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From Lahore it is only a six hour bus ride to Rawalpindi or Pindi as the locals say. In Rawalpindi the Karakorum Highway starts which eventually leads over the Khunjerab Pass to China. Taking the bus in Lahore went rather well, the only thing was that they droped my at the end of highway M2 outside Rawalpindi in the middle of nowhere. But the next rickshaw driver is never far away...
At the main bus station the 24h-bus to Gigit was ready to leave, so let't hop on I thought. It is a real tough 24h. The bus suspension is very bad to non-existent and you keep jumping on your seat all night. When I finally got some sleep the reason was that te bus had to stop. A big landslide had blogged the road and it took some time to build the road up the landslide on one side and down again on the other side. This is the way the bus finally went. Quite adventurous position on top of a landslide I think.
Arriving in Gilgit I was returned a backpack that hardly reminded my of the one I had handed full of trust to the bus driver in Rawalpindi. It was spoiled over and over with black grease and oil and dust. And in the toilett no running water...after some basic cleaning I left this nice task for later on.
In Gilgit there's no time to lose as a backpacker. It's not a nice town, and even more local rivalries sometimes tend to end up in street shootings. So I took the Suzuki to Karimabad, the place which is recomed to you by every backpacker you meet.
Very good decision. Karimabad is a peacefull town in Hunza Valley with a very nice setting in the middle of apple tree and apricot tree terraces. The view from Karimabad to the other side of the valley features snowy mountains around the mighty Rakaposhi peak. The whole of Hunza Valley is surounded by mountains, actually, many of them higher than 7000m! And at the southern entrance to the valley is the Nangar mountain range, with the Nangar Parbat (8125m) as its highest peak. Two of the famous local trecking tours ascend to the meadows below its frontside (Fairy Meadows, Messner Basecamp) and backside (Rupal Face). Any attempts to have a look at these places where unfortunatelly spoiled by some rough event to happen later on...
Accomodation and food is as good and cheap as nowhere before. You get a nice room with hot shower and view to the Rakaposhi for only 50 rupies (60PR=1$) and if you take part in the very generous vegetarian all you can eat dinner that's another 50 rupies only. And what's more, they have a 'Cafe de Hunza' in town, serving browny and real hot chocolate... that makes the decision to stay for some time quite easy.
In Karimabad I also re-met Nick who had been leaving Iran earlier than me and had been ahead of me since that time. He was now with his malaysien friend Ko how and a Chinese called Guh Le. We should have lots of fun together.
In the following day I did some short daytrips to the upper part of the town, to the fort, and to the Ultar Meadow.

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