A short stop in Gilgit was needed to refuel, this gave us the opportunity to plan for our next adventure! After befriending the owner of one of the local restaurants, we met his best friend the next evening who worked for an NGO who invited us for chai (as usual) and to have a look around the school. We decided to take him up on the offer and ended up meeting the family that set up the NGO in the first place. Suprisingly, they were from Colarado in the US and had been living out here for years teaching English to underpriveleged children and working in deprived areas within North Pakistan. It was interesting to get a woman's take about being veiled and how they are treated out here which is generally as a second class citizen.
North-East Pakistan was calling, the main stopping off point was Skardu which we used as a hub to travel the area. The hotel we found was one of our favourites as the staff were so friendly, the view was pretty spectacular, the beds were comfy and they brought chai to the room so we could have it in bed!! We ended up staying for a week with visits to Shigar and Khaplu in between. We ate well in Skardu, the best restaurant in town that was highly recommended by everyone felt like a second home. The owner had been a chef in Knightsbridge of all places and he told us Princess Di had been in to eat on an occasion he was working. He also had been in NY for 10 years and Moscow but he didn't seem to like the amount of drunks in London!!
Khaplu was quite a quaint little village that had a nice mixture of sand dunes and plains but still surrounded by snow capped mountains, we left after one night partly due to the worst squat toilet we had come across!! Jo did get told off by some of the women villagers for not covering her head in a certain village but that was soon rectified at a local shop where we bought some material and everybody laughing at her trying to put it on properly. Shigar was beautiful and like Skardu, we found a hotel with such a friendly owner, it makes such a difference to the impression of a place. He told us that his food was expensive and we should go to the bazaar, we ignored his advice due our hunger and he prepared a delicious feast. Expecting a hefty bill on checkout, the lunch came to 200 rupees which we couldn't believe as it's 130 to the pound. They had an amazing fort in Shigar that had been developed into a hotel so they could maintain the building and gardens. You could even sleep in the room that the king used to sleep, but this was a little out of our budget at £90 a night! Whilst wandering around we were invited to tea with the manager and his friend who was director of education for the region of Balistan.
A military flight was on the cards after speaking to a few people, we even went to the airport to try and speak to the Army Group Captain as we met his brother in Khaplu. No-one knew his whereabouts so we decided to stop being pikey and pay for a flight, it was double what locals pay and extortion for a one hour flight but it turned out to be the most incredible flight we have been on.
Back in Skardu for the last day before our flight, we promised a man we met in the street to visit his new Centre that he had set up to teach English to the underprivileged children of the area. We arrived to a warm welcome of the class consisting of mixing ages, 42 in total. Each of the children took it in turns to stand up and tell us their name along with their mother's and father's plus their age. We had to talk about ourselves which was translated by Kamal (who set up the centre) and they had a chance to ask us questions through him. Alex took portraits of each child that we will print and send to them soon! They were so excited to meet us and talk English with native speakers, it was a real boost for them.
The flight to Islamabad was a short one but incredible due to the closeness we flew to the mountains, it felt like you could reach out and touch them. We only flew around 9000ft and there are many in Northern Pakistan around 8000ft, the highlight was seeing Nanga Parbat which was the mountain we trekked to about a week earlier poking through the clouds! For some reason Rawalpindi is closer to Islamabad airport so we opted for the shorter taxi ride and to make it easier to stay with Anwar's uncle Masood.
We only spent 2 nights there, one round Rawlpindi and the other going to Islamabad to get our Indian visa. Jo was not liking Pindi after being ushered to a curtained section upstairs to be sat with other women diners out of site, it was in a cafe called Anwar's Cafe ironically. Luckily, we befriended the waiter who wanted some English coins so we could sit anywhere on the next few occasions we ate there! Seeing we had limited time left on the visa, Jo was after her lamb chops in Lahore so we decided to leave and return to Pindi to see Masood and also pick up our visa 5 days later.
Lahore was definitely the right move as it has so much more to offer than the other big cities. The owner of the guesthouse took a shine to Jo so we received 5 star treatement, bringing her roses on 2 days, free chai and biscuits, sweets and only bringing us a cushion the night we watched a pakistani folk singer on the rooftop of the hotel. Lahore felt immediately friendlier than Pindi.
Will update you on events in Lahore and meeting the Anwar family soon!
Hope everyone is well.
Alex & Jo xx
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