Ching-A-Linged at Chang La

Yak Tail Hotel has provided us a nice base camp for a little rest.......now it is time for for a little road trip out to Tso Pangong........That's Lake Pangong for the crowd.  Situated at 14.5K on the Chinese border, I failed.........or maybe I was just in denial, but there is a pass we have to cross to get to this lake revered by most Indians.  Chang La pass.....what a freaking ass kicker!

Here's a little look back around half way.  this was the WORST, I REPEAT WORST road we have seen over the last few weeks.  It was bone rattling, spine crunching and had everything from water running off the snow pack to dust that was suffocating the last 10KM on both sides of the summit.

The road was narrower than hell and had these little monuments sprinkled along the way.  Right above the truck in the background is a white line cut out of the mountain, that's where we had to go.  There were DOZENS of military trucks on the road and when we got on the backside of the pass, the entire valley for the final 60KM were enormous bases with Army dudes everywhere.

So........ we motor out in the morning thinking we are gonna go over a little hill and follow a valley into the Promised Land.  I check the map out of Leh and see that Chang La is at like 17K........WTF?  It was a massive grind, but once again we made it to the top.........first pass we have come to that has medical tents.....Indian Army dudes hanging out with O2 tanks for people who's brains start swelling and talking in tongues, we stayed 15 minutes and got the hell out of dodge since my fingers were tingling and Winston was three deep already into his cigarette pack!

 

Dub Ya in the climb!

 

Living large with a couple of Bro's we met and ended up hanging out with at Pangong.  Good dudes and they would help me out later on during this little escapade.

 

We will come off the pass and end up on the moon.  Just miles and miles of boulders, rocks and just nothingness.  Traffic was light and we made pretty good time.

  

First look at the lake.  We are above 14,000 feet, it's salt water......how the hell did this thing end up here?  That's China about 2 miles down shore.  2/3rds of the lake is in China and the Indians have a little base on the north end of the lake with gun boats docked.

Boootiful!

 

It changed colors about a million times while we were there based on the sun angle and the wind making white caps.

 
 

Our hooch for the night.  Most expensive place we've stayed at 22 bones a night.  Included dinner and breakfast which was freaking tasty.  We met quite a few  people here and played cards into the night.  Mostly early 30's kids who were professionals.....everything from IBM consultant to children's nurses to teachers.......every one of them quit their jobs and are just Schlep'n around the world.  We met a cool Swiss dude who just came from Sri Lanka.  Quite a few Indian motorcycle dudes on a road trip from Dehli, we exchanged email addresses and hopefully will stay in contact.

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 Well I guess it is my time to pay the man.  Coming back from the lake about an hour back home I come around a curve on my 6 inches of pavement to find a F'n taxi on my side of the road hauling ass..........all I see is a big ass Toyota symbol..........God has given me this amazing gift to slow things down around me.....playing sports, getting shot at....... watching Homeboy swing a bat.....coming up with a solution......when things start going bad.  First thought....Take this bitch head on.....Pause.....NOT! Second thought.....I got another six inches of road, I can fix this......so I'm just gonna slide on over......shit....it's sand........as my Hoopride is starting it's one way ticket to low siding........half way down......I say to myself.....this is gonna Fucking Hurt........I look down and see my old school crash bars hit the ground and I actually think......I got 3 grand in the best shit money can buy....solely built to crash in.  Smack.......right shoulder and right side of my head hit the ground in a eruption of flying debris, dirt and sparks that made Winston's 10 mile an hour low side going into Ganj look like  Friday Night Grab Ass at the country bar he hangs at in Calgary.  I slide on my right side about 30 feet......sit up on my knees, bell a little rung.....but I know it's the 18th....I'm coming back from Lake Pangong and some asshole is about to die.  I take my helmet off and stand up.  Taxi dude walks up to me raising his voice and pointing at my tire tracks that are THREE F'n inches from the edge of my side of the road.........remember the two dudes that photo bombed Winston's Chang La Pass photo......they roll up.....I go to the tall dude.......tell that F'n dude in Hindu to shut his F'n mouth or I'm gonna rip his head off.........Bro starts talking.......booo babbba nnayyya hanna.......F'n.....hyttaaa gaaaa nnnyaaa jaaaayy.....F'n.....Taxi idiot shuts up......Guess the translation was good....lmao.....

Pick bike up, flooded like a mofo, takes about 20 minutes to get started, rest of the ride back was uneventful. 


..........right side pannier is fruit bowled......Butch Sukut special the same day with a hammer at the local Enfield repair joint.....fixed.....right side crash bar a little tweaked....but hardly noticeable..........Head light bezel seems to be a magnet for frontal impacts.......fixed .....right foot peg looked like a soggy mustard soaked pretzel from one of those traveling gypsy amusement parks on wheels.  Hardest part was riding up and down that miserable pass with about 3cm of my boot on the only useable portion of the foot peg.  I'm out 8 bucks and the bike looks brand new!

Casualty.....Ghost HD Cam destroyed on impact.  Camera was mounted on right side of my helmet as you could see in one of the above pictures.  The destruction of the camera just raised the cost of my vacation 25%.........damnit!

KLIM gear with D3O armor......amazing shit.......It's hot.....uncomfortably hot.....but it puts you in the position to get up after a crash and kick the shit out of whoever just tried to ruin your day.  Helmet #5 that I hardly needed and just bought because it's cool looking probably saved my life.  My friend Len I met in Alaska last year was wearing a helmet he decided to impact test the same way I just did, the shit works, if you don't wear one you're a F'n IDIOT!

On a positive note....I landed on my right shoulder they told me last year needs to be replaced anyway.......my ribs are sore and my beloved gear still looks nice!   

I want to personally thank the Indian Government for not caring enough to pave their roads......the combination of gravel, sand, concrete and whatever else there was helped me slide rather than tumble......tumbling on concrete kills the team....ask those dudes racing Moto GP.

Best part about it.....after telling momma what happened, before going out for next ride....only thing said was "Love you, Have a awesome ride".......Peace out Turkeys!