmass resulting in the greatest upheaval in Earth's history that has left the youngest mountain range on Earth with an ongoing growth spurt. The mountainside is punctuated with stones - correction, pebbles - like the ones that wash up on a sea shore… smoothed with the flow of countless waves of water over them. A great find - even if I say so myself.

One thing I did not expect find so far out in the middle of nowhere was a traffic jam which we found ourselves in due to construction work done by the Border Road Organisation also fondly known as 'Seema Sadak Sangathan' :P. Of course, we had to stop and wait at the edge of the road and our existence as a foot and a half further off was a steep drop to a muddy sludgy water (I think, couldn't be sure if it was just marsh though!!) body. Proof that home sentiments are a strong thing for sure… The overseeing officer who walked past our vehicle suddenly backtracked to us explaining that he heard Tamil and missed his own native Kerala. He was serving for a long stint there and didn’t expect to be back home very soon I believe. A pleasant chat later, he decided to open the road and let the workers take a lunch break and we were once more on our way!

The next guest into our inner circle was a rather rude entry known infamously as the Paagal Nala (The Mad Creak suits my sentiments more!). The result of snow melting under the wary eye of the sun, this Creak gains force as the day progresses reaching its peak jut around 2pm as the snow from 12pm finally winds down to meet its human friends. Our driver was apprehensive about crossing it as it was known for upturning many a 4 wheel drive not to mention bikes! A bridge was still being built so it was a gut wrenching few seconds which seemed like few hours trying to maneuver the vehicle on the bed of this Creak without getting waylaid by its 'wicked' intentions. After almost losing to the Creak, we finally made to the other side in one piece and a heartfelt sigh of relief later we were bouncing along getting ever closer to our destination. Of course, I was dying for the first glimpse of this lake not knowing what to expect as I don’t remember seeing any pictures of it before.

The first glimpse… Words escape me as all one could do was suck in breath after breath and stare at - no, feast on - the splendour called Tso Pangong. And it was just the beginning yet!! Nothing can prepare you for the feeling of looking upon this creation with your own eyes. The camera in the movie certainly didn't capture the half of it in my opinion! Anyways that was not their intention I guess… Wonder if NGC or Discovery made a documentary about this. I can imagine them having one heck of a field day with it. As soon as the car stopped, I could not wait to run in and taste the water and Boy! were they right about it being a salt water lake!! The spot we stopped at was getting crowded as all vehicles we came in with also stopped there.

So, it was lunch time as for one we were ravenous and secondly, wanted the view to ourselves for a few minutes at least! No restaurant I have ever eaten in or will ever eat in can compare in ambience to that backdrop that the Lord had provided! I don’t remember the lunch much though mostly because I was ravenous and wolfed it down and also the biting winds did numb the senses a little. And then we had the place to ourselves at last. Wiping off the last crumbs from lunch we decided to survey our luncheon room a little more closely. And does it hit you hard!

Ethereal! Surreal! Too good to be true! Use any superlative to whatever degree and it can't measure up to the feeling of the wind whipping around you and the beginning of the 138km long lake at your feet. I remember wanting to etch the vista in front of my disbelieving eyes into memory forever so fiercely that I didn’t want to blink! Hard to do when the sun is out and the winds all about. I wonder if any of you have seen those artists' renditions of alien lands and unknown planets in space museums or as stunning wallpapers. Well, imagine standing on those lands, in those paintings and you can imagine how standing in front of Pangong was… enough to make you forget to breathe! I could have lived there forever! Apparently there were fish in the lake as some birds were snooping for their own lunch diving into the lake occasionally. And some ducks too I think. Finally, we moved on to our campsite. A bumpy ride if there ever was one!

And then in the distance we could glimpse a cluster of tents, white as the snow on the mountains behind them, in a semicircle arrangement and then a few more closer to the lakeside. This was to be home for a night. After the tents at Uleytokpo, one knew what to expect. However, even giving leeway to the unreachable nature of the terrain and place, the tent was still a surprise! It was set up and opened only a week ago and we were the first set of people staying there. It was quaint with one single bulb hanging from wiring from the top of the tent and an attached bath and toilet area (considering how cold it was there, if I had to walk any distance for it, I would rather have forgone it altogether :P). We reached somewhere between lunch and snack time but had hot chai as soon as the bags came in and we were settled down. The tent opened to the rest of the camp area beyond which were the bluest waters and mountains in the most bewildering browns. It was a perfectly glorious evening with no clouds except those whiffs of white kissing the sky.

'It was chilly' would be a gross understatement thanks to the 'roaring' winds! We found the tent was heavily tethered to strong poles on closer examination otherwise, Dorothy might have found new company in the World of Oz without a tornado even! The people they have in charge for the camps seem to be the most interesting characters one can find I believe. The caretaker here was an ex-Army guy who had served in Siachen if memory serves right. Apparently, he was keen to start the tent system in Pangong and this was his pet project. It was the first of its kind there not being made of concrete structures and buildings. Among some interesting stats he mentioned was the fact that the lake would freeze only if temperatures went 40 below 0 and that the lake did freeze every single winter! Not too keen on living there then though it would be a really cool ski rink in your back - umm, front - yard. Moving on, we decided to explore the place and the small semblance of a village found further on.

The walk was a continuation of the same bumpy remnant of a road forged in the Dark Ages through which we reached the camp. We saw comfy Pashmina sheep whose wool is used to make the famous Pashmina shawls and houses made of sturdy stone rather than brick and cement. Running into a village girl, curiosity led to a mini Q&A. She was going to school (the village had a school I think) but was mentioning how fending off the winter was their own problem with no help from the authorities. It definitely strikes one of how lucky we are. I mean, here was the most beautiful vista in front of my eyes which I go on gushing about and for which every person on vacation is willing to pay pretty hefty prices and in my eyes is God's greatest gift to us. A place where I felt anyone could easily be inspired by the surroundings to become a poet or writer or any other romantic notion - maybe not quite everyone. In the eyes and words of that girl all one could sense was that the bluest waters, if salty, or the large brown snow topped mountains with no fertile soil were not really God's gift but the enemy to earning a decent livelihood. The loneliness that 'city' people crave for on these vacations was a big handicap for their survival for a large part of the year. Perspectives, different enough for some serious food for thought!

After walking through the village in the direction of the river, the other property allowing people to stay lakeside came into view albeit in concrete buildings, not tents. We snaked our way closer to the lake thinking of walking on water lapped shores back to our own camp. We ran into another tourist, European he was, I believe, in Wellington Boots who told us we could probably walk all the way back though there were some parts he had to walk through the water. Braving it then, we wanted to see just how far we could go. It turned out to be a good decision after all as we jumped across rivulets of water, saw the grass "breaking off" caked in salt from the lake and in general had a nice walk.

We did manage to reach the banks of our camp wetting nothing but our appetites (excuse the pun :D). The sun was just preparing to set and decided to paint a pretty farewell by turning the mountains orange and sending out pretty beams between the mountains to make the water sparkle like a bed of jewels. Once the sun went down, the Chill rushed in very eagerly, from the mountains behind us which were still sporting snow caps. The kitchen tent got busy with cooking hot food and I for one couldn't wait for it! Hot soup and some simple hot food was welcome with the caretaker calling us into the welcomingly warm dining tent. One can't appreciate the power of warm food unless you find it spreading deliciously through your insides when all else is freezing around you. Then we returned to our tents with the help of torch-lights as the paths did not have lamps along the way. I vaguely remember a conversation was struck up with some fellow travelers who were a bunch of bikers we had passed on the way. The were a few tents down ours.

Of course what stands out clearly etched was sitting outside our tent and staring into the deep. The background score of waves lapping at the shore very gently, and the light of hundreds of years ago blinking back from the infinite expanse of the sky. It is easy to get lost in the sensation of looking at particularly nothing at all and still everything when it's a sight one could never dare to imagine as it is so breathtakingly beautiful. The sky was more brilliant here and the Milky Way just could not be missed. The wonder is similar to a child which has just learned to stand and looks out of its crib to see a whole new world right there which it new nothing about. It seemed so much clearer as though being that high up brought you closer to the heavens too! I could have sat there all night but sleep and the warm tent were tempting in their own way too! So it was off to bed wrapped up in more layers than I could care to sleepily count. The warmer one is wrapped up while drifting of to dreamland, the more gargantuan the effort required to consciously get out of it in the morning. But, the day must go on so after a quick wash, we were ready for breakfast and to head back to the valley of Leh and that must wait till next time….

Chang La - 17586ft

I haven't written for so long!! Don't know where all the time went. In studying, running around to get projects for the next sem, working on my US visa (YES, finally!!!), cramming for the compres, completing more formalities and fighting with half of Bangalore (as usual x-(… ), packing and repacking to get everything less than 23 kilos and travelling ad settling down in nothing less than a new country and a new continent! Whew!! Experiences galore and no time to write. Well finally I'm going to catch up as much as I can since I promised to keep folks back home updated on what's happening so here goes. Last we left in Uleytokpo… Cut to 2 days later in a new hotel gobbling down breakfast to leave for Pangong!

This was the best ride I have had yet! We were so excited already as we would be going to the third highest pass in the world. So we start of early for the long ride and the sun and chill air greets us. The climb to the pass starts a little away from Leh in a new direction from the previous trip. We had an amazing melody of Hindi songs for company we blissfully started the climb. Then comes the checkpost at 15000-odd feet. Till now, note that the cars windows were open, we were enjoying the wind, with ears popping due to a steep climb. Of course, the layers Mom was weaing were growing every few thousand feet that we rose but Dad and I decided to wing it! Boy! was that crazy of us. We get down at the checkpost for a relief break and the chilness hit me full force. Goosebumps break out the shivers compared to the heebee-jeebies you get at the worst horror movies. Of course, that didn’t stop me from half trotting to the mobile restroom (The army guys are sweet enough to keep one for civillians and women too!). Then I felt the world go tipsy!! The oxygen is very low even at that altitude and I half jumped out of my skin which still didn’t help to set the world right! Then the advice to take medication for high altitudes made sense! We popped some as soon as we reached the car!!!

Then we moved on through quite treacherous roads. Simply because the snow on these levels erode the road put by the Army. It was extremely bumpy and slow and we could see snow peeking from crevices a little higher than us on our mountain! As we rode higher, it only got better. We could now see those crevices lower than us!! We were actually higher than some remnant snow!! To the amusement of our driver, we asked about snow (again!) at the passes and he coolly asked us to wait and watch or that he would get us some from near the pass :)… Then we approach near the pass and the saw the best was still to come! The peak right next to the road was a white carpet of snow we were really tempted to carry home! To ski on that slope would have been unimaginable wonderful.


Then we finally reached the pass - Chang La - 17586ft, the 3rd highest pass in the world! We had never been this high ever before in our lives. It was exhilarating to breath there. See and understand the achievement of our army to succeed in some awesome engineering and make road at this altitude. The army is very friendly to civilians here. They have a small stall where the keep hot, sweet, elaichi chai with dalchini. Its like elixir in the cold, gives your body the kick to breathe harder and deal with the altitude. There are also biscuits (Parle G of course) and raisins and cashews - free for all on the table. The army guys are also chatty here, happy to see other humans in a place with a population density of 2/km. One can't thank them enough! There is a temple at these passes, dedicated mostly to Shiva to guard everyone at the pass. And one is advised not to spend more than half an hour at these passes as the body is not trained to take it.

As we moved on, thoroughly satisfied, there was still more to come! Snow right by the road and in places, higher than the car (and this was a Sumo type car we are talking about). I could almost touch and the endless delight was just too much to contain so all I could do was whip out the camera and not stop clicking everything. Those images are burnt into my head now… so hard did I want to remember it! Imagine a small muddy bumpy curvy road, 1.5 car lengths wide with not much runoff. One side, the dark mountain's mud slopes and on the other, a steep drop into ravines. And on the mountain, snow, glistening in the sun, a shimmer here and then there all the way to the top. A carpet you could sink into sometimes covered with the dust blown from the mountains. And a carpet that has been left with the footprints of a herd of giants! Heaven couldn't get much more satisfying than what I felt then.

As we moved down the pass on the other side, the snow stuck on the flat part of the mountain was a likening to the Hanging gardens of Babylon. A beautiful sight, you couldn’t peel your ice from. Then more of nature's surprises come out from a frozen lake at a much lower altitude and even a half frozen one! Then it was all about going down, down and down some more till you suddenly hit the valleys seen from above. Then all you see is brown barren land and huge mountains rising from nowhere. Nestled among them further behind are white sheets of snow on which are delightful to spot for fleeting seconds as the car races on the plain flat roads. Another checkpost later, we realize the song collection had changed! The Australian group we had met at Uleytokpo were coming to Pangong too in a minibus. Our drivers had exchanged their collection to suit our needs. The collection was just superb! Made the ride all the more fun. The landscape was changing and the excitement to reach Pangong was
rising... More on that soon...

Yamunotri-The Divine Hiccough

This is the second part of the vacation to Uttaranchal.......

The Ambassador turned out to be a really bad choice in these rains. We had stopped in the pouring rain near a shop for the third time in half that many hours. The reason being that the gauges and the lone wiper would suddenly stop working as though on their whims! This was a huge blow to our schedule and we had started on this really huge back foot. Imagining another 10 days in such a car with a low battery(as we found out later), was well, to say the least, frightening.

Finally, after deliberation and countless calls to the contractor providing the taxi, an Innova was procured. Unfortunately, this called for another delay of 3hrs at least . So there we were sitting in a parking lot in Mussorie, in not the best of moods, awaiting the other car. The weather even seemed to reflect our feelings......the whole town was engulfed in this really 'wet' cloud and the biting cold set in. Soon the other taxi was at our disposal and we set off in the Innova. The driver was a bit miffed, I believe, after being called urgently and sent for us as he had just finished the Yatra that morning and was looking forward to a good sleep. Poor him.

As we left Mussorie behind us and started the travel of those winding roads, it was like a race against time. It was forbidden to drive on the Ghat roads beyond 8pm for safety reasons and now it was to be impossible to reach Jankichatti in time. Our itinerary was from Gharwal Mandal Vikas Nigam(GMVN), the Government Tourism Initiative. Taking care of 1 half of Uttarakhand, they are quite accommodative. If one is unable to reach one's destination due to any problems like landslides, they are very flexible, finding a safe accommodation. Also they make sure one is not delayed by landslides, etc. If crossing over by foot is possible, they arrange for local transportation until their vehicles can meent you at the next stop over. It's quite impressive actually and all of their tourist houses are quite tourist friendly, clean and largely hygienic.

The winding roads could beat any roller coaster found anywhere in this world on any given day let alone during the monsoons when these roads become so treacherous. Of all the days to get motion sickness, I couldn't have chosen better timing! I ended up sleeping throughout the day's drive to avoid feeling nauseated. Anyways, the night stop was a certain Barkot which we reached around 7pm deciding not to go ahead as that would mean we reach Hanuman Chatti only at 9pm. After a light dinner, we heard of a landslide on the way from Hanuman Chatti to Janki Chatti due to incessant rains. The dread this brought upon me was quite startling. Let your imagination run away with you and its easy to even make Mount Everest out of a molehill!

A good sleep later the day dawned early and we were out by 5:30am to try if we could reach Yamunotri after all. The scenery was very tropical and the river was gushing about a 1000 feet below us with all her ferocity. It was really refreshing to see nature's wild beauty in all its splendor. This was nothing compared to the lanslide sites however! It had buried 3/4 of the road beneath it and some really huge boulders had managed to find their way below to the river bank. We ended up walking from before Hanuman Chatti itself as there was no other alternative. Due to the roadblock, people had resorted to using a 19km goat path that was so mucky with sludge and horse dung that it was just not worth taking it. It was supposed to go through all sorts of forest lands and across complete mountains. It looked very precarious to say the least. Still, some people braved(more like foolhardy) it all to reach Yamunotri.

As we were walking route no. 2, there was a huge congregation ahead and we could see people being stopped as bulldozers were busy cleaning up the roadblock. Right in front of our eyes, as some of the slide was cleared, more land slid to take its place. Really freaky to watch! Given a choice I would rather not see nature's fury at any degree! So we returned back to Hanuman Chatti and Yamunotri remains the one unfinished chapter in our journey. It is believed that a hiccough is supposed to imply that someone was thiking of you. I believe that, in a highly childish manner, this was just God remembering us on our trip to visit Him. Funny analogy ain't it?

Well it's off to Gangotri now. Sigining off...........

Blogging etc.

I hope everyone's enjoying their holidays.....

I don't know why in heaven's name I even started blogging, may be because soooo many of my friends like to blog and are pretty good writers (like me :), I just hope I'm not being deluding on this count ). Its kind of a funny idea. Like an online diary open to everyone but only some select people reading it because they know about it or come across it accidentally. Really wierd...private thoughts thrown out to the world in the annonimity of the World Wide Web sometimes hoping that you are unknown to the reader. This is I believe one of the very few things I did because almost everyone I was talking to has started it too. The first being dancing in the Navratri festival in school in the pouring rains of Mumbai!!!! Phew! that kicked up the mother of all rows back home. Thankfully, this 'seems' to have been tame enough to be accepted-as of yet.

Coming back to blogging....another thing is that you can write anything and I mean anything on it and get away with it. Maybe even describe your first (or next if you are a pro) murder and I think no one can stop you. Except maybe trace it back to you
but tracks can still be covered to make you untraceable. Imagine the comments might actually be improvements to the plan the writer never really thought of while planning written by innocent people just suggesting for the fun of it!! The writer would definitely be thanking the guy who invented blogging for his/her perfect crime. scary huh?

Just think what would have happened if Anne Frank's diary was actually a blog and not a diary!!!!! who do u think would have got to her first?? The gestapo or would Germany have been defeated or ostracized by then? would her blogging given enough reason for the war to have ended earlier with a greater offensive from the allied forces?

These days its the perfect propaganda tool for all those celebrities and actors to promote their movies not to mention their feuds! The only thing left is now blog wars that will be at least as bad as cat fights. But it does get them closer to the fans as fame and limelight grows more and more invading and demanding by the hour.

well enough with all the rambling....
I finally got a topic for my project with this company called Abstract Algos. I'm doing it on audio watermarking. Its an interesting topic and I'm learning about it now. If any of you reading this know about it please let me know. I would appreciate
it! Cant wait to start my trip to the char dham(i.e. Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath). Supposedly 14km treks are coming my way!! wow thats going to be fun except for the rains maybe and I really hope landslides don't become part of the itinerary! The guests keep on coming.... kind of like waves on the sea. My childhood friends came for a night over and ended up staying two days straight!! It was tons of fun and movies!! Must have seen about 10 movies in those three days....
The highlight so far has been that I finally managed to get straight A grades this semester in all the subjects yaaaaay!!!!!!!! And I went shopping for some new clothes and its only the first installment of shopping.
Well i better get back to my project(also i cant think of anything else to write) so signing off.......