The evening was spent walking through the busy Leh market, with a variety of local handicrafts and clothes available as well as some great places to eat; the latter included the Gesmo restaurant that offers yak cheese pizzas (as against cow cheese pizzas that we normally eat) as well as other goodies, and we were frequent visitors here.
Khardung La dispensed with, we set off to another highlight destination — the Pangong Tso lake. As always, the roads were a mixed bag, though they got pretty bad as we approached Chang La, whose claims to fame include it being the third highest motorable road in the world (at a height of 17,586 feet). Among the cafés here is a quaint little one operated by the Indian Army, where you can pick up some souvenirs. As with other high passes, do not hang around for too long, as you are likely to feel breathless and uneasy fast.
Less than five kilometres from Pangong Tso, there is a little board announcing “first view of world famous Pangong Lake”, and through a gap in the mountains you can see this bright blue spot that makes you even more eager to get there. Pangong Tso for me is a living wallpaper/postcard — it looks as good in real life as in pictures. Absolutely breathtaking! It gets very cold there in the night, though, so we found ourselves some nice log cabins, where we spent two nights and explored the lake area during the day.
