Amazing Family Tour to Gilgit Baltistan from 22nd to 31st August 2014

[hfz-usman]

O yes he is..

oho! good to see that you are still a social animal. you ve made quite a few friends here...

[hfz-usman]

Beware of Fraudulent people

From Lahore I talked on phone with Mr. Saleem of Snowland Guest house. He offered me Rs.1500 for a room in Skardu but when we reached his guest house he asked for Rs. 2500 for a room.

Night Stay in Skardu
Saifullah bhai told me to go to Dewan-e-Khas hotel as locals uses it as fine dining restaurant. As told its restaurant was packed and nice hotel for family. I meet Mr. Ayub & Moosa who are the owners of Dewan e Khas, really nice guys and experienced trackers. Food was amazing and we tried 2 local dishes as well (Chicken Maskoot & lost the name ). Hotel has free wifi and parking facility. We rented 2 rooms @1200/each. We also meat 2 large groups of foreigners in the hotel, one group came back from K2 or its base camp Concordia.
Skardu is far better city than Gilgit in many ways especially for families.

After dinner we had a walk in bazaar and bought bread n milk for breakfast. Tea was complementary from Dewan-e-Khas in breakfast. Dewan-e-Khas is a very nice hotel and highly recommended for families and best place in Skardu for dining. Their Chinese sizzlers and local cousins were marvelous.

Day 6 Skardu > Hushe

Ladies visited Hawa Market but everything was from Lahore so bachat ho gaee. There was no male entry in that market. We were late at Skardu then we started the travel to Hushe. We bought chicken from Khaplu as Naeem Bhai did. There were beautiful colourful ponds near Khaplu but sadly I cannot capture them in my camera.

Random Shots While Going to Hushe

Agr tareef kerni hy tu buraee b zruri hoti hy. Maaf ker dena se guest house wale noo...

[hfz-usman]

Day 6 Skardu > Hushe

Ladies visited Hawa Market but everything was from Lahore so bachat ho gaee. There was no male entry in that market. We were late at Skardu then we started the travel to Hushe. We bought chicken from Khaplu as Naeem Bhai did. There were beautiful colourful ponds near Khaplu but sadly I cannot capture them in my camera.

I spotted few rest houses in Machlu one was NAPWD (local name of Wapda Rs.300-400/room) and other was private(Rs.500 / room). Both were open but I think nobody bother to stay at Machlu. Road from Khaplu to Hushe was very bad as described by Saifullah Bhai bhai. We reached Hushe around 6:30pm.

We stayed at Rufugio hotel and take 2 rooms @1200 each. It is the best hotel in Hushe but still no electricity and water. I saw few foreigner ladies in the lane for common washroom on the ground floor near reception. When I asked the caretaker about the dinner, he said that we don?t have chicken but he can offer daal Maash. Then I gave him chicken told him to make Karahi. They have nice kitchen setup and trained cooks. I knew that it will take more than an hour for them to make Karahi, rice and chapattis so we were passionate to see the village, its living style and culture.

Customer Reviews at Rufugio hotel in unique style

Room captions instead of numbers

Bari gal a yaar adher gory va aande ne. te o log gori nu washroom wastey lane wich la dende ne. lolzzz

[urdost]

hmmmm Right...Now I will contact my friends and will ask to make plane to go there after Eid...But we dont have Road map or proper guidance to go with friends alone...

Have u visited Kashmir in Eid holidays?

[Skill]

nice thread .

[mehrozniazi1]

Hotels in Gilgit
Gilgit has variety of hotels but Night stay in Gilgit or Astor is never recommended. We took 2 rooms in Jamal hotel for Rs.600 each. Hotel was below quality but taxi driver drop us there.

We were tired after hectic Natco travel so we stayed in Gilgit for night. Another reason to stay in the Gilgit was Ameer Hamza.
He is from Gilgit as well. We had planned to go fresh next morning with him and then we will have a full day.

as per my last year trip in astore we got a hotel near netco station ..it was very good ..only choice good available in there... dont remember the name

[mehrozniazi1]

Day 3 Gilgit > Astore > Rama >Tareshing > Chillum Choki

We took bread, chicken spread and jam in breakfast. We were ready at 6am but Hamza comes at 6:40am then we started our journey.

We reached Astore at 10:50am then take breakfast / lunch from Rama Gateway Restaurant. Their service was pretty slow and wasted our 1.5 hour.

yes they r slow we had the expereince last time around.... hotel i was talking about was opposite to it around 40 meter away from it

[mehrozniazi1]

Here comes Rama Lake We reached at 12:20 noon.

Huts or houses at the bank of Rama Lake

last year jeeps only went till ptdc or lil ahead of it ...then we had to do hike till lake ... is jeep track open now

[mehrozniazi1]

Miscellaneous Pictures While Going to Minimerg

Way to Minimerg was not more than 2 hours from Chillum Choki but we spent lot of time on the way to Minimerg for Marmots, Glaciers, Lake and Scenery. We reached Minimerg aprox at 1:45pm.

Azhar on the exiting Chillum Choki

Getting down from Bruzil Pass. It was almost in the mid of the Chillum Choki and Minimerg

Getting down from Bruzil Pass

awesome clicks

[mehrozniazi1]

Sad Reality

I have seen many boys in the village most of them were school going. I have seen few girls as well but they all were not educated even wife and daughter of Mr. Ali cannot speak Urdu. Mr. Ali explain us that one girl from each home goes far away (around 4200 meters height) with cattle. They lived there and take care of animals and When someone to visit them after 2-3 weeks, they bring some food and supplies. Remaining females at home regularly goes for cutting and bringing grass to home for winter season. Boys only go to school and/or roam around on the roads (sara din awara phirte hain).

so sad to hear but in those far away areas such things r happening ...if women is without education there is no future for children

[urdost]

last year jeeps only went till ptdc or lil ahead of it ...then we had to do hike till lake ... is jeep track open now

Yes jeep track is open till the lake.

[urdost]

awesome clicks

Thank you very much for reading in detail and appreciations

[urdost]

so sad to hear but in those far away areas such things r happening ...if women is without education there is no future for children

I agree with you and its the sad reality.

Yes you are right that "such things r happening" but boys dont even do the work. Going or not going to school is their only job.

[urdost]

nice thread .

Thanks for appreciation bro

[urdost]

as per my last year trip in astore we got a hotel near netco station ..it was very good ..only choice good available in there... dont remember the name

Hmmm i never heard of a good hotel in Astore city but there must be. People normally refer to PTDC Rama.

[urdost]

yes they r slow we had the expereince last time around.... hotel i was talking about was opposite to it around 40 meter away from it

O yes, We spotted few more hotels there. They were slow even were not packed.

[sgk111]

Great pics! Really enjoyed seeing pics and reading about your trip!

[awtkhan]

ما شا اللہ بہت زبردست سفر۔ بہترین فوٹو گرافی

[awtkhan]

so sad to hear but in those far away areas such things r happening ...if women is without education there is no future for children

جہالت کا المیہ، حکمرانوں اور مقامی قیادت کی بے حسی اور مجرمانہ غفلت

[urdost]

Great pics! Really enjoyed seeing pics and reading about your trip!

Thanks jinaab.