Kunzum La

Chandra Tal is called 'The Moon Lake‘. When we’re standing there at 4200m, watching the scenery around us, we had no effort to imagine that this place could be detached from earth, so it’s a suitable name :) The turquoise water in this scenery is incredible, in whatever direction we turned our heads, we were amazed.

As the path leading there is a one-way and not less rough than anything else here, we decided to keep our camp and bikes next to the river in Batal and hike to the lake and back. We were quite surprised how much we underestimated the effort to do this and luckily found a group of Indians who gave us a lift for a few kilometers on our way back.

Back in Batal, the famous Tibetan couple 'Chachi and Chacha' were happy to see us again and well understood how exhausted and hungry we were, so they prepared us a simple but hearty meal.

Batal is one of these villages which is only inhabited during the summer months, the few buildings consist of walls made from stacked rocks covered with a tarpaulin, there is no electricity, nothing but a rocky desert.

Chachi and Chacha have been running their cosy Dhaba since more than 30 years there, their tranquility is contagious and they are true heroes for any traveler. They’ve received several awards and were honored by a visit of the Dalai Lama years ago. If there is an emergency, they are there to help, whoever gets stuck in Batal can sleep in their Dhaba and they make sure that nobody starves, whereby money is never an issue. They always try to keep provisions to feed 30 people for 10 days which helped a few dozen tourists to survive an unforeseen, heavy snowfall in summer 2010 which cut off the village. A first helicopter with provisions reached them after more than a week and evacuated the women and childs.

After two nights of camping at the river, we left Batal well fed. Chachi and Chacha said ‘goodbye’ and wished us ‘good luck’ for the Kunzum La, so what could go wrong?Read more