Blogs from Northern Areas, Pakistan, Asia - page 3

Sleeping Altitude 2230m or maybe 2310m depending on your info source Day 8 0512 sunrise across the mountains, open up the door to let in some cool air. We don't have much of a plan for today as it's mostly for the company to get the permits finalised, organise their porters and cooks and purchase food supplies. Still feel slightly subpar in the gut so decide to hit up my drug stash- Azithromycin, Lomotil, Buscopan and Ondansetron pre breakfast ought to finally knock it on the head. No idea when breakfast is so after a hot bucket and ladle "shower" wander down to the restaurant area. There are several tables occupied - the large French group (actually all svelte, just large in number), a Spanish group (animated), an Irish group (slightly animated- probably less so than ... read more

Kashgar marks the end of the 1,300km Karakoram Highway and the end of our journey. We've completed one of the classic travel journeys, following in the footsteps of the many traders, warriors, pilgrims and poets that have gone before us on this remote branch of the ancient Silk Road, through the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakorum mountains. Depending on your perspective we’ve survived one of the world’s most dangerous roads or travelled one of the world’s most spectacular. Either way we mustn’t forget the heavy toll on the workers who built the modern day road in the 1960’s and 70’s. 810 Pakistanis and 200 Chinese lost their lives due to the high elevation and inhospitable terrain. Most from the landslides which continue to be a regular feature of the Highway, and the scars from which – ... read more

Passu is a small isolated village, with just one shop, one cafe and a few hotels. It is dominated by the very photogenic 6100m high jagged peaks of the Cathedral Range. The locals speak Wakhi, the same as in the Tajikistan and Afghanistan Wakhan Valley, which we figured must literally be not far over the mountains behind us. The young guys running our hotel are a perfect combination of relaxed and helpful. The wifi also works well, when the power is on, which often it’s not. Our room was at the back, which was perfect. Not only is there something nice about being at the end of the corridor, particularly when there is a window seat at the end, but we looked out onto a couple of fruit trees and behind that Passu glacier spilling down ... read more

We were woken at 5am by water gushing out of the tap. All the hotels had water issues and amid many apologies our bathroom bucket had been being filled for us with big bottles of water. The water in Karimabad comes from the glaciers so what comes out of the taps is black/grey and we were definitely not going to complain about having clear water to wash with. The cold water had come back on the night before but this was the hot tap bursting into life that rudely woke us. We got up and watched sunrise on the mountains and valley from our terrace. We also discovered that with no one else up we had a great mobile data signal so uploaded our videos at the same time. Then we dived back in to use ... read more

The journey from Rama Lake back to Gilgit can best be described as stinking hot. We suffered badly for the lack of A/C. The scenery was stunning, again following a rough road that used to be an ancient trading route, next to the Indus River. It travels through a big gorge until eventually opening up as we rejoined the Karakoram Highway. Kabluie’s slow driving for the 4th day in what we discovered was 40C heat was akin to torture. The mountains were radiating heat so it bounced in through the windows adding to the temperature. It was like being in a furnace blast. We got back to the homestay in the mid-afternoon very hot and dusty. With no fan in our room nor the hang out room we contemplated moving accommodation the next day as there ... read more