Ladhak & Kashmir 2010 - Day 9 - Toward Padum

As we drove on towards Padum, the main town in the Zanskar region, the scenery along the rather long drive was typical Ladhaki, beautiful, but made monotonous by it’s familiarity to us in the days that had past.

The first few pictures down are those of a kind of leafy plant introduced to us by our driver as a plant whose leaves were tasty, sour sweet and consumed by the local people there. I did eat a leaf, much to the fear and resentment of my not so adventurous parents to whom ‘old is respect and new is suspect’.

Ladhak & Kashmir 2010 - Day 9 - Drang Drung Glacier

The valley narrows as you drive on and you gain altitude. We were on the ascent to PensiLa pass.

There comes into view a powder blue pond or lake, I don’t think its a river. It is interesting because it is half frozen. There is a little vantage point built close to it with stairs leading the way up, from where I took some pictures.

You get a view of the Drang Drung glacier. It is a rare sight and what makes it interesting and picturesque is the twist it makes as it glides down. I believe it is the only major glacier in he Himalayas that is so visible from the motorable road. This glacier is the source of the Stod or Doda river in the valley below.

We drove on, on a road that was not metallic and hence somewhat painful to traverse…