The journey
Ladakh apart from being a tourist land exudes an essence of quaintness in its desolated hamlets. Reaching a height of about 30,000 ft above the sea-level from Leh lies world’s highest located lakes such as the famous Pangong-Tso and Tso-Morari lakes. Although nearly 70% of its water body lies in China whatever remaining portion enters geographically in Indian Territory is a place to cherish and preserve environmentally. After a three day sojourn in Leh and seeing around I planned my first visit to the Pangong-Tso which is around 180kms from this main junction. Go anywhere in Ladakh your beginning point would always remain Leh for the very reason that its suits your comfort in every possible way. The mountains of different colours and patterns remained our quiet hosts throughout as we drove past them. So did the rivers and rivulets of Sutlej and Zanskar popping up every now and then and played hide and seek with us. Pristine aqua blue free flowing rivers spoke of the joy of freedom in wilderness. The Druk thorn shrubs were seen growing abundantly along the rivulets with a harmony. The calm rustlings of these rivers is the one music that we can hear amidst the backdrop of serenity and silence of the rocky companions apart from the ladakhi religious drums seen rotating at every spot of civilization. Albeit the barren sandy and quiet look of Ladakhi Mountains their vivid colours allured my heart. I couldn’t stop glaring at each one with admiration and a grappling smile on my lips. Granite green, pinkish red, chrome yellow, and some snow covered mountains stood sturdy as if their entourage was silently welcoming its strange visitors wanting to capture them inside their small digital frames of cameras. They seemed to look at us with a gesture of antiquity and past historical bonding. As we kept driving ahead we sojourned for a while at one route which was the domain of snow clad mountains and plains. It was the pass of ‘Chang-La’ which comes at a height of around 30,000 ft above the main sea level. Snow drifts itself to encapsulate this area clearly differentiating itself from its other colourful competitors. A small but attractive souvenir shop owned by the army eluded me to take a look at what was exhibited inside it. Gift articles such as T-shirts with an embroidered picture of the wonderful Pangong-Tso, coffee brown and beige coloured Yaks adorned with artistic tapestry look, mugs and glasses with the same theme and other artefacts too were displayed at very reasonable rates. It was my salute to the warriors of the Indian army for maintaining this pursuit at such an altitude where one can just about freeze in no time with the temperatures going below zero degrees even in the month of October. Our ten minute break of a cuppa tea added some zest to our mountain journey as we proceeded ahead.
Sometimes the journey that we are on while travelling makes us forget our destination. No matter where we reach but the exhilaration and true contentment lies surely in how and where we take up our path. Although the point where we were to hit was expectedly far more attractive than we could imagine but I wasn’t actually thinking of the destination here as the scenes that I drove past were an exciting and rejuvenating experience in itself. And I sought as much pleasure as possible capturing each and every sight tagging it firmly to the core of my soul....!
