Day 8 and 9. Mesmerized and Floored by God's Artistry....A truly unforgettable experience!

TOYOTA Leh Jayenge
Day 8 and 9. The Rest of it.
A Truly Unforgettable Experience
22nd and 23rd May 2010, Saturday and Sunday.
Place : Pangong and Leh

Sorry for the gap in the post but had been totally disconnected at Pangong and have been on the move since, with timings that were crazy and locations that did not allow me to use the Internet.

Nonetheless, to continue from where I left off.

After the forced refuge from the sudden change in weather, while we were soaking in the Pangong views, we settled down with some amazing tea and pakoras. The Dining hall in the tent was cozy and the weather improved with the winds receding. The temperature however was close to 3 degrees Celcius and the wind chill made it feel like -2 degrees C.

We somehow made it to our tents to freshen up and settle down. There was no water at that time and what had been provided in buckets was bone chilling. Having said that, the spirits were high and with spouses and friends who had flown all the way from Lucknow to cheer our adventurous effort, had us in good spirits.

We headed back to the Dining tent and cozied up to enjoy some drinks and snacks. Dinner was about to be served, and we decided to start a game of Antakshar. The Leh Jayenge team with the rest. It was us five ( including Jayant, from Lucknow) against the 7 ladies. For some strange reason, N.K chose to be a fence sitter and was neither here nor there! While he took his time to figure things out, we began and were shooting songs in response, quite easily. V.S and J.K being our star singers. When things had started to warm up, some more residents of the camp walked in to join us. They were from Delhi, Gujrat and Maharashtra and we all introduced ourselves. The ladies ( about 6 of them) outnumbered us as only two men from their group came over to our side. The three Gujrati girls however were just too good and we were playing catch up now. What followed was a medley with quips and remarks that had us all in splits. We finally gave up as the ladies deserved to win and dinner was announced. It was fun while it lasted.

The dinner was simple but very camp like and we were hungry. After dinner again, since it was too cold to do anything, we just continued with some request numbers for the start singers to sing and they did so with élan. It was getting late so we bade good night to each other and with most of us not having the courage to change or get out of whatever warm stuff we were wearing, slept as we were as the cold breeze rattled our tents and the wind whistled in through the crevices and slits in the tent. It was an enjoyable though not very comfortable experience, but we slept the night away.

Dawn in these parts is early and at 5.30, heads peered out of some tents to see the magical sunrise followed by the changing colors of the lake as the suns rays danced on the terrain and the lake. Those who captured all this on camera as we did, cannot possibly capture the emotions generated by God’s canvas of creation that we all experienced. It was truly breathtaking and an experience none of us will ever forget.

The weather was perfect and the sun shone bright. We had planned to leave by 9 am after breakfast and tea and we did, since bathing in these conditions was out. We took some packed lunch boxes and all other residents also ready to say good bye to this glorious destination.

The convoy, lead by the Fortuner left and were again witness to the awesome terrain which we traversed back. Less than a couple hours later we were stopped by the TCP at Tangsey, having been told that Changla Pass which we had to negotiate and had done yesterday, was blocked due to heavy snow which had fallen early morning. The pass was a few kilometers from Tangsey so we anxiously waited, with many others. The weather was turning bad abut soon the sun was up again bringing some relief.

Two hours later they let us go and sure enough, in a few minutes the Fortuner had successfully crossed the snow bound patch. The other vehicles following us including the ones with our spouses and friends, stalled as one of them had started to slip in the fresh and soft snow. However with the help of some other taxi drivers who were stuck behind us, we heaved and pushed the vehicle out and were soon at Changla Pass again. Thereafter the path was snow free so we moved on. Late in the evening we were back at the comfortable Grand Dragon Hotel and after a long shower, assembled in the lounge common to our floor, to share the day’s experiences. N.K as usual was being naughty and turned up with a part of a trouser leg missing! After the laugh riot and some drinks and snacks, we headed for the dining room to have the buffet dinner laid out for us. Food was average and we were all tired and hungry. The next morning we all had to leave. Our spouses for Delhi by air and we on our Fortuner, The Manali route being closed ( which was a terrible blow and disappointing), we decided to take a route via Kargil, Drass, Srinagar, Pathankot, Chandigarh, Hodal and back, in 5 days. We said our good byes and were on our way, having tanked up. We had to reach Kargil by sun down as we intended to take an alternate route from the one taken on our way up.

It was a nice bright sunny day and as we checked the average Diesel consumption of our vehicle it turned out that we were maintaining an average of between 8 and 9 km/liter. This was contrary to advice from leh veterans who claimed that the rarified air increases consumption of Diesel substantially. Maybe our car got gradually acclimatized too…………just as we did!!!!!!! We were just hoping that the roads have been cleared for traffic and we got the news from the local Taxi stands nearby, that the route had been open so we rushed on our way.

In the meanwhile with N.K’s spouse overly concerned over his well being for the rest of the trip, asked us to look after him, and V.S. volunteered. So while V.S took over chaperoning duties for N.K. and Shekhar for V.S, I was left holding the laptop so I could write all about this. More later as we progress.

Till then, bear with me as I have some interesting side shows to talk about. Day 10 had begun.