From chaos to pure magic (Chitral, Kalash, Kumrat, Jahaz Banda & Katora Lake Tour)

[MSSR]

Now lets move away from all those chaos and remember where were we? Yes we had reached lowari top which is a >10000ft high mountain pass and receives heavy snowfall in winter which makes chitral completely cut-off from rest of the world during winter. Anyways, after sulah safayi between arrogant scouts and over-confident policeman, the coaster finally moved and started to descend. This side of pass has a huge number of hair-pins and the journey was eerie (if not scary). After millions of 180 degree turns we were about to reach drosh-side mouth of lowari tunnel when coaster had to stop because a truck was parked in the middle of another hair-pin and maintenance work was going on. Guessing that its gonna take them a while to get the truck standing on its feet (i mean tires), we decided to have a walk till tunnel mouth. So all of us had a leisurely descend by foot and after a couple of hair-pins, we reached the tunnel mouth. It was exciting to see all the construction work which was in progress and tunnel was closed for all kind of traffic during this summer due to continuous construction work. We clicked some photos in front of tunnel and then sat near a checkpost. But the security guy got curious because we resembled the definite terrorists (dumb guy!!!) and he asked us move our a**es away while trying to be as much polite as possible and failing miserably in his effort. So we trekked past tunnel mouth and reached a water stream, clicked few photos and washed our dirty faces. In the meanwhile, truck's maintenance was finally over and our coaster reached to collect us and we were or the road again... sorry there was no road at all!

A beautiful view before reaching top

Killer number of hair-pins at drosh side of the top

While everyone else was trying hard to remain seated due to lack of a road, junaid charsi was deep into his sleep. Thumbs Up!!!

The kharaab truck at a turn

Paidal march and photographyian

This is how the photo turned out

Our coaster and the kharab truck

Drosh-side mouth of lowari tunnel

Group photo in front of the tunnel

Security guy asking us to move on

Coaster arriving a crossing a narrow wooden bridge

Farhan pehli aazmayesh pe hi larkhraatay hue

[MSSR]

So we again boarded the vehicle and then i couldn't keep my eyes open due to increasing fatigue and when i woke up after ages, even drosh hadn't arrived and road was still nowhere to be seen. After some time we hit the metal road and finally crossed drosh and then after a long long journey we finally reached our destination at 11am...the city of chitral!
We immediately stepped out and collected our luggage. While me and waqas started discussing with driver and conductor about the probable return journey with them till Dir, zaheer went to grab a cab and he went to an adjacent shop to ask the whereabouts of Pamir Riverside Inn. The shopkeeper said, "taxi ki kya zaroorat hai, paidal jao, just 5 min ki walk hai". So we decided to give walk a chance and started walking. We first crossed a square, turned left and crossed the famous chew bridge over kunar river and entered shahi bazar. Exhausted by the heat and a walk of 15 minutes, we asked some other shopkeeper and his answer was ditto copy of the first one's answer. What else we could do apart from walking so we moved on. After covering a lengthy straight part of the road, we were finally directed to a left hand street which took us to shahi mosque. From there we turned left,then right, reached gate of shahi fort (which is still inhabited by the mehtars of chitral), turned right along the wall of the fort, turned left, then turned right and then after a total walk of about 45 minutes from adda we finally saw first glimpse of pamir riverside inn and all the frustration and exertion faded away due to its beauty and serenity. Finally we landed into its reception, i had got three cottages booked for us but the manager (Abdul Rashid, who is a very nice guy) requested to have just two due to influx of visitors from shandur. We granted the permission and occupied two adjacent cottages with rear balconies facing riverside lawn. It was a beautiful view and i patted myself for selecting this hotel (H).

Hamaray safar ki sathi chitral k adday me

A sticker at the rear windshield of the van. Geo van walo..jeo aur jeetay raho!

Started the walk towards pamir riverside inn

Crossing the famous chew pull

Purchasing bhutta..which i gave a skip due to heat of the day

Backbenchers of the trek

Crossed PTDC motel chitral while walking

Entering fort's vicinity

Finally some clue of the hotel

Main entrance of the fort

Another turn along the fort's wall

[MSSR]

There was electricity and water problem going on when we checked in. But we had to bath and we did with whatever volume of water was available, wore clean clothing and went immediately to the riverside for photographs of the muddy kunar river and the riverside inn.

Balconies of the cottages

Rear view - riverside

The mighty kunar... younger brother of Sind i must say!

[MSSR]

View of our cottages from river bank

Kunaar

Waqas playing a monkey and plucking apricots

Relaxed lads after a long and exhausting journey

Moutain range surrounding chitral city

Junaid mimicking waqas... only for the lust of apricots!

Cottage's inner view. Location of the inn is awesome and cottages are constructed beautifully but they could be maintained better. Especially voltage and water issues disturbed us throughout our stay and service could also be a bit better.

[Xoofi]

Mazedaar updates..

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[MSSR]

Hotel rent was 3500 per double room and they provided 3 mattresses free of charge (one in each room and 3rd one on compensation basis bcz we agreed to skip our 3rd cottage :p). While rent was feasible, food was very costly. Lunch and dinner were per person basis and were not economical at all. Whereas one could also order chicken karahi on per kg basis. We were very hungry so ordered 2 kgs of chicken karahi. It took more than one hour for the meal to get ready. We moved to a decently built dining hall and had our lunch. Karahi was definitely not 2 kgs, they brought just 2 medium-sized half-filled bowls. Upon our protest, they provided two plates of mash ki daal as well. The lunch finished with cups of hot tea. We could only just partially fill our empty tummies but all of this was enough to recharge our energies. Karahi was Rs. 1200 per kg and total cost was about 2600 PKR. The dining room was decorated with old photos of mehtars during british era and wall-hung stuffed markhors.

Our dining table

Inside view of a decent dining hall

[Xoofi]

Pics not working in above post

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[omar4494]

Motivating and encouraging for a person like me. (Y)

[ism1]

Ohhhhh how could I missed this wonderful thread. Great and full of information Thread. Keep it up bro.

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[ism1]

Will check all posts in afternoon Insha Allah

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[MSSR]

Pics not working in above post

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Again sorry dear. Its my first ever thread so choti moti mistakes ki muaafi!

Motivating and encouraging for a person like me. (Y)

Ohhhhh how could I missed this wonderful thread. Great and full of information Thread. Keep it up bro.

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Will check all posts in afternoon Insha Allah

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Thank you friends! I owe a lot to various pakwheels threads for two successful tours so i am just trying to give something in return

[aghaabbas]

Excellent !!!!!

[aks_e_ahmed]

Wonderful narrations and very good details of trip really enjoying your travelogue

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[emmaar]

Great Narrations, great Shots, great enjoyments. You are definitely adding values to the forum.
Great ...keep it up brother.

[MSSR]

Excellent !!!!!

Wonderful narrations and very good details of trip really enjoying your travelogue

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using PW Forums mobile app

Great Narrations, great Shots, great enjoyments. You are definitely adding values to the forum.
Great ...keep it up brother.

Thank you very much. Appreciation from senior pakwheelers really means a lot!

[MSSR]

After recharging our energies with a tasty lunch, we laid down in our rooms for a while to have some rest. Few napped, while others (including me) didn't. Meanwhile, everybody was to charge cell phones which was a huge matter of concern due to long travel and low voltage. Anyways after having some much-needed break, we decided to visit the city. So everyone got ready and clicked few group photos at the inn and trekked out to shahi bazar. We took opposite direction from where we came from adda in the morning and had delicious mango-shakes from a roadside shop. Then we covered whole length of shahi bazar till polo ground. It was 7:30pm when we reached polo ground after a leisurely walk across the city. We looked for taxis (for next day's visit to kalash) and various food options for dinner. Chitral museum is adjacent to polo ground but it was closed at that hour of the day.

A highly useful map of chitral city

In front of our cottages

Pamir's main building at the back. They have got rooms as well in addition to cottages but we selected the cottages and didn't regret at all

Walkway leading from our cottages to the main entrance/exit of the inn

Models

Dining hall (where we had our lunch)

A family doing an outing at the river bank

Football match at the football field near shahi fort

Players warming up

Spectators gathering for some high-profile match (:p)

[MSSR]

A beautiful gate at the street which connects shahi bazar with shahi masjid, fort and pamir riverside inn

A view of shahi bazar.. it was deserted and most of the shops were closed after Asar prayers

Waiting while our mango shakes were getting ready

Crossing bridge over a water stream

Chitral museum

City's polo ground

[MSSR]

It was getting dark so we left polo ground and headed for a nearby masjid to offer maghrib prayers. It was 8:15 when the sun finally set behind tirch mir. We located a beautiful wooden masjid and knelt down in front of the Almighty. After that, we marched in search of some delicious dinner but there is severe scarcity of restaurants in chitral. We reached Y chowk in search of chappli kababs but couldn't find any shop which served the kababs. Y chowk is the sole food point of the city and the crowd was beefing up. People were chatting in excitement and there were lots of weapon-loaded guys. We cam to know that those guys were actually back from shandur polo festival which we missed so narrowly and couldn't attend even after trying our best. News was that Gilgit bycotted this year's match due to some governing authority clashed with KPK so the matches were contested between various chitral teams only and chitral police were the winners. Anyways, finalized a small restaurant and ordered chicken tikka and karahi (there wasn't much choice). The dinner was served after a while in local way of serving. Tikka seekhs were placed over the local roti/naan which we enjoyed a lot and ate out till we got filled.
After paying the bill, we purchased a watermelon and a crate of sindhri mangoes (worth 700 rupees). While we were heading back to hotel, we spotted an open shop with local handmade stuff. We spent an hour there and most of us purchased woolen shawls, chitrali caps and bags etc for our families. Ladies shawls were 1500 rupees each while caps 500 each. They were way more than worth the price we paid and were extremely liked when we gifted them after returning back home.

Masjid where we offered maghrib

Local roti/naan with chicken tikka

Dinner-attack and it was very tasty

[MSSR]

After dinner, we reached back in hotel at about 10pm and later had a mango feast at riverside lawn. We laughed, chatted and had a great time. By midnight, we were on our beds for a good night's sleep.

Team ready for the mango party

Thanday meethay aam!

Larkon ne bohat khaya

[MSSR]

After a good night's sleep, woke up at 7am on Monday, bathed and got ready for Kalash. Had tarbooz ka nashta at another riverside table, clicked few morning photos of the surrounding and then me, junaid and waqas left in search of a vehicle which could take us to kalash. Normally, the car stand for kalash is near polo ground but luckily we got an old suzuki jeep from the hotel's surroundings. After little negotiation, driver chacha agreed for a fare of 3500 rupees from chitral to bamboret. We brought the jeep to hotel, loaded our luggage and after few farewell photos, boarded the jeep for kalash.

Morning view of the hotel's front lawn

Main building

The place where we had our mango party last night

Hotel's view from the road which leads to it

Going to grab a vehicle for kalash

Side view of fort's front door

Shahi masjid

Tarbooz..jo minton me khatam hogya

Farewell group photo

Good bye Pamir! We had a wonderful time