Pangong Tso

Pangong Tso (Tso = lake in Ladakhi) is among the world's most spectacular high-altitude lakes - a 134-km-long ribbon of brilliant blue at 4,350m, straddling the border between India and Tibet (China), with one-third in India and two-thirds across the line. The lake's colour shifts from deep sapphire to turquoise to emerald through the day, framed by ochre and rust-coloured mountains. Reaching Pangong requires crossing the 5,366m Chang La - one of the highest motorable passes - from Leh, a long day's drive. Made famous by the Bollywood film 3 Idiots, the lake's shoreline at Spangmik now hosts tented camps where visitors spend a night under some of the clearest, most star-filled skies on Earth. The brackish lake freezes solid in winter.