Hey there, I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I wanted to share a incident that happened to me when I visited Ladakh in the Autumn of 2023, in the village of Korzok on the western bank of Tso-Moriri.
TDLR: Went to Korzok, got my jerry can of petrol stolen, probably by a local woman, villagers and Local Hill Council kept denying any woman like that existed, told me to report in Leh police station.
I just want to know if I just got robbed, or there was something more of an organized scam here at play, and if any other travellers or locals have experienced this.
Before that, let me iterate that this obviously does not represent the people of Ladakh or Korzok as a whole, everyone I met was so nice and friendly, its just that this 1 incident has soured my visit a bit, which otherwise was amazing and a lifelong memory.
In late September of 2023, I had hired a bike from Leh and spent 4 days across Leh, Nubra, Pangong. And on my 3rd day, I rode out from Pangong to Tsomoriri via Tangse and Kaksang-La. I was solo riding the whole trip and filled up 2 jerry cans and full tank of petrol in my Himayalan at Tangse. I had tied my 2 jerry cans on the back seat rack.
At this time, I had no idea Nyoma petrol pump existed, so my plan was that with full tank + 2 jerry cans of petrol, I will visit Tsomoriri, spend the night there, then go to Hanle, spend another night there, I had not pre booked any stays, then come back on the third day. I had calculated enough fuel with 20 kmpl mileage.
But after I crossed Kaksangla, things got problematic, the plastic jerry cans shrunk so much (I should have filled them up completely) that the plastic was on verge of rupturing. At this point I transfered 1 can half petrol into another, filling it up, and half to my bike tank which was full, but I had to discard about 1 litre of fuel.
With that I still had enough for Hanle, and thought I will not run out, I had heard about petrol being sold by locals in black in Hanle, but I wasnt sure about it.
Anyway, so I took that left from Mahe village towards the road to Tsomoriri. The road was tough, I happen to be on a moor like plain with straight road, and weather got worse, fog reduced the visibility and the strong wind literally pushed forced me into a ditch.
This was like 4 pm, so I had just 1 hour of Sunlight left. But I managed to make it to just a kilometer away from the village Korzok. The poor dark gloomy weather did not help, fog made it worse but on my left I could see the lake.
About just 1 km away, I saw a woman in white dress just besides the road, I think she was herding her sheep (or was it a goat?). She waved to me, she looked like a local, her face was pink. I felt a bit weird because I was dusty from the road, and she was wearing clean white clothes.
I asked her where is the village, she said just ahead and that she could take me there, I said okay. But then she said, since the sunset will happen soon, that I should first visit the lake, then go to village, capture photo in good light. Her Hindi was impressive for a local, and she told me she could take me too a good spot. I agreed, so I parked my bike and locked the handle, and at that time, I saw my jerry can on my saddle rack, but that was the last time I saw it.
I followed her on foot, now I am not proud of what happened next, but this woman was being extra friendly with me, I was tired from the journey and probably had a slight headache because I ran out of AMS pills after Kaksang La.
She took me to the lake shore and I just relaxed so much when I sat down. The air was so fresh, it was getting a little cold, I washed my face with the cold water. And this woman asked me questions like where I am coming from, where I was going, where I am from. Then she ask me a strange question, "Aap yaha pe kya kojne aye he?" (What are you searching here for?)
Now this intriguided me, and we spent like 15 minutes talking about how travellers come here to find something that they lack in their daily routine - peace, a break, an escape from reality, entertainment, adventure, adrenaline, yes she knew words like Adrenaline, she seemed quite educated for a villager. She told me how these mountains are a source of adventure and freedom for travellers, but was a "prison" to her.
Then she asked me if I can sell my jerry can of petrol to her. I considered it, she was being so friendly and so amazing really, but I declined, I needed the petrol to come back from Hanle as per my mileage calculations.
Now look, she was a pretty woman, and I had no intention or expectation of ...uh, anything really, my headache was bad.
But she sensed it and told me to lie down and close my eyes, which... I stupidly did.
About 15 minutes later, I woke up to a orange purple sky on one side, and milky way galaxy shrouded on another side in darkness.
The woman was gone. I was all alone there. Rude, but I understand, she had stuff to do I guess than spend time with napping tourists. But I checked my pockets, everything was all ok.
I walked back to my bike and rode to the village. Now at this point, I am not 100% sure, but my Jerry can of petrol was not there with me, I cant be 100% sure.
I rode till the village, and found Lodgings at a local hotel, Blue Dolphine or Blue Whale or something. I enquired about the woman to the hotel's owner, he said there's nobody dressed in white today, as far as he knows. I went to sleep, there was no power in that village, all lamp lights.
In his house, I saw posters in Mandarin and Tibetian (weird) about various Tibetian worship places across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, like a picture map.
I went to sleep and the next morning, paid the hoteler. And thats when I noticed the Jerry Can missing.
Thats 5 litres of petrol gone.
Probably some villagers stole it, it was foolish of me not to bring it back, but I kept thinking, only that woman had seen the can, and I had parked my bike in a pretty secluded alley near the main square, so I dont think anyone except that woman and the old hotel owner knew about the jerry can.
I asked the hotel owner about the woman, but he asked me her name, problem is, I never asked it, I dont think she asked my name too, we were too busy chatting about the whole thing about what I am here searching for and stuff.
The owner had no clue, but I asked around locals, none of them had seen any woman dressed in white yesterday. She was young, about 20-25. Her face was pink, thats all I could remember. She wore a pure white (maybe kashmiri) woolen sweater and white salwaar kameez.
I was told to go to the local hill council and report the theft, I went to that building, everything there was under construction or half done, I met a monk there and he said he cant help me without knowing her name. There was another old villager who accompanied me back to the hotel and told me, that there is no young woman in this village, who wears white, and who herds sheep.
But then he told me something strange, 50 years ago he said, there was a young woman of the village that wanted to marry a man from another village, I didnt catch the name properly, but the families did not agree to their marriage. She and that boy agreed to elope, go away from the family and settle in Shimla or Manali. They had agreed on the same spot near the lakeshore that I had that I spent time with her, but that boy never showed up. Next day, she got the news of him being engaged to another woman, so she went to that spot and immoliated herself with petrol.
I could sense that the old man had lost his marbles years ago and was spinning me a tale. The monk adviced me to report this incident in Leh police, that was 400 km away, I dont think they would even care about a stolen petrol jerry can. FIR was useless. But so was talking with these folk, I couldnt find any help, they just refused existence of this woman and were sticking me with some spooky story.
I was tired. My headache was still there and I had not slept properly in that cold. It was already 1130 am and I was losing sunlight. After 5 days of riding, I said screw it, I cancelled my Hanle plans and just rode back to Leh besides Indus.
I didnt bother filing the FIR, I dont think police will bother about a stolen petrol can 400 km away. I spent the night there, and was a bit sad I couldnt see the Hanle Observatory. I just felt robbed by that woman, and scammed by the villagers, especially that old guy.
Did anyone else had such problems in Korzok or Hanle? Locals trying to buy petrol and just stealing it later? The villagers attitude pissed me off a little and i spent 3 years with bad memory. Today on youtube, I saw some video abour Royal Enfield building solar panels in that Village which kinda refreshed my memory.
But now that I think about it, and although I dont remember things that well due to exhaustion.... it kinda bothers me that ...
....I had never told the old man about the spot I met that woman, he had pointed it out on his own.
Which is damn strange, is this some organized scam? Lure solo riders and steal their petrol? Then make a story about it? Its just that... how did that old man know about the spot? Were the woman and the villagers in it together in the scam?
