Let me take you on a trip down memory lane. I lost one of my memory cards six years ago, and lo and behold I found it this weekend while I was sifting through my cluttered drawers. Yes, I have made a note to myself and I will get down to cleaning them up……one day…..soon. Believe me.
Okay, so I found this lost piece of treasure and spent the weekend looking at all the pictures and reliving so many great memories. I came across this amazing community on Ecency and decided to share a trip to Hunza I had back then in 2016.
What makes this trip so unique is that it was one of the very first travels I had alone when I was younger. I had a very interesting travel partner, a close friend, who was just as inexperienced as me if not more, and never failed to make a joke out of any worrying situation we got into.
His coping mechanism? He laughed until our stomachs hurt. And he laughed for no reason whatsoever. It just made things even funnier.
We were broke young men, unemployed, freshly out of college. One day we decided to go to Hunza, Baltistan, in Northern Pakistan. It is more than a 15 hours’ drive from where we lived. With our pockets practically empty, we decided to go by road, taking the local bus. We were delighted to find the back seats empty. Everyone else was cooped up at the front of the bus and we thought, “How stupid of them.”
We could never understand why everyone else chose to leave the comfortable back seats empty, where they could stretch their legs during the long drive and lie down when they wanted.
A young man came up to us and told us why we were not sitting at the front when some of the seats were still vacant. He was the conductor of the bus, and we told him, “Nahhh..we rather sit here in the back where we can lie down in comfort.”
He stared at us silently, and then smiled.
“Is this the first time you are travelling by bus?”
“Yeah it is.”
“Okay, stay here, but I recommend you place your bags up in the front so you can have a seat vacant, just in case.”
Oh we were very proud of our back seat, and we were not ready to part with our precious bags either. This bus ride would be a breeze.
The next 10 hour drive was...to put it simply…terrible. Every bump in the road sent us flying into the air, along with all our dreams of lying on the back seat and taking a nap. We could hardly hang on to our seats. Oh what a pity, all the seats were occupied by now. How we wished we had parted with our not so precious bags.
After 10 hours, a few passengers left. About time, we thought. The roads were worsening and we were lucky to get some seats in the front. Now the front seats felt like the back ones, and we couldn’t imagine how the back of the bus was like. We were broken. These two young men, who had never travelled so far in such rough conditions, could do nothing but laugh uncontrollably throughout the remaining five hour drive. It was the best trip of my life.
With a sore behind, we spent the next few days waddling through Hunza like penguins, but we could not care any less. It was a beautiful place, with lovely people, and the best mountains and peaks we had ever seen.
This river never slept. It was the angriest one I had ever seen.
Hunza's nights were one of the best. The night sky was amazing. Its a pity we slept like babies.
Look at this lake. It didnt have a ripple! It was mesmerising.
The hotel was a very interesting place to stay in.
We came across this beautiful shop down the street.
We walked down this cobbled street so many times. It was my favorite.
We admired this old fort from afar.
The people were very friendly, and their culture was as rich as their landscape.
Source: All pictures are from my personal gallery.