sallam Pakwheelers....
had a wonderful driving experiece during Eid Holidayz... Eid may nay Family kay sath Khaplu may ke.... Baltistan ke Skardu, Ganche, Kharmang and Rondu Districs may gooma aur wo sab places jo trekking trips may miss ho jati theen daikh paya.. bht say nay trekske information and real time locations ka bhe idea ho gia....
Safeer's family was also part o this trip that took ur corollas 1800 kilometers round ..... expensive raha trip as we stayed in PTDC mostly and had to travel via KKH both ways as babusar top was snow clad. trip dates were 31 may to 9 June 2019....
Day 1:
it was a hot friday afternoon and we left around 1.30 PM. roza bhe tha aur tika kar garmi may we reached Behsam just before Iftar time.... Stayed in PTDC Besham @25% off Ramazan Package......
Day2:
left for jaglot just after sehri. 4 am and reached at around 2 pm.... the road ahead of Dassu is in horible condition till Sazin and work is in progress on dassu dam project for which road is closed for short periods (0.5 to 1 hour).... at different places.... ahead of Shazin road is good till jaglot.. we stayed in Junction resort @2000 per nite.. well it was empty anyway.. as there were no travelers in ramazan b4 eid....
Day 3:
again left early after sehri for sjardu and it took us 8-9 hrs to reach skardu from jaglot.. most of u already know that S1 is under construction and 80% of the road is rough... there r just short patches and indded extermly bad patches on the way.. we also stopped to kool off in many waterfalls. on way to skard we made a stop at Shangrila Resort and Upper Kachura lake. although i had been to Shangrila in 2006 i had never been to Kachura lake b4. i was pleased to see that Shangrila was still very well maintained. did some hiking to get to Kahura lake with kids on my shoulders which was a little tuf in Roza but enjoyed boating at lake. then we proceded to Skardu stayed was at PTDC Skardu where we got a chance to meet many foriegn and local climbers who were on G1, G2 expeditions...
Day4:
no hurries today as it was a rest day with short trip to sadpara lake and Manthal Buddha rock. although we had planned Khoropocho Fort and Katopana lake as well on this day we decided to skip them as the ladies wanted to go for shopping instead...
Day 5:
today we started our main destinations and moved to shigar valley at around 9 am in cloudy conditions.... we crossed sarfranga desert and attempted Jarbaso Lake but the road was (as expected) not for cars.. we moved to main shigar town and visited Ambrik Mosque, Kilingrog Mosque and Shigar Fort. Kids had breakfast at shigar fort while we could just look on at the elicious French tost and Kesser ...... hahhahahah... as we waited for our guided trip to begin.... Shigar fort tour lasted a long while as we were mesmerised by the architecture and history of the fort... after this we had to move on toards Khaplu.
the drive from Skardu to Khaplu is one of the most butiful ones i have been on.... first the Old bazar of Gol village is very intereistic and nostalgic... i really loved the wodden shops there which remined me of what Kundalshahi bazar was once..... this bazar is worth roaming on foot.... then alson indus till Keris and then along Shyok river till Khaplu crosssing the cherry heaven of Gowari and then Kharafaq village then Barah village all of which r my future destinations for treks insha Allah... Reached PTDC Khaplu b4 aftari and enjoyed our chand raat here in pouring rain and extreme cold.....
Day 6:
subha eid ke namaz parhi and nasta kia (for a change).... us kay baad nikaly Chekchen Mosque and Khaplu Palace daiknay... Chekchen mosque is extermely butiul with a commanding position and extravagant wood work. it is believed to be the first mosque in Baltistan and marks the spread of Islam in the region through noted Sufi Saint Syed Ali Hamdani (shah e hamdan) RA....
after this we had a similar guided trip to Khaplu Palace but this time we were not fasting so we had a lavish dinner here treating ourselves with local cousine... need not mention that the fort is butiful as well .... great background....i wondered what it would look like in early season.... need to explore that as well......
got back to PDTC Khaplu and rested for the rest of the day..
Day 7:
started off from Khaplu and turned towards Kharmang at Keris.... this drive along the indus was no less than the one along Shyok river i must say.. road is also good all the way. our main targets were Khamosh and Manthoka Waterfalls. we decided to cover Kahmosh waterfall first as it was far and we had daylight. it takes about 1 hr from Keris (turn to kharmang valley) to reach Manthoka while another 2 hrs to reach Khamosh waterfall... along the way one crosses villages of tolti, Pari and Kharmang. Khamosh waterfall was a little crowded with local ppl as it was second day opf eid but still it was a great experiece as the fall itself is awsum...
we indulged ourselves in its waters for quie some time and then had tea along the banks of indus river..... jab dil bhara waterfall say tu wapsi ka rukh kia aur Manthoka abshar gay.. the short but extremely horrible link road to Manthoka waterall is fairly discouraging and due to extreme crowd at the fal we couldonly spend 15-20 minutes there... decided to leave as we had to reach skardu .....this time tough we stayed in Meshabrum hotel... had dinner there as well as this hotel is famous for its food.... (charges were 3000 per night)...
Day8:
well the time to return had come and we started our journy bak to jaglot from skardu. reached jaglot in abt 8 hours but due to extreme rush could not find a place in Junction resort... so we decided to travel ahead to chillas.. on way we found acomodation at Raikot Serai hotel in Raikot and decided to call it a day as it had been a long drive already...
Day 9/10:
we had planned to stay at besham on way back but looking at rainy cold weather and our level of tierness we decided to rach back to islamabad directly from Raikot bridge in one go.... reache dlate night in islamabad and had sunday to rest aand reflect on our butiful jouney....
the family enjoyed a lot as well experiencing the landmark mountains and historic sites and iconic rivers of this butiful land we call HOME....
insha Allah i plan to travelmore with Family in future as well.....
overall my expenditure was around 75K....PTDC kay rates 4500 hain standard room kay... they r fixed.... baki ab season peak ha private hotels 5k say nechy nai diangay rooms... inspite of the road condition many tourists r there in skardu....
suggestions:
if any1 is planning a trip to skardu wait for babusar top to open and travel via babusar top to Astore to Deosai to Skardu as work will restart after eid holidays and it mite take ppl 12 hrs to reach skardu vis S1 .... baki khaplu aur kharmang ke drive must ha bhai...........
pics are being processed and uploaded on flickr.. yehan bhe kam start ho jay ga jald.....
