Tour of Gilgit-Baltistan

In Pakistan, little by little people are returning to their homes following
the mop-up campaign against the armed groups. Look at the details here.

Today I will take you for a small tour of northern areas of Pakistan, currently known as Gilgit-Baltistan.

One day, sitting with friends, bored from our highest level, hectic busy daily work routine, we decided to escape from our offices and planned a holiday trip. As we wanted to go to any peaceful area out of city life, finally after some discussion, we decided to go to Gilgit-Baltistan.

Our first destination was Hunza passing through Kaghan, Naran, Babusar top, Chillas and Gilgit. We took our route through the famous Karakoram Highway. This highway is often referred as eighth wonder of the world as being one of the highest paved roads in the world passing through Karakoram mountain range, connecting Pakistan with China. On the route, we sighted Nanga Parbat mountain (9th highest of the world), Rakaposhi (27th highest of the world). View of Rakaposhi peak at sunset was miraculous (not describable and you cannot capture what it looks like unless you go there yourself).

[Karakoram highway]



[Rakaposhi at sunset]



Hunza has enriched history having Altit Fort (founded in the 11th century) and Baltit fort (founded in the 8th century) along the silk route. Long time ago, Gilgit-Baltistan was divided into many small states. Among them, Hunza Kingdom was most wealthy and their rulers were called Mirs. Then we travelled towards Pak-China border and sighted the Attabad Lake formed due to massive landslide back in 2010 which blocked the flow of Hunza River, the Passu cones and the Khunjerab Pass (Pak-China Border).

The peace that we found in Hunza Valley overnight was astonishing. No noise, even we could hear sound of a river from miles away while lying on our bed at night. This is all because of no factories, no machines, no such traffic like we have in cities. Even after 15 hours of drive from Rawalpindi to Hunza, we were not feeling tired  because of such a calm atmosphere that we were enjoying there.         

BY: Samar Butt
      National Finance & Accounts Officer



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