PANGONG LAKE – From Fear to Reaching New Heights

So, I thought of bringing you the story behind that beautiful memory of not just the achievement but also the fear and limiting beliefs I went through before reaching that moment of achievement and conquering new heights.

Just a series of thoughts that went through my mind during this Journey

Back in 2018, I had been to a trip to Kashmir and Ladakh with two of my university friends. This was a long-planned trip for years which eventually happened then. Unfortunately, another friend of mine could not join us due to health issues.

We were at the hotel in Leh, the Capital of Ladakh, and all geared up for our journey next day to the Pangong lake, one of the most sought after locations to visit in India.it Is situated at a very high altitude of approximately 4350mts.

Due to its high altitude, we were asked to purchase an Oxygen cylinder just in case we fall short of breath. Along with excitement, a fear was also building up in a corner, inside me. Nevertheless, we started. Luckily, we got a Jeep just for the three of us. Our driver was a guy in his mid-20’s, fashionably dressed, thin and average height. I got a glimpse of a photo of his wife/Girlfriend when he opened his wallet to pay for petrol. It seemed like he was recently married.

So, we started off with mixed feelings of fear and excitement with light romantic songs playing in the back ground and with limiting beliefs in my mind, if the guy was a good driver or not, would it be too high , can I make it? and on and on..

The road was disturbingly bumpy for quite a distance and the driver kept saying its almost over. Quite patient for his age, I thought. I think we covered almost one third of the distance and were on the winding narrow roads up hill. If there is an oncoming vehicle, they give a signal and wait at the nook chipped in from the mass of the mountains and every time this crossing happened I was holding my breath, trying to not to look out as our car would almost be on the edge while the oncoming vehicle crosses over and it felt like a few centimetres and our car can fall deep down the never ending valley. My fear was taking over, I started reading the ‘Kalima’(Prayer) inside, and I noticed we got the mobile data signal. I quickly sent the location to my family, so they know, where I ended up, just in case. They were worried when I was leaving for the trip. But they knew, once I make up my mind, I would not stop.

I quickly took a glance down the valley after crossing over and saw some remains of a vehicle and asked the driver, so are those remains of an old accident? What happened to the people, are they rescued? “Well, some times yes, sometimes it too late” he goes on, waits until my mind goes berserk and then says” but don’t worry madam, it’s not normal, I have been driving to and from Pangong lake two to three times a week, you are safe”, and looks into the rear-view mirror to ensure I am at ease. Some people have an inherent skill of reading people’s mind I thought.

After a while, the driver got a call that, the group that were supposed to come to Pangong along with us had to divert because of a road closure due to predicted bad weather. So, the other group went to Nubra valley (towards the highest motorable road in the world). We had covered almost 40% of the Journey and with the weather warning, there was no way we could go back. Only way was to go ahead and stay overnight at Pangong. Only 3 of us would be in the camp as, the whole camp was booked for our group that day. My fear and imagination were going wild in my mind. Everyone went quite, we all had our own fears and doubts in our minds and the journey seemed longer than it was, we needed a break but it didn’t seem like there was any place nearby to stop and refresh.

As we travelled further uphill, it felt like I needed to make a conscious effort to breath, I feared, due to the height, I was probably not able to breath. It could be that I really needed to put an effort or, it could be out of my knowledge that we would feel the shortage of oxygen at heights, what ever the case, it all diffused when I saw a small room in sight and some bikes and cars parked close by. We all were relieved that finally there is a place where we could also stop. The driver stopped and told us we could refresh and not to eat much as we would have dinner at the camp. I thought, all these people are headed to Pangong lake and even if not in our camp there will be some people to approach to, should we need, at other camps.

There were long queues for the toilets, and I was trying to gauge the experience as people came out as my experience with public toilets has not been pleasant through the journey. But, it turned out, these ones were well maintained or..didn’t need any maintenance probably, designed to have minimal or no maintenance requirement.

The toilets were four walls with a door, standing on a cantilevered slab with a hole opening into the valley in the centre of the room and a tap on one of the walls. As basic as it could get. . Not sure what to tell my friends, I said, FUNCTIONAL!

Everything about this place was basic, simple, functional, and sustainable. LESS IS MORE.

Relieved and refreshed, we started again looking forward to reach the new heights, to reach one of highest saline lakes in the world, but the fear of spending the night alone at the camp was running on my mind too. With mixed feelings we went on.

Another hour or so, we would finally reach the camp and we started to get glimpses of the clouds shadow over the mountains and made us realize how high we had reached, we could see glimpses of the lake far away and it felt eternal. The urge to go there and be a part of the Pangong Lake at least for a day was at a high.

The Driver took us to the camp first. It was quite far from the lake and we would need the car to go if we needed to.

We dumped our belongings at the camp with lots of doubts and fear about the spending the night there, but the rush to go and see the lake before the sun sets overshadowed everything else. We ordered our dinner and left to the Lake.

As we approached the lake, there was a calmness in the air ,we were surrounded with the mountains, clouds hovering over, casting their shadows over the mountains and there it was, ‘The Pangong Lake’, situated at a height of almost 4,350mts, the world's highest saline lake.  The water seemed to be dyed in blue, in stark contrast to the parched mountains surrounding it. Extending to almost 160km, one-third of the Pangong Lake lies in India and the other two-thirds in China. Finally, the fruit of that long, fearful, and disturbing journey, was worth doing that all over a thousand times.

As I stood there soaking in all its beauty, I thought, what was all the fear and doubts about? What were those limiting beliefs that, I would not be able to make it here. It was all in my Mind.

Had I given in to my fears, I would not have reached these new heights.

‘Me’ at ‘The Pangong Lake'