Route: Lachung-Chungtang-Lachen-Thanggu-Chopta Valley-Thanggu(90 KM)
Road Condition: Chungtang-Lachen was good for most part. Lachen-Thanggu was a very bad stretch of road with slush and gravel all the way.
Max Altitude: 13800 approx.(Chopta Valley)
We left Lachung at 6 in the morning. We quickly descended to Chungtang. Since Mangan, we never had our cellular networks. At Chungtang we finally contacted our family members after 2-3 days. Then we took the road to Thanggu which goes through another place, Lachen. Lachen is similar to Lachung in nature. Lachen is the base for excursion to Gurudongmar lake. After Lachen the road again started to get bad, but finally it was an expedition! I somehow started enjoying the rough patches. On our way we met a lot of army men. Some of them were from Maharashtra and were thrilled and delighted to see us there. We were treate like guests and offered coffee/tea wherever we went. We reached Thanggu at 11:30. Thanggu was a little village, the last one before Gurudongmar Lake. We chose Thanggu over Lachen as we wanted to spend more time at Gurudongmar and also to get better acclimatized for Gurudongmar at Thanggu. It was a very nice village with couple of lodges to stay.
Road Condition: Chungtang-Lachen was good for most part. Lachen-Thanggu was a very bad stretch of road with slush and gravel all the way.
Max Altitude: 13800 approx.(Chopta Valley)
We left Lachung at 6 in the morning. We quickly descended to Chungtang. Since Mangan, we never had our cellular networks. At Chungtang we finally contacted our family members after 2-3 days. Then we took the road to Thanggu which goes through another place, Lachen. Lachen is similar to Lachung in nature. Lachen is the base for excursion to Gurudongmar lake. After Lachen the road again started to get bad, but finally it was an expedition! I somehow started enjoying the rough patches. On our way we met a lot of army men. Some of them were from Maharashtra and were thrilled and delighted to see us there. We were treate like guests and offered coffee/tea wherever we went. We reached Thanggu at 11:30. Thanggu was a little village, the last one before Gurudongmar Lake. We chose Thanggu over Lachen as we wanted to spend more time at Gurudongmar and also to get better acclimatized for Gurudongmar at Thanggu. It was a very nice village with couple of lodges to stay.
Thanggu Village: We stayed here for a day to acclimatize for our next day's ride to Gurudongmar lake..pretty village
We settled for Dragon lodge with rooms overlooking the mountains. This was a very basic accommodation with a attached toilet which as basic as it can get!
Thats our lodge at Thanggu
We met two Army Captons at a local shop there. They were Doctors and one of them was from AFMC, Pune. They invited us to their camp. We were offered some piping hot coffee and biscuits. The doctor shared his memories of Pune with us. He said that he was planning to settle down in Pune later on. We also visited their quarters which had all the things one might require, from satellite TVs to music systems and a top notch heating system. He also showed us a place inside their camp which was called Dosa Point! Imagine having Dosa at 13000 ft!
Thats our lodge at Thanggu
We met two Army Captons at a local shop there. They were Doctors and one of them was from AFMC, Pune. They invited us to their camp. We were offered some piping hot coffee and biscuits. The doctor shared his memories of Pune with us. He said that he was planning to settle down in Pune later on. We also visited their quarters which had all the things one might require, from satellite TVs to music systems and a top notch heating system. He also showed us a place inside their camp which was called Dosa Point! Imagine having Dosa at 13000 ft!
Dosa at 15000 ft
We decided to have evening food there. We had some spare time, so decided to visit Chopta valley which is 2 km from the place on way to the lake. The scenery was again very intimidating.
Way to Chopta valley
Chopta valley
Chopta valley
Chopta valley
Chopta valley
After spending some time at Chopta Valley we headed back to Thanggu. All the time we were in Thanggu, the weather was all very chilly. We also visited a gompa(Monastery like) there. A lama was meditating there for last 2 years!
He woke up when Parag shouted...
He woke up when Parag shouted...
We still had some spare time before going to the dosa point. We did some masti with local kids. At 6:30 we went to the dosa point.
Nice Picture!
Curious!
Cheerfull!
This place was run by an army man who was a keralite and he served dosas and Kerala parothas. We never imagined we would be eating dosas at such a place. We were advised not to have drinks as it might have raised chances of dehydration at the Gurudongmar lake where there are chances of suffering from high altitude sickness. So we directly went to sleep with an excitment to visit Gurudongmar lake the next day!
Nice Picture!
Curious!
Cheerfull!
This place was run by an army man who was a keralite and he served dosas and Kerala parothas. We never imagined we would be eating dosas at such a place. We were advised not to have drinks as it might have raised chances of dehydration at the Gurudongmar lake where there are chances of suffering from high altitude sickness. So we directly went to sleep with an excitment to visit Gurudongmar lake the next day!
