If this is the first time you’ve visited my Ladakh Odyssey series, please first start with Set 1.

Right on the outset, I have a confession to make. This set takes you through my first two or three days at Leh, where I visited Sindhu Ghat, Hemis Monastery, Thiksey Monastery, Shey Palace and Shanti Stupa….a good bouquet which you’d want to go through to see how beautiful Leh is, and notes to make if you plan on visiting that place.

But all of this takes a backseat to one of the most beautiful places on earth: Pangong Lake

It’s a terrible journey to get there, by far the worst of my entire trip. The roads are non-existent,  parts of it were submerged from melting glacier water, you travel through Changla Pass (17,800 feet, world’s third highest motorable pass), oxygen is thin which compounds things, someone in my group developed a slip disc on this trip.

This is one of the closest we got to the Chinese border, and once you reach there, you’ll think you’ve landed on another planet. So while this post and accompanying album (Set 3) will duly show you around Leh, I’m actually whispering in a hoarse voice: ‘Pangong Tso, Pangong Tso’!

And for dessert, the album also includes a picture of the ass that almost chewed off my right hand!