Country Info
- Islamabad
- Capital
- Pakistan Rupee (PKR)
- Currency
- 144,616,639
- Population
- PK
- Country Code
Gilgit Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Gilgit, Pakistan
Wagah Wagah tango, and music of the gods
This is a top pick! ... nation. The press has been giving Pakistan hell. Bush has been prancing around on his sullied horse, railing against all things Pakistan. American troops have been massing at the Afghanistan border with Pakistan for a push into tricky 'tribal' areas. ...
End of Ramadan: Eid Mubarak
This is a top pick! ... neighbors Rado and Marta from the Czech Republic, who I had met at the Regale Internet Inn six weeks earlier. In Pakistan, a limited number of routes and hotels mean that undoubtedly you will run into the same travelers on the road. A Christian ...
Osama's back yard
This is a top pick! ... you're vertiginously challenged, suffer breathlesness, have a dicky ticker or wobbly knees, stay the hell away from northern Pakistan - or stick to turboprops and runways. This is hard mountain country, a never-ending horizon of agonisingly craggy peaks ...
Nanga Parbat's Rupal Face
This is a top pick! The moon was waning, as Ali and I trekked to Herligkoffer basecamp, below the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat, the 9th highest mountain at 8125 meters. On October 7, I awoke before dawn to eat my pre-dawn Ramadan moon, looking east. Low in the ...
Crossing the Pakora Pass
This is a top pick! ... exhilaration as I got to the pass. The view over the snowfield and glacier was the best thing I had seen so far in Pakistan (even on the trip?), it stretched out beautifully before us, white snow contrasting with blue sky, grey moraine to one side and ...
The route to Rush Lake, Days 1-3
This is a top pick! Day 1: dep Hoper (2790m) 0750 arr Bericho Kor (3300m) 1300; 5h walking, 1h10 rest; ascend 510m After a cold night in Hoper, the morning was superbly bright and clear. Akbar & Mohammed, my two portering companions for the trip, and I headed out of ...
Akbar the Porter
This is a top pick! ... tune, hissing & crackling for 90% of the time it was on. Of course, why would anyone come thousands of miles to Pakistan for. Enjoy spectacular mountain scenery? Fresh air? Be away from noise and pollution? Hell no, it was to listen to a bloody short ...
Punji Pass Trek Day 1
This is a top pick! Mastuj to Darkot We spent an entire day making this journey, taking the bus back to Gupis, changing there and getting another bus on to Taus. At Taus is the splendid Five Stars Bakery, which has an excellent selection of trekking foods and is a ...
Organising the next hike
This is a top pick! ... to get a bit of western company, as there ain't much in the small villages! It is also a bit of a green oasis in a dusty town. Gilgit is hot (40 degrees today) and dusty. The place grows on you, though. Primarily it is a place to load up on food & ...
Up towards the Pakora Pass
This is a top pick! ... campsite!!!!!! We laughed as we thought of the scene we could have created. Just to make me feel like I was in the mountains of Pakistan, a couple of locals wandered over for a stare & to play their (out of tune, of course) radio for my pleasure!!! I ...
Remember kids, don't go with strangers!
This is a top pick! ... colleagues of Sarwar's and as he had a guest (me!), yet more tea and food was proffered. Mir Nazeem was very concerned of Pakistan's international reputation, and given the emails I get from you, he is right to be. You don't seem to see it as a place ...
Punji Pass Day 3
This is a top pick! Day 3: dep above Holojut (3970m) 0850 arr Handis (2930m) 1620; 5h30 walking, 2h rest; descend 1040m The inordinately hard day was a one off and today it was great to be back to normal walking. The views were fantastic and we could enjoy them. The ...
Mastuj Hotels
This is a top pick! ... include: The owner sitting in your room as you go to bed chain smoking joints and getting himself very drunk. Clearly in Pakistan, the owner would have been asked far more by the police where he had managed to get the alcohol ...
Punji Pass Day 2
This is a top pick! This was without a doubt the hardest day of hiking I have done in Pakistan. Before mid September, this would be a gentle pass crossing. Snow usually knee high and at times up to 80cm deep added to the challenge. Day 2 ascent: dep Boimoshani (3960m) ...
Pakistan in Summary
This is a top pick! ... find it. "Do you get to talk or hear about politics there? What are the feelings towards Israel?" Yes, elections in Pakistan have just finished this week and political debate - local and global - is everywhere. People watch the news on tv and ...
Shimshal Pamir Hike Days 1-3
This is a top pick! ... a 10 day trek into the mountains with an English guy whose name I don't know." We buy the trek food I hadn't got in Gilgit in Passu & catch the jeep which postponed its departure by 24 hours due to lack of passengers. The 3 hour jeep trip from ...
Batura Glacier Hike
This is a top pick! ... back at the Passu Peak Inn, owner Akber is there to welcome us home. With no beer available in pretty much all of Pakistan, we celebrate a great and successful trip with a cold Pepsi. Should you want to contact Fida, his email address is ...
Asumbar Haghost: From Asumbar to Charinj
This is a top pick! ... mix of blue sky and wispy clouds - great walking weather. I was to do this walk on my own. Martine had stayed in Gilgit under doctor's orders to rest. To my surprise, I found that my walking speed corresponded with that in the Lonely Planet Hiking ...
A Real Big Mac Yak Attack
This is a top pick! Many people have expressed concern for my safety while I am in Pakistan. This story highlights a more real danger than the concerns that people have shown, that of an attack by nature than by man. There is some irony that a few months ago I was eating a ...
Shopping for Trekking in Gilgit
This is a top pick! ... that to me also. I tried but couldn't convince him to buy it. So many generous, friendly people here in Gilgit...and Pakistan--in the markets of Peshawar, in the streets of Lahore, in Chitral... Forget jihad and so on...when face to ...
A cup of tea with the Immigration Officer
This is a top pick! ... this quiet town. These people I can tolerate in their own country, but now that I had arrived in jolly pleasant, English speaking Pakistan, I no longer have to live with their odd, usually noisy, habits. "Crazy people," Akber said of them, "They don't ...
Return to Shimshal (Hike Days 6-8)
This is a top pick! ... We were then told that one of the people who had burnt all our wood that morning was one of Zeiba's brothers at the dinner! He put on a Pakistan cricket hat and I said, "Ah! Now I recognize him with that hat." I was asked how I was able too see the hat. I ...
Asumbar Haghost: Charinj to Upper Borta Bort
This is a top pick! Day 2: dep Charinj (3180m) 0830 arr Upper Borta Bort (3990m) 1420; 3h walking, 1h rest; ascend 810m After working out that I would only have about three hours to walk, I took a slow breakfast. I was joined before leaving by the only "starer" of the ...
Shandu Pass And The Highest Polo Ground On Earth..
This is a top pick! ... year in May/June. The pass and polo ground sit at 3600 metres and the view at the time we were there was truly spectacular if not freezing cold. So that's the Shandu Pass in a nutshell. Next Pod, Karimabad - Pakistan. Love, Nath and ...
Asumbar Haghost: Mayur to Dal Sandhi
This is a top pick! ... In Sandhi, I was invited into another home for more tea and food by the son of the family, who was in the Pakistan army and a very strong English speaker. This family was significantly wealthier than the first. As I was invited in to two homes in ...
Down to Pakora and Chatorkand
This is a top pick! ... teashop and as always the great people that run the Madina Guest House back in Gilgit, the town that has become my base over the last seven weeks in Pakistan, welcomed me back - literally - with open arms. Even forced and unplanned, it is good to be ...
Why the beard?
This is a top pick! Almost every email I have had has commented on the beard, so I thought it was worth a general response. The quotes "Have a shave you lout." [Probably my favourite.] "Is [the beard] a consequence of drinking yak milk?" [No, nor inhaling the smoke ...
The Nichagh Rest House
This is a top pick! ... much quicker and much more comfortable. At Gazin, we prepared for the planned 5 day trek over Thui An by buying Pakistan's thinnest and most crumbly chipatis that had disintegrated before they had even made it into our backpacks. The Nichagh Rest ...
Crossing the Asumbar Haghost
This is a top pick! Day 3: dep Upper Borta Bort (3990m) 0755 arr Asumbar Haghost (4560m) 1020, dep Asumbar Haghost (4560m) 1050 arr Mayur (3630m) 1445; 5h20 walking, 1h30 rest; ascend 570m then descend 930m It's my birthday!!!!!! Somehow turning 30 to 31 is a bit more ...