Heaven Explored - My First Bike Expedition!

Part Three of Three

Waking up to a piping hot cup of tea, we discussed our next destination. Have you seen the climax of the movie 3 idiots?

Yes, you know what I am talking about---“The Pangong Tso"!

I'm sure you have heard many a travellers say, “Not every destination has the prettiest path”.

Reaching Pangong was tedious. To talk about the condition of the road, there was no exact road to begin with. It was all just small boulders, gravels, and water crossings. Proof ? 

When we reached Pangong (very close to China border), my eyes couldn't believe what it was seeing.. I had never seen anything so pure, clear, and blue in my whole life (not exaggerating). We rented tents right on the banks of the lake. There were hardly any people around, we wandered around the lake till we could see the shiny patch of the Milky way galaxy belt in the dark sky. Returning to our tent with the full moon lighting up the entire lake was surely a treat to the eyes. We tucked ourselves in the cozy layer of blankets and fell asleep as the temperature dropped to minus 3 degrees.

The next morning we clicked some pictures with the props left there from the movies 3 Idiots and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Bidding goodbye to this serene crystal lake, we drove continuously and then halted at Pang. Pang was completely an army base, and we couldn’t find a decent place to stay in that -3 degree weather. Consequently, we had to share a room, and while we sat covered in 8 layers of blanket, we talked about the adventurous journey that we had embarked on and realised that we were almost at the end of our trip.

We started our day and never thought we would encounter some really movie-like adventures.

THE WATER CROSSING!!

Water crossings are nothing but melting snow, gushing towards the valley and the force of the water increases through the day till the sun sets. One such deadly crossing was the “PagalNala” (Mad River). It took us 4 hours to cross this 500 meters stretch. We had to push our bikes to the other end in the freezing cold water and after 4 hours we were resting in the army camp with dripping shoes and pants.. ☹. Our feet were freezing and I couldn’t feel a thing until we rubbed on some mustard oil and had a cup of hot tea. A big shout out of gratitude  to all the army men who formed a human chain against the freezing water, to help us cross the river, and for providing us with medical aid and hot beverages.

From here, we had to resume our journey to our next rest place Jispa. The next morning began with us having one last breakfast with the mountain view. We rode through the curves of the beautiful and foggy Rohtang Pass to reach Manali. We were silent while we rode for the last hour to reach the warehouse in Manali to finally drop off our bikes for shipment.

After 13 days of riding on 2 wheelers, travelling through 4 states, and covering 2500 kilometres, we put a pause to the roller coaster ride and rested our bottoms in a car to reach Chandigarh.

Our lunch/dinner for most of the days

Back at Bangalore airport

Looking back, there were a few things that I had to compromise on, a few challenges we had to overcome. But every bit of the journey was worth it! This expedition has given me millions of memories to cherish for a long long time! 

#TrinkerTravel #Bikeexpedition #Biketrip #LehLadakh #HappyTravel #Travelblog #MountainBikeTravel #Duke #Leh #Ladakh