If you are in Leh, Ladakh you must visit Pangong Lake. So we did. Yes, we’ve done almost 11 hours of up and down journey with breathtaking roads, World's popular Pangong Tso, its ancient water body and stars gazing night sky, those still gives me goosebumps.
We started at 8 am from Leh and reached to Pangong Lake at 5:30 pm. It took more than 5 hours as we stopped for breakfast and lunch at some places. Also we stopped many places to take photographs of some of the stunning roads and beautiful landscapes. The road way to Pangong Lake is another beautiful road after the Manali – Leh and Leh – Srinagar highway. You can find some of the pictures of Manali – Leh highway pictures from my last post on Tripoto
See Here: My Journey To Leh: A Timelapse of Incredible Ladakh With 5000 Images
You need to cross Chang La (5320m), world's 3rd highest motorabe road. This is one of the popular after the 10 breathtaking cross-overs in Manali – Leh highway.
We saw a bike rally with more than 20 bikers from different countries like Australia, Singapore, USA, Canada and many more.
I had a talk with one of them, his name is Andrew, this 65 years old Australian riding his Royal Enfield from Leh to Pangong. I asked him "How was your journey?" and he told me "You have a wonderful country and Ladakh is awesome". I felt very proud at that time.
Well after reaching to Pangong Lake we went to 3-Idiots point. The blue clear water of the lake will mesmerize you all the time and bound you to think about this extraordinary creation of mighty nature.
One most interesting information we got from our driver that, this place was almost unknown to Indian travelers before the 3 Idiots movie. Before that movie this place was only explored by few foreign trekkers. Isn’t it strange!? I don’t know how authentic is this information but I was surprised to know that how we (Indian) didn’t find this amazing place before?
We stayed there in a camp. The camp has more than 10 tents and those has attached bath. The camp stay has dining hall also, Tibetan, Chinese, Continental foods are available there.
Got stunning view of milky way and some of star falls at the night from lake side. The camp night goes off everyday at 11 pm, so you can get pitch dark situation which is perfect for night sky photography at Pangong Lake and time lapse photography as I have taken and created this time-lapse video which is called Time-lapse of incredible Ladakh.
Next day morning while coming back we went again near to the lake water and found a beautiful Lagoon with green water just beside the blue Pangong Lake.
It was an amazing experience at heavenly Pangong Lake. Everyone should visit this place at least once in a lifetime. But believe me once you visit this place you want to go there again and again.
We came back to our Leh hotel at 4 pm with lots of memories. It was a hectic return journey and we were little bit tired but our mind was still at the heavenly Pangong Lake.
How to reach Pangong Lake?
Take a car from Leh and it takes almost 5 hours to reach there. My suggestion is not go there only for one day plan as it is a very hectic one and you will not able to enjoy the nature at its best. Keep at least 1 day in your hand, stay one night in a camp there and experience the lake, sky and environment fullest.
There are many trekking path to reach Pangong Lake also.
One trekking route starts from Igu village and ends to Tangtse crossing the pass called Igu La (5020m). Experience the great view of Pacheshpa peak (5960m) from there. Another trek route is Funa village to Mukleb and for this way you need to cross the pass called Shera La. See the view of Kopni peak (5705m) from Shera village.
When to go Pangong Lake?
The perfect time to go Pangong is May to October. If you are lucky you can find almost ice freezing Pangong Lake in the month of October.
Where to stay in Pangong Lake area?
Many travelers visit Pangong and come back on same day. They start early morning, reach there after a long journey, stay for 3 - 4 hours and come back in Leh in night. But this is very hectic schedule. If you really want to enjoy the beauty of Pangong, want to see the Sunrise, want to experience the night sky then you need to stay there alteast 1 day. You can get many Camp stay facilities there. Book one of those from Leh where you can find many travel agent for camp booking. The tents on those camps are very well organized, with attached bath and dining hall as I said it before.
Originally Posted on Top Five Buzz
