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Rangdum - Pensi La - Abran - Phey - Padum
Day 4 - Rangdum to Padum - 103kms - 5hrs approx
After a long relaxing sleep, we woke up at 6am, had maggi and tea for breakfast and were ready to hit the roads once again. As we bid adieus to these exceptionally hospitable people with a promise to meet them on our way back, Sonam the oldest of the lot, came forward and said “Hoshiyaari se jana” (be safe on the road). As we approached the village, about 1 km from the eateries, we saw the first sign of Buddhism since Kargil, the White Chortens. While the prosperous, lush green Suru Valley has predominantly Muslim population, the stark conditioned Zanskar has Buddhists. Rangdum, a highland elliptical expanded plateau a midst them, stands like a confluence of cultures. As we left Rangdum behind, the roads ahead were ruled by gravels, stones, water crossings even rocks and boulders. Riding along the vast river bed towards Pensi La, we crossed the beautiful Rangdum Monastery atop a hillock.
View from the front porch of J&K Tourism Rest House
Rest House & eateries at Rangdum
The first sign of Buddhism since Kargil, A White Corten
Vast wetland
Zoom-in & you can see cattle grazing
Looking back at the Rangdum Village from a distance
Road leading to Pensi La
Randgum Monastery from a distance
Rangdum Monastery - up & close
Vast River Bed before Pensi La
Uzma posing with the Car couple
After about 25 more kms we were at Penzi La 14000 ft (4267 m), Gateway to Zanskar. There are 2 magnificent lakes Statso and Langtso at the top. We spent about an hour at the top enjoying the scenery around the lake and clicking photographs.
Resting at Pensi La
Pensi La is the Gateway to Zanskar Valley
At Statso Lake
Rocky Balboa & SRK Pose
Resting at Statso Lake
There was more snow on the other side of Pensi La and the climb to the top was also steeper. Being up and close with the snow laden peaks made us take numerous photo breaks. And if this wasn’t enough, there was Darang Durung Glacier, which looks like a huge river of ice and snow by itself. We both stood there looking at the glacier, spell bound as I too have never seen such a marvel before. Though our eyes couldn’t get enough of it, but considering the rest of our run till Padum we half-heartedly moved ahead.
gang Atop Pensi La
The Pensi La Top
Congratulating each other to make it here
Board says it all
More Snow on the other side of Pensi La
up & close
For almost 35kms there was no habitation, the terrain looked strikingly similar to Batal – Chatru stretch in Spiti. It was in this particular stretch where we found some major mudslides. I was counting till the 7th, after which I gave up. While most of these were less than 100mts long, a few were much longer and wider. There were alternate routes carved out below on the river bed, but then getting down and coming back up from the river bed was quite a task. It was around 11am and no wonders we hadn’t seen any traffic since the morning. We finally met some shepherds who told us that there are a couple of more slides but not as dangerous as the previous ones. Those words were very comforting, for at least there was a hope to make it to Padum. Now if only we could get some tea and just anything edible along. Shepherds told us that there was a tea shop next to a J&K police check post at the next village Abran. We reached Abran, registered the details of the bike and the riders and reached out to the tea shop, only to find it closed. The policeman later told us that the shopkeeper had went back to Padum, because mudslides had disrupted the to and fro traffic and there were hardly any sales.
View of Zanksar Valley from Pensi La Top
Abran Village
A White Chorten near Abran Village
We continued riding into the valley with a hope that there will be a village or some habitation where we possibly could find tea and/or maggi. After Abran we crossed at least 10 small villages but none had any tea shops or options to eat. There were kids in these villages who were calling us “Hello Angrez” (Hello Foreigners), can’t blame them because there aren’t many Indian travelers in this region, well not as many as foreigners. While the roads were still just loose gravel and stones, the valley started to widen up. We were about to reach Padum, when we saw houses sparingly scattered in a flat elliptical land surrounded with mountains from almost all the sides. Suddenly tarmac re-appeared when milestone was showing 7 kms to Padum.
Our tea quest finally ended at Padum, where we reached at around 3pm. After satisfying our hunger we went for a stroll in the market and were surprised to see numerous internet cafes, hotels and ATMs. Considering that there is no petrol pump in or around Padum, there were a lot of vehicles, from small hatchbacks to pickup trucks. Town was full of foreigners, most of them interacting or enquiring about treks around. Padum is also the main administrative center of Zanskar Valley. While interacting with the locals we got to know that apart from the road to Leh via Chilling, there is another road that is under construction which will connect to Keylong, this one along with Rohtang tunnel will provide an all weather connectivity between Manali - Leh. We checked in at a hotel and spent a peaceful evening roaming around in the town. We saw couple of Gompas and a Mosque and got to know that majority of the population is Buddhist and about 30% is Muslim. It was a pleasant surprise to be at Padum, considering that a day before we almost lost the hope of making it till here.
At Padum
Feeling Blessed !!
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Day 4 - Rangdum to Padum - 103kms - 5hrs approx
After a long relaxing sleep, we woke up at 6am, had maggi and tea for breakfast and were ready to hit the roads once again. As we bid adieus to these exceptionally hospitable people with a promise to meet them on our way back, Sonam the oldest of the lot, came forward and said “Hoshiyaari se jana” (be safe on the road). As we approached the village, about 1 km from the eateries, we saw the first sign of Buddhism since Kargil, the White Chortens. While the prosperous, lush green Suru Valley has predominantly Muslim population, the stark conditioned Zanskar has Buddhists. Rangdum, a highland elliptical expanded plateau a midst them, stands like a confluence of cultures. As we left Rangdum behind, the roads ahead were ruled by gravels, stones, water crossings even rocks and boulders. Riding along the vast river bed towards Pensi La, we crossed the beautiful Rangdum Monastery atop a hillock.
View from the front porch of J&K Tourism Rest House
Rest House & eateries at Rangdum
The first sign of Buddhism since Kargil, A White Corten
Vast wetland
Zoom-in & you can see cattle grazing
Looking back at the Rangdum Village from a distance
Road leading to Pensi La
Randgum Monastery from a distance
Rangdum Monastery - up & close
Vast River Bed before Pensi La
Uzma posing with the Car couple
After about 25 more kms we were at Penzi La 14000 ft (4267 m), Gateway to Zanskar. There are 2 magnificent lakes Statso and Langtso at the top. We spent about an hour at the top enjoying the scenery around the lake and clicking photographs.
Resting at Pensi La
Pensi La is the Gateway to Zanskar Valley
At Statso Lake
Rocky Balboa & SRK Pose
Resting at Statso Lake
There was more snow on the other side of Pensi La and the climb to the top was also steeper. Being up and close with the snow laden peaks made us take numerous photo breaks. And if this wasn’t enough, there was Darang Durung Glacier, which looks like a huge river of ice and snow by itself. We both stood there looking at the glacier, spell bound as I too have never seen such a marvel before. Though our eyes couldn’t get enough of it, but considering the rest of our run till Padum we half-heartedly moved ahead.
gang Atop Pensi La
The Pensi La Top
Congratulating each other to make it here
Board says it all
More Snow on the other side of Pensi La
up & close
For almost 35kms there was no habitation, the terrain looked strikingly similar to Batal – Chatru stretch in Spiti. It was in this particular stretch where we found some major mudslides. I was counting till the 7th, after which I gave up. While most of these were less than 100mts long, a few were much longer and wider. There were alternate routes carved out below on the river bed, but then getting down and coming back up from the river bed was quite a task. It was around 11am and no wonders we hadn’t seen any traffic since the morning. We finally met some shepherds who told us that there are a couple of more slides but not as dangerous as the previous ones. Those words were very comforting, for at least there was a hope to make it to Padum. Now if only we could get some tea and just anything edible along. Shepherds told us that there was a tea shop next to a J&K police check post at the next village Abran. We reached Abran, registered the details of the bike and the riders and reached out to the tea shop, only to find it closed. The policeman later told us that the shopkeeper had went back to Padum, because mudslides had disrupted the to and fro traffic and there were hardly any sales.
View of Zanksar Valley from Pensi La Top
Abran Village
A White Chorten near Abran Village
We continued riding into the valley with a hope that there will be a village or some habitation where we possibly could find tea and/or maggi. After Abran we crossed at least 10 small villages but none had any tea shops or options to eat. There were kids in these villages who were calling us “Hello Angrez” (Hello Foreigners), can’t blame them because there aren’t many Indian travelers in this region, well not as many as foreigners. While the roads were still just loose gravel and stones, the valley started to widen up. We were about to reach Padum, when we saw houses sparingly scattered in a flat elliptical land surrounded with mountains from almost all the sides. Suddenly tarmac re-appeared when milestone was showing 7 kms to Padum.
Our tea quest finally ended at Padum, where we reached at around 3pm. After satisfying our hunger we went for a stroll in the market and were surprised to see numerous internet cafes, hotels and ATMs. Considering that there is no petrol pump in or around Padum, there were a lot of vehicles, from small hatchbacks to pickup trucks. Town was full of foreigners, most of them interacting or enquiring about treks around. Padum is also the main administrative center of Zanskar Valley. While interacting with the locals we got to know that apart from the road to Leh via Chilling, there is another road that is under construction which will connect to Keylong, this one along with Rohtang tunnel will provide an all weather connectivity between Manali - Leh. We checked in at a hotel and spent a peaceful evening roaming around in the town. We saw couple of Gompas and a Mosque and got to know that majority of the population is Buddhist and about 30% is Muslim. It was a pleasant surprise to be at Padum, considering that a day before we almost lost the hope of making it till here.
At Padum
Feeling Blessed !!
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