The natural beauty of multicolored grey-brown mountains covered with snow all around city of Leh was a sight bound to bring solace to sore eyes. It was stark and simple in its beauty, endless rows of hills were capped by lush white snow, almost blinding when the slanting rays of early morning sun touched the peaks.

I took lustful breathes of the cold and invigorating mountain air, and every cell in my body seemed to be wide awake. A swift breeze was sweeping in and my jacket seemed to be no match for it, but for the moment, I was so absorbed by the sight of nature as created by GOD that I was strangely un-affected by the dis-comfort of the cold breeze.

In the morning, I prepared for the long SUV drive to the picturesque Pangong Tso or Pangong Lake. We headed out of Leh town and after visiting the richest Heimes Monastery, we began climbing a long and winding mountain road that hugged the sides of bare, stony mountains, in all shades of brown. The going was slightly terrifying as the gorge on the other side fell steadily to hundreds of feet, though my driver Mr. Dorji expertly steered the vehicle through the various twists and turns of the narrow, bumpy and steep road. The grey and brown mountains soon turned into white as we climbed higher and higher and reached ice-packed peaks, while the road was filled with puddles of melted snow.  As we climbed higher the picturesque beauty of mountains and the valley greatly increased. It started snowing, the white snow particles coming from above gives an impression of blessings from heaven and enhanced the beauty of the nature through the window panes of our Car. Three hours later, we reached Chang La (La is Ladakhi for pass), located 17,585 ft. above sea level and considered to be among the highest mountain passes in the world. The temperature dropped drastically and the layers of clothing barely managed to keep me warm. I was grateful for the tea and hot noodles provided at the world’s highest working cafeteria stationed at Chang La. The cold was sharp enough to reach my bones through the layers of clothes while the snow was blindingly white in the weak sun that peeked in and out from behind sweeping clouds. Utilizing the opportunity in the snow fall, we made a snow-man with black eyes and a red nose. We met adventurous Motor Bike Riders from far-off places like Tamilnadu and Kerala at Chang La Pass. These bikers put themselves to great risk and suffered all the pain to enjoy and feel the real magnificence of the mountains.

The intense cold drove me back inside the SUV Car and we were on the road again. After two more hours of driving through more mountain roads, valleys and occasional green patches with mountain goats, horses and yaks, I suddenly caught a glimpse of a sheet of water between gaps in the mountain as well as sand-dunes in the valley. We passed through the famous town of Durbuk which is fully manned by the Indian Army. It is the coldest habitable place in India having an average annual temperature of -7 Degree Centigrade.

A few more minutes and we arrived at the breathtakingly beautiful Pangong Tso. We realized that the physical dis-comfort of long and strenuous drive from Leh to Pangong was certainly well worth it, as we stood before the enormous blue beauty of the lake, magnificence of brown mountains and snow clad peaks around the lake. All the pictures of Pangong lake that I had earlier seen as well as all the descriptions that I had read; seemed to pale in comparison when I was actually in front of the lake. It was a stunning water body of absolutely pure water and I had never seen so many shades of blue and brown in a lake at a given time. It was surrounded by mountains, some of which had snow caps and were topped by intense white clouds under a deep blue sky.

Pangong Lake is located at an altitude of nearly 14,300 ft and stretches for about 135 km what was more interesting than statistics was the fact that more than 60 percent of the lake is inside Chinese territory and the place where we were standing was just 50 km away from the Chinese border. It gave me a tingling feeling and I placed myself at a boulder at the edge of the water to fully appreciate breath-taking  beauty of the place. At my feet, the water edge of the lake was almost transparent. The brackish water did not sustain any fish or aquatic animals. I gazed at the flocks of gull birds, which breed in the arctic. These gulls were flying away and then setting gracefully on the surface of the water. I do not know how long I sat there. I was trying to capture and burn everything into my memory.

As we were enjoying the ambiance of the sapphire blue lake, the clouds touched the blue water and it started snowing. This enhanced the feel of the atmosphere.  After the cover of clouds vanished, we were surprised to see the earth fully covered with white cotton-like snow. The gull-birds increased their activity after the snow-fall as they were happier with the drop in temperature.

The hot and tasty dinner at our beautiful camp was very well cooked and served out in the cozy chanise décor restaurant in the tent by a team of Nepali cooks and hospitable servers with smiling faces.  We luckily got the pacca structure rooms for our night stay at the Camp which provided us some comfort and courage to face the whole night in this chilly place of our country situated in the midest of mighty Himalayas.

I woke up at 5.30 a.m. in the morning to experience the wonderful sun-rise  at the lake. It was awe-inspiring as the sun-rays were dis-robbing the snow clad peaks and colouring them blue then move, pink, golden to ultimate white, all this happened within 7-8 minutes of sun-rise. The grey-brown mountains with their  meandering creeks and pure white snow enhanced their splendor. As the sun-light increased the changing colours of the lake water played its astounding role to amplify the stunning beauty of the surroundings. The scenic beauty of the lake and the mountains in the morning was quite different from the atmosphere in the previous evening.

After a good and satisfying stay at Pangong Lake and after having fully absorbed ‘its’ nature, I reluctantly turned away with a lot of memorable and breathtaking photographs and wonderful feelings of the nature. As the vehicle weaved in and out of the mountain range, I caught my final glimpses of the Pangong Lake before the towering ridges of the lofty Himalaya completely shut it out.

Feelings as a Traveler:

(Mukul Gupta)

R-13/24, Raj Nagar,

Op. ALT Centre,

Ghaziabad- 201002

Tele: 0120-2820380

Enclosed: Some Amazing Photographs of Pangong Lake