Blogs from Northern Areas, Pakistan, Asia - page 6

A dream to travel extensively through wonders of mighty Karakorm Highway (known as eighth wonder of world) comes true in the month of May through Rest & Recreation package from office and finally able to move up north to the giants of the Karakorm Range. To say that this mighty road and Pakistan's three different huge mountain ranges meeting place; the Karakorum, Hindu Kush and Himalaya region giving a picturesque would be an understatement. Its really one of the highest places on earth and many of the world's largest glaciers adorn the peaks. The Himalayan harshest winds through a seemingly never ending gorge where the mighty river Indus, sometimes gently flows or rushes through narrow gabs between towering rock formations, always nearby, sometimes level with the road, sometimes almost hidden in deep ravines of mighty ... read more

On 15th July we woke up very early and at 7am Taimoor came to pick us, it was cold in the morning. We loaded our bags in his jeep purchased some drinks and snacks from a bakery and started our journey. It was cold and Taimoor asked me to wear Jacket and I told him that I forgot to bring it!! Taimoor said without it we cannot proceed as it will be very cold in Fairy Meadows so we stopped at Jaglot and started finding some warm clothes, thankfully at 8:30 am shops were open and I got one Jacket after alot of search. We started our journey again and reached Raikot bridge at 10:30 am. After reaching Raikot we hired a Jeep from Raikot bridge to Tato, Taimoor said he will also be going in ... read more

(I found myself thinking I'd be writing this email in various forms to a number of people, so it's best to just type it once and have people read it as they're bored): Hello! Did you know there's martial law in Pakistan? i'm in this town called "abbottabad" to the north of islamabad. a guy yesterday said it was a "political" emergency situation... no tanks in the streets, no soldiers performing ID checks (my passport is at the embassy in Islamabad anyhow), nothing out of the ordinary. the guy at the tourist office convinced me to stick around for a couple of days and then pick up my passport before heading north for the Real Stuff... said i should budget at least 3 weeks for that "and take plenty of money". sucks having no plan or ... read more

After our Rakaposhi Base Camp trek, we got excited and ready to do a little more extensive trekking. We found that our tent was more comfortable than in the villages (and way cheaper, too) and eating our campfood was easier on our stomachs. So we boarded another bus for Skardu, which is the base for climbing and trekking expeditions in the Baltistan area. We know of several American and Canadian parties on expeditions there, so we have a thought in the back of our minds that we will maybe see them in their base camps. Skardu The ride to Skardu was perhaps the scariest road I’ve been on in awhile… I’ve subsequently been told that it’s referred to as ‘the road that eats jeeps.’ Imagine Engineer Pass with class VI rapids in bottom of the gorge, ... read more

As we leave the Hunza Valley and head into Gilgit, the scenery and atmosphere changes drastically. There is a big military presence, as Gilgit is the military and administrative headquarters for the Northern Area - most notably, there are guns all over and there are no women on the streets. As we get off of our bus, the place is a little overwhelming. We walk around looking for our hotel. Our first choice was either 1) full, 2) closed, or 3) now a girls' hostel. You could imagine our confusion by this conflicting information, but somehow we got all three explanations from the same man in the same conversation. Anyway, somehow we ended up in the Madina. It was a Westerners’ oasis - BBC, the first white people we’ve seen in a long time, and ... read more