Pangong Tso

And here they fell,

The bravehearts in blue

Fighting a battle already lost

Their blood smeared across its icy cold shores

But today nobody cared

For all we knew

Was the reel shot at the Pangong Tso

        The road to Pangong Tso is rather precarious, yet interspersed with some amazing views on the way like the one above. Everywhere you see in the region of Ladakh, the mountains are bare, smooth, multicoloured and unfortunately, pretty fragile. One heavy shower, and the sand and gravel that the mountains are made of might just come tumbling down. They may remind you of the sand mountains made at the beach, flat, once the waves come and go! And that's a pretty scary feeling. 

Zzzzzzz....Naa....the first rule of travelling in Ladakh is never to sleep when climbing up or down a mountain, nor when you are in any of the half a dozen highest passes of the world. That basically consists a majority of your journey. So the thumb rule here is, Wake Up Sleepyhead! You are here to see the sights as you have never seen before! Photographs can hardly capture what the human eyes can see.

Our first photo break was a Zingral. Notice how the name has been painted on the mountain at the back - that's how they do it in J&K, that's their style! This is basically before you start climbing the 2nd highest Motorable Road of the world - Chang La. It is impossible and not even advisable to step out of the warm comforts of your car more than 5 minutes or so.

Welcome to Chang La. The cafeteria is pretty changla, if you know what I mean. The hot maggi and the steaming hot chai and coffee is very very changla as well! Ok enough with the changla pun, but it was changla indeed! Ok, enough already! Hey, don't stop reading! I wont do that again ok? Promise!

Although we were supposed to spend only 20 minutes here, we ended up spending about 4 long hours! The reason being a massive avalanche ahead that was being cleared by the BRO (Border Roads Organisation). So we ended up meeting and interacting with a few soldiers on duty. Though I cannot reveal their identities or roles for security reasons, speaking to a Maharashtrian soldier, in Marathi, thousands of kilometres away from home, is definitely an experience to cherish! We felt so proud of these Bravehearts who are there, protecting us, in those uninhabitable conditions!