Enough of travel

We have traveled for over 30hrs in the last 48 hours.   That too on bad roads and in bad vehicles. We decide to minimise the travel today. 

The original plan is to leave for Gurudongmar Lake at 5 am. But we choose sleep instead. We wake up at 9:30 am and head for breakfast. The hotel staff are shocked because the only reason anyone visits this town is Gurudongmar Lake, and everyone leaves latest by 6:30 am. Here we are, casually loitering around at 10 am, going for breakfast. Apparently, the hotel has never prepared breakfast for their guests before.

We narrate the bad story of the last two days. Both women at the hotel become our therapists. We pour out all our troubles and traumas. Then one of them makes a call to someone and talks to them in Nepali or Tibetan(I think). The language has some Hindi sounding words to pick up here and there. But it has a Chinese (ok Mandarin) tone to it. 

She tells us there was a landslide last night, and even the early morning visitors have been stuck for the last 3-4 hours. So, if we leave now, we might still make it since nobody has reached yet.

Our spirits are suddenly elevated. We rush to the room, wear all the warm clothing we have – double layers of thermals, sub zero jackets, socks, warmers, etc. – as the temperature at the lake is expected to be negative even during day, and rush to the car. 

We have so many layers of clothing on us that our weight doubles. It’s difficult to even walk. And in the car, even though the temperature is around 4 degrees, we feel warm. The thought that we will visit Gurudonmer lake is making everything feel better.

Just about 10 minutes into the drive, we see many taxis returning. Drivers tell us that the road is completely damaged, and vehicles are struggling even on the cleared landslide patch, causing severe traffic jams. There’s no point waiting.

We are clear with our priorities. 

1. Life is important. 
2. We don’t want to get stuck in multi-hour long traffic jams today. 

God (if there is one) just wanted us to layer up in winter clothes and feel excited and happy—for exactly 10 minutes. That’s it.

We decide to head to Lachung instead, as our next destination, Zero Point, is accessible from there. Lachung is only 2-3 hours away, roads are decent, and with everyone stuck or returning from Gurudongmar Lake, roads should be empty.

We get back to the hotel, pack our bags, remove the unnecessary warm layers, and leave for Lachung. The drive is short (comparatively) and there are no traffic jams. We enjoy the views of the valley. Yes, the same valley which looked terrifying last night. 

It’s the third day of our vacation. And we have not visited a single place till today. Not a single place. 

One the way we stop at Amitabh Bachchan waterfalls. Its real name is something else but locals and tourists call it that way as it’s tall. There is an absolute lack of creativity in these high altitudes.

There is a photo shoot place created with fake flowers for tourists to take good pictures. There are so many flowers all around and still these idiots chose to keep fake leaves and flowers here for photos.

We arrive at Lachung around 4 pm. Traveling less than 6 hours today makes it feel like we have loads of free time. We have some evening snacks and take a short walk around the small town. Lachung is genuinely beautiful and definitely worth more than just a few hours.

Tomorrow morning we have to leave for Zero point. It’s called zero point as there are no roads (zero) from there. China is at a stone throw away distance from there. But who is going to throw stones at the Chinese anyways.??

We decide to leave as early as possible. Let’s see what is in store for tomorrow.