23/06
We have booked a jeep with our Italian friends from the trek and our Swiss friend to go to Pangong Lake, a high altitude lake, actually the biggest saltwater lake in Asia. It is far away, 5-6 hours of jeep on crazy bumpy dirt road but the journey is amazing, taking us through picturesque villages. We all must have a permit as those zones are striclty restricted by the military and very few are open to foreigners... First check point: we realise our guide has made a mistake on our permits and forgot to add Gloria, instead he puts her partner's name Vincenzo twice...We spend half an hour trying to explain it to a very narrow minded military who doesn't speak English, he is not getting it!! He cannot see Gloria's passport number on the permit so we cannot pass and go through...We try anything, to explain to him slowly, to smile, Gloria even loses it, shouting a bit at him, we try to ask him to let us go, that we will hide Gloria under the seat for the next two check points: 4 passports, four permits and only 4 foreigners..the fifth one will be clandestine under the seat...he is not impressed!!! Finally after some phone calls, he decides to allow us to go but keeps our driver's driving licence until we come back tomorrow...then we have to hide Gloria under the seat at the next check points!! The joy of military in India!!! We keep going, laughing at this mad moment and the atmosphere is fun in the car even our driver has a laugh!!! We drive more and more, pass two check points, Gloria clandestine under the bags and coats until we reach the high mountain area...
Snow, glaciers, peaks, wild horses in cultivated valleys far away from us, stupas everywhere and down below, we finally reach the pass: Chang La (5360 metres), the pass over the Ladakh range of mountain and the third highest pass in the world! A strong military presence on the pass, we stop for some tea and pipi, I feel a bit dizzy and high, the altitude is getting to me...I somehow feel detached from the landscape, the people around...weird feeling, I go and wait in the jeep for my companions to come back, I try to communicate with our driver but his English consists of yes and no so it will be hard, still we will manage to exchange a bit during those two days. The views are breathtaking, a manificient panorama of snow cald peaks, rock mountains, arid sand dunes. I think of Ladakh as a name, it comes from La-Tags in Tibetan, the land of the La, the land of the high moutains passes...so true here, right now. We keep going more and more, the road is worse now, so bumpy, I am happy to sit at the front...what a variety of landscapes, arid and wild terrains then beautiful meadows then more often bare rolling hills and peaks. So amazing, we stop on the way to observe marmottes, to eat in the last village before the lake, a small village...noodle and soup for lunch before driving the last 35 kms which takes us 1 hour and a half!!! A crazy mountain road, slow serpent on the hills, we see sudden glimpses of ravines, far peaks of moutains, bare rocky surface with sheeps, we finally get a glimpse of the lake: unbelievable!
Pangoing has blue green purple water, the colours are really amazing, unbelievably clear water, surrounded by majestuous mountains all around and sand dunes. We stop at the beginning to taste the water, a bit saltish and cold and take many piccies...it is truly spectacular, the mountains are strong but the lake is sparkling, it is practically an inland sea, as it is 150kms long and 2 to 10 kms wide. Two third are in China (occupied Tibet) and so we are not permitted to go further than the small village of Spangmik, the furthest point to which foreigners are permitted...a bad war between China and India happened here in 1962 so the area is still restricted and very much under strict military surveillance because of its strategic importance. We drive again another 10 kms to the village and stop there, we will spend the night here, no guesthouse, but tents or homestays. After visiting few options, we choose to stay in a traditional family home, an elderly couple welcomes us and accepts to host the five of us tonight!! Padma and Tashi are typical Ladakhi farmers, tough, hard limbed, small, skin darkened by the harsh sun but with great toothless smiles!! They are both beautiful in their brown robes in front of their isolated farm, the highest in that small village, we agree with them then sit on the balcony and watch the landscape drinking chai: the power of the landscape, the lake so blue, dark moutains, we all smile and feel so happy here!!A paradise!!! The air at that height (4267 metres) is very thin and so full of light!! We go for walk around the lake, we pass the forbidden one kilometre zone allowed to the foreigners but there is no check point here, Fab and I keep walking, looking at this desert, the village disappears away from us, it seems so tiny, this arid land around, we have found out that there are two more villages and a town until the Tibet border around 100 kms from here...amazing to think people live here, there is nothing, just this impressive austere landscape...We walk back, observe th few villagers with their farm animals, pashmina sheeps and goats and few dzos, we go home and at 7.30 all meet in the living room with the family to haev some rice and dhal, we chat to the son, a very charming educated man, his English is almost perfect! He tells us about life here, during winter when temperatures are below - 35, -40 degrees!! How the lake is frozen, how people sometimes go to the border and celebrate parties with the Tibetan on the other side, how life is slow during winter times...The old dad keeps observing us, aliens on his mats, trying to communicate with no Ladakhi, still many smiles...such a different life far from our Western lifestyle...life of the village, of the fields, of the mountains. We go out to observe the sky, thousands of stars again, air so thin, the milky way then bed time....We light up a candle and make our bed on the traditional mats...a tranquil night for me, hidden under two heavy blankets (it will go down -7 this night!!), Fab is more restless....
24/06
We wake up at 5.30am to see the sunrise on the lake, it is hard to get up but we meet the man from the home, we have a little chat, observe the sun suddenly burning the lake and the barren peaks around, watch the ochres and red of the rocks. The little stream close to the house is still frozen, it feels misty and beautiful. We take few piccies, admire the view...and go back to bed as breakfast will be served at 7.30am!! I cannot get back to sleep and decide to get up at 6.30, go wash (cold stream water) and chat with Vincenzo, both watching the changing colours of the lake, until everyone else wake up. Ladakhi bread and mango jam for breakkie with chai, then we all go for a walk , walking far far from the restricted zone (no check point this year), admiring the lake, the deep blue-green colours, touching the cold water, watching few geeses, and enjoying the walk, the sand, the sun. After this long walk, time to say goodbye to our lovely family, old man and woman with wrinkled brown faces and take the jeep back as it will be a long journey. We leave around 11am and start the road, it is a brilliant cloudless morning. The last images of the lake are very strong, powerful barren moutains with many crevaces, blue deep water, the silence of snow, rock, water, silence sustained over millenia in that small village...The journey will be long, yes but again it is great, an education into wilderness: wild forms of mountains, snow, rocks, wild horses, small fertile valleys...We stop few times but we are all exhausted by the bumpy road!! After a long da drive, we are all happy to reach Leh, its familiar palace, the streets. It feels busier now, more and more tourists, many Indians are here, there are more noise, more jeeps around...We feel glad to reach our little home and see the family again, the joy of going back to our little room and chill out...watching the snow clad peaks from our little sofa, see the last sun catch the top of the moutains and the Shanti stupa! We go for dinner very close to our place, after watching many piccies from the trip...sadly it is coming to an end and we want to keep being relaxed, slow, laze and not become too anxious about Europe. Funny enough, what this trip has done for me, for us is to start us on a journey...We have a long way to travel...finding a new kind of strenght...
We have booked a jeep with our Italian friends from the trek and our Swiss friend to go to Pangong Lake, a high altitude lake, actually the biggest saltwater lake in Asia. It is far away, 5-6 hours of jeep on crazy bumpy dirt road but the journey is amazing, taking us through picturesque villages. We all must have a permit as those zones are striclty restricted by the military and very few are open to foreigners... First check point: we realise our guide has made a mistake on our permits and forgot to add Gloria, instead he puts her partner's name Vincenzo twice...We spend half an hour trying to explain it to a very narrow minded military who doesn't speak English, he is not getting it!! He cannot see Gloria's passport number on the permit so we cannot pass and go through...We try anything, to explain to him slowly, to smile, Gloria even loses it, shouting a bit at him, we try to ask him to let us go, that we will hide Gloria under the seat for the next two check points: 4 passports, four permits and only 4 foreigners..the fifth one will be clandestine under the seat...he is not impressed!!! Finally after some phone calls, he decides to allow us to go but keeps our driver's driving licence until we come back tomorrow...then we have to hide Gloria under the seat at the next check points!! The joy of military in India!!! We keep going, laughing at this mad moment and the atmosphere is fun in the car even our driver has a laugh!!! We drive more and more, pass two check points, Gloria clandestine under the bags and coats until we reach the high mountain area...
Snow, glaciers, peaks, wild horses in cultivated valleys far away from us, stupas everywhere and down below, we finally reach the pass: Chang La (5360 metres), the pass over the Ladakh range of mountain and the third highest pass in the world! A strong military presence on the pass, we stop for some tea and pipi, I feel a bit dizzy and high, the altitude is getting to me...I somehow feel detached from the landscape, the people around...weird feeling, I go and wait in the jeep for my companions to come back, I try to communicate with our driver but his English consists of yes and no so it will be hard, still we will manage to exchange a bit during those two days. The views are breathtaking, a manificient panorama of snow cald peaks, rock mountains, arid sand dunes. I think of Ladakh as a name, it comes from La-Tags in Tibetan, the land of the La, the land of the high moutains passes...so true here, right now. We keep going more and more, the road is worse now, so bumpy, I am happy to sit at the front...what a variety of landscapes, arid and wild terrains then beautiful meadows then more often bare rolling hills and peaks. So amazing, we stop on the way to observe marmottes, to eat in the last village before the lake, a small village...noodle and soup for lunch before driving the last 35 kms which takes us 1 hour and a half!!! A crazy mountain road, slow serpent on the hills, we see sudden glimpses of ravines, far peaks of moutains, bare rocky surface with sheeps, we finally get a glimpse of the lake: unbelievable!
Pangoing has blue green purple water, the colours are really amazing, unbelievably clear water, surrounded by majestuous mountains all around and sand dunes. We stop at the beginning to taste the water, a bit saltish and cold and take many piccies...it is truly spectacular, the mountains are strong but the lake is sparkling, it is practically an inland sea, as it is 150kms long and 2 to 10 kms wide. Two third are in China (occupied Tibet) and so we are not permitted to go further than the small village of Spangmik, the furthest point to which foreigners are permitted...a bad war between China and India happened here in 1962 so the area is still restricted and very much under strict military surveillance because of its strategic importance. We drive again another 10 kms to the village and stop there, we will spend the night here, no guesthouse, but tents or homestays. After visiting few options, we choose to stay in a traditional family home, an elderly couple welcomes us and accepts to host the five of us tonight!! Padma and Tashi are typical Ladakhi farmers, tough, hard limbed, small, skin darkened by the harsh sun but with great toothless smiles!! They are both beautiful in their brown robes in front of their isolated farm, the highest in that small village, we agree with them then sit on the balcony and watch the landscape drinking chai: the power of the landscape, the lake so blue, dark moutains, we all smile and feel so happy here!!A paradise!!! The air at that height (4267 metres) is very thin and so full of light!! We go for walk around the lake, we pass the forbidden one kilometre zone allowed to the foreigners but there is no check point here, Fab and I keep walking, looking at this desert, the village disappears away from us, it seems so tiny, this arid land around, we have found out that there are two more villages and a town until the Tibet border around 100 kms from here...amazing to think people live here, there is nothing, just this impressive austere landscape...We walk back, observe th few villagers with their farm animals, pashmina sheeps and goats and few dzos, we go home and at 7.30 all meet in the living room with the family to haev some rice and dhal, we chat to the son, a very charming educated man, his English is almost perfect! He tells us about life here, during winter when temperatures are below - 35, -40 degrees!! How the lake is frozen, how people sometimes go to the border and celebrate parties with the Tibetan on the other side, how life is slow during winter times...The old dad keeps observing us, aliens on his mats, trying to communicate with no Ladakhi, still many smiles...such a different life far from our Western lifestyle...life of the village, of the fields, of the mountains. We go out to observe the sky, thousands of stars again, air so thin, the milky way then bed time....We light up a candle and make our bed on the traditional mats...a tranquil night for me, hidden under two heavy blankets (it will go down -7 this night!!), Fab is more restless....
24/06
We wake up at 5.30am to see the sunrise on the lake, it is hard to get up but we meet the man from the home, we have a little chat, observe the sun suddenly burning the lake and the barren peaks around, watch the ochres and red of the rocks. The little stream close to the house is still frozen, it feels misty and beautiful. We take few piccies, admire the view...and go back to bed as breakfast will be served at 7.30am!! I cannot get back to sleep and decide to get up at 6.30, go wash (cold stream water) and chat with Vincenzo, both watching the changing colours of the lake, until everyone else wake up. Ladakhi bread and mango jam for breakkie with chai, then we all go for a walk , walking far far from the restricted zone (no check point this year), admiring the lake, the deep blue-green colours, touching the cold water, watching few geeses, and enjoying the walk, the sand, the sun. After this long walk, time to say goodbye to our lovely family, old man and woman with wrinkled brown faces and take the jeep back as it will be a long journey. We leave around 11am and start the road, it is a brilliant cloudless morning. The last images of the lake are very strong, powerful barren moutains with many crevaces, blue deep water, the silence of snow, rock, water, silence sustained over millenia in that small village...The journey will be long, yes but again it is great, an education into wilderness: wild forms of mountains, snow, rocks, wild horses, small fertile valleys...We stop few times but we are all exhausted by the bumpy road!! After a long da drive, we are all happy to reach Leh, its familiar palace, the streets. It feels busier now, more and more tourists, many Indians are here, there are more noise, more jeeps around...We feel glad to reach our little home and see the family again, the joy of going back to our little room and chill out...watching the snow clad peaks from our little sofa, see the last sun catch the top of the moutains and the Shanti stupa! We go for dinner very close to our place, after watching many piccies from the trip...sadly it is coming to an end and we want to keep being relaxed, slow, laze and not become too anxious about Europe. Funny enough, what this trip has done for me, for us is to start us on a journey...We have a long way to travel...finding a new kind of strenght...
2 comments:
Je continue à améliorer mon anglais grace à vous, même si je lis une page en 1 heure. Bises Maman MJ
une mise a jour s'impose!!!!
Sandra
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