Day-2 Details Wednesday 18-June-2014
Left Besham at 6.00am
Road condition was bumpy/jumpy can't exceed 25km - 35km speed, we saw local non-custom paid cars speeding through these bumpy/jumpy road.
Driver needs concentration on road, can't relax while driving -full attention on road to dodge pot holes.
Between Besham and Dassu we didn't see any tea shops -like we see between balakot-naran
Pretty much hot desert like weather.
Reached Dassu at 8.50am and bought tea/break fast and moved forward to a suitable area for breakfast because Dassu bazar was looking at us with strange stare.
Soon we found a water fall and stopped there for tea and breakfast
at 11.00am we reached Barseen PTDC Motel (we thought if we had stopped here instead of Besham ?? )
12.00pm reached Samar Nala
12.25pm reached Shatyal
1.00pm entered Gilgit Baltistan -diamir district- Thor (town name)
Here we had to produce NIC and register with check post
At 1.50pm reached Chilas (450km from Islamabad)
Had lunch at Shangrila hotel
Refilled petrol tank and immediately felt petrol quality difference
Engine was making more knocking sound then before -this was expected but no choice
at 3.15pm left Shangrila hotel for Astore
4.40pm reached Tatta Pani (Sulphur Spring) -couldn't site any spring from KKH ?
5.00pm diversion from KKH to Astore road
7.00pm reached Astore
There was one police check post while entring Astore District -NIC registration
At astore check post they also asked how many females are accompanying (strange question/data)
Went straight to Kamran Hotel
Kamran Hotel is a small hotel (may be big for Astore)
We were the only families there -all others were groups of guys
Wifi & hot water was promised by the guy there -he was trying hard to do good service.
Food was fine
At night weather was pleasantly cold
Kamran Hotel room rent was 1,200
We negotiated Jeep Trip to Deosai for 8,000 and Rama lake 3,000
