Saboo to Durbuk via Chang La – June 18

[Himyatra – 2018 This is part IV of the series. You can read the first part here.]

This was my birthday. I tuned 58. It’s only the second birthday I remember being away from the family. The first time was in 1983, when I was sent to Germany by my company for some training. I was in Munich at that time and spent it alone in the Munich Olympic Village.

We woke up early. Had a hot water bath. Once in the mountains, you start savoring every hot water bath, because you don’t know when the next one will be possible. We had an early breakfast of omelette and bread. We were planning to start around 8.15 am. Today’s plan was a bit hazy. We had started towards Pangong Lake, but we were not sure whether we would reach there.

Finished packing Girija for the day. All of us in front of Girija with Padma Tashi, Manager of the Kartok hotel and his son.

[You can click on most photos to see a larger image]

The morning was very crisp and sunny. Ajit and I participated in the ritual of packing Girija. The hauda at the back contained everything that we could need. Provisions, utensils, tents, diesel, sleeping bags, even a toilet chair! We were only going to carry a small rucksack and water bottle in the cabin. Our personal luggage was also in the back. Packing done, we soon were zipping along the Leh Manali Highway. In this part of the journey, the road surface was fantastic and comparable to the best roads anywhere in the world.

Leh Manali Highway. The trees on the right is where the Sindhu is.

The road runs parallel to Indus, and you can see the river on your right. The presence of the river is unmistakable as otherwise barren land becomes green near the river.

We soon crossed the Shay palace and the Thikse Monastery was on our left. Gompa is the Ladakhi word for a Monastery. I will use them interchangeably through my writing. Origin of the word Gompa is gumpha, a cave.

Ticksey Monastery

Thiksey is probably the most photographed place in Ladakh, and has almost become the symbol of Ladakh. Last time Ajit and I were here with  family, we had gone all the way up. We still remember a sweet child we had met here, who made friends with Geeta.

This is from our last visit to Ladakh in 2006. The kid became so friendly with Geeta, he didn’t want to go back to his mom.

Inside the monastery, there is a 49 feet tall statue of Maitreyee buddha.

Maitreyee Buddha from Thiksey Gompa

No Photographer can avoid taking a photo of himself/his group in front of Thikse. So here is the mandatory photo.

Girija, Amit, Balya and Ajit in front of Thiksey

And like all Gompas, there is the row of chortens, small stupas, in front of Thiksey Gompa too.

Row of chortens in front of the Thiksey Monastery

We went a little further, and on our right, we could see the Matho Gompa

Matho Gompa. It seems to be a very big gompa.

And then the Hemis Monastery in the distance

Hemis gompa. It is the small white structure on the ridge,

We had visited Hemis during our last visit, but this time, we just bid it goodbye from a distance. At Karu we had to take a left turn to go towards Pangong Lake. Karu was where our permits were checked for the first time. After that we entered the Shakti valley.

A little distance into the Shakti valley, and you are greeted by a large Monastery hugging the hill side. This is the Chemrey monastery.

These Ladakhi Monasteries have always intrigued me. They are in such remote locations (even by ladakhi standards) and so stark! IMHO,  if a normal human being was to land at such a place, he will become a monk automatically.

At the base of the Shakti Valley. The climb to Chang La is about to begin. You can see Chemery at the distance. The snow clad mountains are on the other bank of the Sindhu

The shakti valley is another very green oasis. The road to Chang La climbs steeply on the right flank of the valley.

At Zingral, the road switches back, making a sharp hair pin and then starts climbing again. We reached here around 11 AM and encountered a big convoy of army truck coming down.

Zingral. You can see the hairpin bend. The row of black ants is actually the army convoy.

And soon, at 11.45, we were at Chang La, the 2^nd highest motorable pass in the world.

Three idiots at Chang La

Wind was blowing, and it was pretty cold. There were a lot of people at the pass. We had a refreshing cup of tea with hot samosas and proceeded further.

As we were coming down, we spotted a mormot. Mormots are high altitude rodents. Earlier, I had seen one at Khardung La in 2006, and then near the holy Amarnath cave in 2011.

A mormot. We spotted it as we were coming down from Chang La

We were now headed towards Durbuk. Through some contacts, Balya knew the commanding officer of one of the army units in Durbuk. We were hoping to visit the camp and meet with our brave soldiers there. A little ahead of Chang La, we we came across a dried-up lake with some snow / ice and people were skating on the snow there.

Dried up frozen lake

Still little further, we came across Tsoltak, a small lake with a restaurant on the shore, and a facility to take boat rides in pedal boats.

Tsoltak.

We stopped there and had tea. They were also serving hot Maggi noodles, but we declined the offer. The humble Maggi has become a standard fare across the Himalayas. They are available in any dhaba, big or small, anywhere in the region.

We left Tsoltak around 1 PM and soon were above the army camps. We had to descend about 1500 feet to get down to Durbuk. It took us some time reach out to the CO Balya knew and locate their camp. At around 2.30 PM, we were ushered into their officers’ mess. And we experienced the great hospitality of our forces.

We were welcomed with chilled beer. Everyone around wanted to know about Himyatra 2018. Balya was an instant hit. And so was Girija. They had a lot of questions about the car, and many of them wanted test rides. We told them that we were looking for the Allen Keys, and they promised that they would take care of that.  We were then invited for a late lunch and then escorted to the guest house for some rest. We were invited back at 6.30 in the evening, so they would take care of the Allen key business, and we would get a chance to interact with the boys.

We went back at 6.30 and we got a chance to interact with some of our  brave soldiers. There were many soldiers from Maharashtra, and they were very happy to interact with us and talk to us in Marathi. They told us about their work, their working conditions and the hardships that they need to bear. The temperatures at this camp go down to – 20 degrees centigrade during winter, and still they need to be at their posts, exposed to the elements. But they were a very joyous and committed lot. No complaining, but just accepting their situation. Hats off to them. We are very thankful to them. It’s because they face these adversities, and are there to protect us, that we can sleep peacefully at our homes. While we were chatting, the Allen Keys were procured and the rattling noise issue was resolved.

We went back to our guest house and were served a simple dinner of dal, rice, roti and subzi. They had also made Halva as a sweet dish as it was my birthday. It was very tasty. We liked it so much that we packed the left-over Halva to carry with us. All in all, I had a fantastic  birthday.

[No photos in the last part of the article as photography was not allowed in and around army camps. I will make up for this with lots of photos in tomorrow’s post]