Hey guys, welcome back. This post is all about our journey from Pangong Lake to Hanle. All these days we had been dreaming of Hanle and the day had finally arrived. A few of us woke up really early to watch the sunrise. I woke up with my head feeling really heavy due to the higher altitude(4,350 m) as I did not wanna miss yet another beautiful sunset that Ladakh had to offer. We sat outside enjoying the sunrise until the sun was completely up. I then went back to the tent, swallowed a headache tablet and crashed again while the rest started getting ready.
PANGONG LAKE FOR ONE LAST TIME:
After an hour and a half, I woke up feeling better to kick-start the day. We all had breakfast at the camp and bid goodbye to the lovely camp staff. Before heading to Hanle, we drove to the lakeshore again to take a final glance of the majestic blue beauty. We spent almost an hour roaming and clicking pictures around the Lake. There were horses, yaks and a few picture spots with props to re-create scenes from the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots for Rs. 30 – 50. We did that too for the fun of it… 😛
We then bid goodbye to Pangong lake and left to Hanle. Just when we thought that the Pangong lake was done, the lake appeared again and kept surprising us all along the way with its alluring beauty. We drove for several kilometers and it was just never-ending. The lake runs a total length of 134 kilometers extending from India to China. Approximately, 60% of the lake is in China and 40% in India and it is about 5 kilometers wide at its broadest point. I had never even imagined I would witness something so beautiful in the course of this trip. Trust me; it is the dreamiest part of the Pangong Lake that one must experience.
I feel, the majority of the tourists that come here only see the part where it’s extremely crowded and commercialized. Only a very few drive further to Hanle where they witness the unbelievable untouched beautiful part of the lake. To be honest, I feel we were a few of those fortunate ones to have seen that part of Pangong Lake.
Road to Hanle:
As we drove towards Hanle, out of the several hundred vehicles that came to Pangong lake, ours was the only vehicle that was driving in that terrain and it really gave us out of the world feel for being the only one for the entire stretch. We definitely could not stop ourselves from making several pit stops to soak in all the magic that the lake was casting on us. We also spotted a few yellow ducks swimming in the lake as we moved further. Have a look at these beautiful landscapes we witnessed enroute Hanle.
LAST RESTAURANT AND Rezang La War Memorial:
Like every beginning has an end and every end has a new beginning, there was finally no more sight of the Pangong Lake as we took a divergent to Hanle. But that did not disappoint us as the route and view were totally new and surprising yet again. It was already lunchtime. On the way, we saw this tiny hut named “LAST RESTAURANT”. Yes, that was the name of the restaurant. All we did was laugh at the name and move ahead thinking this definitely is not the last restaurant.
Fast forward to an hour; We drove god knows for how many kilometers but there was literally no sign of life. En route, we stumbled upon this memorial called Rezang La War Memorial which was built in the memory of the martyrs of the Kumaon regiment. Hunger started to take over as we sat there in silence staring at the mighty mountains; we left the memorial hoping we get something to eat soon. We drove for several kilometers but no luck. Yes. We learned it the hard way. If you are traveling to Hanle from Pangong, make sure to load snacks, food and water from Pangong because trust me you get nothing on the way and the “Last Restaurant” is literally the last restaurant on that stretch and trust me you don’t wanna ignore that as we did! :/
Ray of hope in the middle of Nowhere:
To our bad luck and for underestimating the name “LAST RESTAURANT”, we had to starve until we finally found a small hut out of nowhere at around 4.30 PM. We all jumped out of the car with joy rushing towards the hut; Words can’t fathom how much that little warm hut with food meant to us at that moment. It started pouring with the howling wind the moment we got in. We sprawled on the diwans just like babies slurping hot soup accepting all the uncertainties and absolutely enjoying the vibe. We had our Maggie, omelet and we took a quick nap until the rain stopped and left the place.
En route, we also encountered a gushing stream crossing the road which made our drive difficult. We almost spent more than half an hour figuring out and it was quite an adventure to pass that little stretch of the road. Nevertheless, we absolutely enjoyed it.
HANLE:
The journey ahead was breathtakingly gorgeous with rainbows that surprised us every few miles. In no time we reached the Loma check post which is the entry to Hanle. The drive from there was incredible yet again. We reached our homestay late in the evening (Padma homestay) run by a lady Padma herself. Hanle sky was so welcoming and it felt like a home away from home. The place was so vibrant yet so peaceful and had my heart, totally!
Home away from Home
We all settled in our rooms and kept all our gadgets for charging the moment we got power. As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, everywhere here you only get power only from 7 PM – 10 PM. I know it’s hard but you got to live with that and imagine how difficult it is for the people living in these remote areas, right! The temperature in Hanle plummets to lesser than -30 degree Celsius in winters. We were all so keen to know the stories of the place, the people, the harsh climatic conditions and how they survive; Just generally everything.. We had chatty dinner with the locals which I absolutely loved. We ended our day with some playtime using board games and cards.
Before we passed out, we spent the night laying flat outside on a platform staring at the beautiful starry night sky in the chilly weather. It was so hard to digest the fact that we were already on the 6th day of our trip. We went back to sleep looking forward to a much-needed rest day. But do you think did we actually rest? Mmmm 😉 Wait for my next blog post to know how we spent the day in Hanle! I am sure you don’t wanna miss it. 🙂
Let me know if you enjoyed this blog post. Also, click below to read my previous blog posts from the Ladakh series if you haven’t yet,