Of silk routes and sacred rocks
In Hunza, we stay at a delightful place called the Old Hunza Inn. This is what our room looks like from the outside. It's the one at the end of the corridor.
Our room is spartan but decently furnished. Nice embroidery adorn the walls. The blankets are very comfy.
Our room overlooks the valley. The view is panoramic and awesome.
As it was in Darjeeling, a mysterious fascination with school kids overcame us. Which is why we have so many photos of them. (Farhan and Jasper, it's next to impossible to take a proper photo of a Pakistani lady. It's comparable to taking photos of penguins at the North Pole. They don't appear in public and when they do they strongly object to having their photos taken. We don't want our hands chopped off so I can only take photos of schoolkids for you. I'm sure that when the girl below is of marriageable age, she'll look very pretty. Which should suit you just fine as you'll be hankering for young teenage girls then.
)
In the morning, our host/guide, Leo, and his friend, Mumtaz, brought us to visit a local village. It is very old. The buildings have been preserved and a few families still live here. The old silk route between China and Pakistan used to pass through this village.
This is a local swimming pool/reservoir.
The walkways are narrow and short. Perfect for a CS Map.
Space is at a premium, so animals live in multi-storey accomodation. Just like we do in Singapore.
The village is recognised by Unesco as a historic settlement.
Example of a local dwelling.
The view from a rooftop, of local agriculture. Potatoes, wheat, vegetables and fruit are the main produce. They don't get enough water for rice cultivation here. And it's very mountainous, so arable land is scarce.
animal pens on the roof.
This is THE old silk route. Apparently, Marco Polo walked along these very streets.
And traders like him stayed in guesthouses like these.
Elgin gets into the mood of things and tethers himself to an animal hold, as horses and donkeys were back in the good old days.
Hunza River
Pakistan and China are very good friends. China is Pakistan's top trading partner.
We take a picture for posterity, nevermind that I'm not actually from China, but most everyone in Pakistan wouldn't know that.
After visiting the village we went to see some "sacred rocks". People from long ago carved strange things on them. Kids these days vandalise them. The results are quite indistinguishable.
Elgin thinks the carvings look like scorpions. I think they look like cats.
Flora along the Karakorum Highway. A cactus specimen.
Some plant that looks very pale and ill.
After the morning's exertions, Mumtaz invited us to his humble abode for tea and Hunza bread. Hunza bread has a very tough (but nice) crust and is soft on the inside. It crumbles in your hand and is very filling.
This is Leo.
Our room is spartan but decently furnished. Nice embroidery adorn the walls. The blankets are very comfy.
Our room overlooks the valley. The view is panoramic and awesome.
As it was in Darjeeling, a mysterious fascination with school kids overcame us. Which is why we have so many photos of them. (Farhan and Jasper, it's next to impossible to take a proper photo of a Pakistani lady. It's comparable to taking photos of penguins at the North Pole. They don't appear in public and when they do they strongly object to having their photos taken. We don't want our hands chopped off so I can only take photos of schoolkids for you. I'm sure that when the girl below is of marriageable age, she'll look very pretty. Which should suit you just fine as you'll be hankering for young teenage girls then.
)
In the morning, our host/guide, Leo, and his friend, Mumtaz, brought us to visit a local village. It is very old. The buildings have been preserved and a few families still live here. The old silk route between China and Pakistan used to pass through this village.This is a local swimming pool/reservoir.
The walkways are narrow and short. Perfect for a CS Map.
Space is at a premium, so animals live in multi-storey accomodation. Just like we do in Singapore.
The village is recognised by Unesco as a historic settlement.
Example of a local dwelling.
The view from a rooftop, of local agriculture. Potatoes, wheat, vegetables and fruit are the main produce. They don't get enough water for rice cultivation here. And it's very mountainous, so arable land is scarce.
animal pens on the roof.
This is THE old silk route. Apparently, Marco Polo walked along these very streets.
And traders like him stayed in guesthouses like these.
Elgin gets into the mood of things and tethers himself to an animal hold, as horses and donkeys were back in the good old days.
Hunza River
Pakistan and China are very good friends. China is Pakistan's top trading partner.
We take a picture for posterity, nevermind that I'm not actually from China, but most everyone in Pakistan wouldn't know that.
After visiting the village we went to see some "sacred rocks". People from long ago carved strange things on them. Kids these days vandalise them. The results are quite indistinguishable.
Elgin thinks the carvings look like scorpions. I think they look like cats.
Flora along the Karakorum Highway. A cactus specimen.
Some plant that looks very pale and ill.
After the morning's exertions, Mumtaz invited us to his humble abode for tea and Hunza bread. Hunza bread has a very tough (but nice) crust and is soft on the inside. It crumbles in your hand and is very filling.
This is Leo.
our first (but not final) stay in lahore
Immediately after crossing the border we made for Regale Internet Inn at Lahore. The cab drivers at the border seem to know this guesthouse, and getting a cab driver to go there was easy. Rooms were fully taken at the inn, except for dormitories, which we settled for in the end. They cost about 4 SGD per night. The room was clean, but it became stuffy and hot intermittently throughout the night since Lahore has power blackouts periodically and hence the fans went out at times.
The transition from India to Pakistan is palpable. Not far from our crashpad was a Subway outlet! We had our lunch there because for once we can get veggies in our meal.
We had another snack at this roadside restaurant... the burgers are huge and cost less than 2 dollars each. Can't get such stuff in India, since the patty was made of beef.
Post lunch, we took a walk around town.
This is the Mall. The colonial legacy is evident in the architecture.
Pakistan has something that India largely doesn't have: a park. This is Jinnah Library, nestled in Lawrence Gardens, a pleasant place in the city with lots of trees and greenery and families.
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Mention Pakistan and people will think of ultra-conservatism, uptightness and a land of no smiles. This is clearly not the case here. The policeman in the picture was amiable and obliging when we asked for a photo, and he even joked that he is not a member of the Taliban. He told us that he was guarding the chief minister's office, and that there was a bomb blast not far from his position a while ago.
We visited a bazaar in a bid to get cheap pairs of shalwar kameez. We failed because the shops opened too late and we had to leave to catch the bus to Islamabad. We did manage to interact with the locals and take a few pictures of the market though.
We had tea and cake for breakfast at this man's stall below. Pakistanis are a surprisingly cosmopolitan people; the guy who made the tea in the photo below worked for 8 years in Japan, and could speak Japanese. Amazing.
We left the bazaar for the bus stand, but not before we were given free Muslim pamphlets by a street store owner.
Just to show how great Pakistan is, this is the rest point on our way from Lahore to Islamabad. It is easily the nicest resting point for bus trips I have seen in my life. There is carpet grass, and meat is grilling outside the building. There is no rubbish lying all over the ground, and we actually met a Pakistani guy who could speak fluent Mandarin!
The transition from India to Pakistan is palpable. Not far from our crashpad was a Subway outlet! We had our lunch there because for once we can get veggies in our meal.
We had another snack at this roadside restaurant... the burgers are huge and cost less than 2 dollars each. Can't get such stuff in India, since the patty was made of beef.
Post lunch, we took a walk around town.
This is the Mall. The colonial legacy is evident in the architecture.
Pakistan has something that India largely doesn't have: a park. This is Jinnah Library, nestled in Lawrence Gardens, a pleasant place in the city with lots of trees and greenery and families.
/>
Mention Pakistan and people will think of ultra-conservatism, uptightness and a land of no smiles. This is clearly not the case here. The policeman in the picture was amiable and obliging when we asked for a photo, and he even joked that he is not a member of the Taliban. He told us that he was guarding the chief minister's office, and that there was a bomb blast not far from his position a while ago.
We visited a bazaar in a bid to get cheap pairs of shalwar kameez. We failed because the shops opened too late and we had to leave to catch the bus to Islamabad. We did manage to interact with the locals and take a few pictures of the market though.
We had tea and cake for breakfast at this man's stall below. Pakistanis are a surprisingly cosmopolitan people; the guy who made the tea in the photo below worked for 8 years in Japan, and could speak Japanese. Amazing.
We left the bazaar for the bus stand, but not before we were given free Muslim pamphlets by a street store owner.
Just to show how great Pakistan is, this is the rest point on our way from Lahore to Islamabad. It is easily the nicest resting point for bus trips I have seen in my life. There is carpet grass, and meat is grilling outside the building. There is no rubbish lying all over the ground, and we actually met a Pakistani guy who could speak fluent Mandarin!
