Trip to Gilgit Baltistan

Our trip to Hunza started form Islamabad, so we took a coaster that took us to the Gilgit Baltistan. There were 3 stops in the middle. The coaster departed at 8 pm and that is good because you can spend your time travel time sleeping and won’t feel the tiredness of long journey. Though views were interesting but long travel time just make it monotonous. In whole tour I was like when will reach our destination. You won't find hygienic bathrooms on the way so keep your own detergents and toilet roll for the way. Also, if you're going with a lot of people its best to get your own transport like a bus/van/coaster so that you don't have to worry about the transport there. Car renting is extremely expensive there. We luckily got a car to take us to Skardu since it was already going there but in 5000 PKR! but the usual cost only starts around 15000 PKR(too expensive). And when we wanted to come back no one quoted less than 20,000 PKR which is why we took public transport back from Skardu which cost us only 650 PKR each. For our way back, we went by air since we really didn't want to travel another 16 hours after an exhausting trip. Going was fine but we predict ourselves to be exhausted by the end and didn't think we could have done our way back comfortably by road.

Following were the discovered destinations in whole trip:

• Pine Hut, Gilgit
•  NLI mess, in Bunji Gilgit 
• Shangrila Lake
• Skardu Sukh naala/valley
• Karimabad, 
• Hunza Attabad Lake, Hunza 
• Altit Fort, Hunza 
• Kha Basi Cafe

Hacks for Travelling

Afraid of the packing? Don’t stress yourself when you can follow these simple packing hacks for travelling. 

1. Start rolling your clothes This one is very essential for the back packers who packs a month’s clothes in it. Don’t fold your clothes but roll them. This will save up to tons of space in your bags. 

2. Zip-lock bags: From keeping liquid to spill all over your belongings, use Zip-lock bags. Not only saves your clothes but also save up loads of space. Make intelligent use of Man’s small-blessed invention. 

3. Laundry Detergents Save yourself in case of spill emergency or avoid buying new clothes when laundry detergents can help clean clothes in easy ways. The best part is it can fit in the pockets of your bag packs. 

4. Avoid extra packing; Shop at thrift stores This one helps in ways you can’t imagine. Pack your bags only with the necessary items rest is covered by thrift stores. Make space for the souvenirs. 

5. Personal item: Pack CAREFULLY! Use your personal Item carefully, instead of carrying a small fashion bag, bring out a comparative big one for enough space which can be of use later. 

6. Snacks Are you planning a fixed budget trip? Don’t forget to pack snacks like you are feeding an army. This will save you few bucks especially on the Airports. 

7. Empty water bottle Travelers usually pay for overpriced water bottles at the airports especially. Save yourself by putting empty water bottles in your bag packs and filling them after passing through security. 

8. A book or E-reader What if your plane is delayed, what if you miss a flight. What if you are running low of your phone battery? You can spend that time reading a book. It can be about your next destination. What’s better than knowing pretty much everything about the place you are about to visit. 

9. Follow 3-1-1 rule and know your Airline baggage policy Avoid any trouble during your travel, be aware of the baggage policy of the airline you’re travelling in and yes most importantly follow the rule for carry-on luggage. 

Food Vlogging Flourishing Pakistan Reputation

Many vloggers from Pakistan  and outside Pakistan are showing our traditional foods which are attracted by the world of tourism. The tourist visits Pakistan to see their historical buildings, mesmerising landscapes, but now they do admire visiting to enjoy our traditional foods. Through vlogging many foreigners are visiting to Pakistan to enjoy their street foods. This help them also to get aware of our values,cultures and norms.

Mark Wiens Having Qadri Nali Baryani In Karachi

Through vlogging it has been neglected that Pakistan is a terrorist country anymore, because people manifest so much love and respect to the foreigners, that the negative perception created by main stream media of  has been proved wrong.

Coconut stall in Port Grand Karachi

Now the Pakistan is not only famous for his beauty but also famous for its delicious foods.The quality of Pakistani street food is that it classed both desi foods and fast foods. There are number of street foods in Pakistan. Foreigners prefer street food because they get everything at one place. 

Foreigners are attracted by the street food because the food is prepared in front of them.  They can add new experience into their life by entering into the small streets and bulks of restaurant's in that place which shows the culture of Pakistani people. They can enjoy experiencing that because they usually don't have this kind of taste in their country and when they go back into their country they can reminisce that joy.

Why Pakistan is Still behind many Countries in Tourism

No doubt Pakistan is blessed with many beautiful eye-catching attractions but still there are many loopholes in the Country’s policy. Even many tourism reforms were introduced like visa on arrival, free visa policy, helicopter service etc. but issue is why will people visit Pakistan and if the Pakistan has blessed with so much natural landscape then how will the foreigners know about this beauty even when our own people are not aware. Before going towards the reasons why Pakistan is still behind in tourism, it is necessary to know where the Pakistan stands. According to the ranking that was published by United Nations Tourism Organisation France is the most visited country with nearly 87 million international visitors, and the Asian Pacific tourism stats are given below:

1. China has 61 million tourist arrivals
2. Thailand has 35 million tourist arrivals
3. Japan has 29 million tourist arrivals
4. Hong Kong has 28 million tourist arrivals
5. Malaysia has 26 million tourist arrivals
6. Macau has 17 million tourist arrivals
7. India has 16 million tourist arrivals
8. Singapore has 14 million tourist arrivals
9. South Korea has 13 million tourist arrivals
10. Indonesia has approximately 13 million tourist arrivals

Pakistan is no where near to top 10, according to an estimate there are total 323 million International tourist arrivals in Asia-Pacific, out of which Pakistan got only a share of 1.75 million. There are many reasons for Pakistan’s undergrowth in Tourism, but these 3 reasons have more weightage.

No Proper Communication Channel

There is not a single channel that is properly communicating the positive image of Pakistan, the beauty of Pakistan, there are only the bloggers that are communicating the true image of Pakistan through their experiences and by writing their travel stories. But our country only appreciates International Bloggers, the National bloggers also need appreciation to continue their good work and government need to establish a active communication channel.

Poor Maintenance

There are many tourist places all around the world that are older than the tourist places in Pakistan, but they are properly managed and maintain need and are in their true shape. In Pakistan, the roads towards northern areas are broken and in very bad condition and no repairment work is in process. No maintenance of historical places like Rhotas Fort etc.

Poor Security System

No security measures are taken to boost tourism, many tourists face issues of harassment and they find no medium to forward their complains ab such incidents, no translators for international tourists. No contingency plans for unknown situations.

The government and we as a nation must have to work on these problems to solve them and be a proud and peaceful nation and regain their lost value.

Swat and Kalam has the potential to Replace Murree

When we visited Swat and Kalam in 2007 our day was wasted just in travelling. After 6 hours of drive we reached Mingora and stayed there and was so tired to visit any place that day.

From many years Murree is considered as the closest place to visit that is why when someone want to go to visit a good and peaceful place they consider Murree for it. For the people of Islamabad, it is more like neighbor’s house and this is the reason on every vacation the families visit Murree and, on every occasion everyone has to face huge traffic and difficulty in reaching and in going back home.

I do agree that the Murree is a beautiful place to visit but not in the peak season, people must have to taste other destinations and when there is a destination like Swat and Kalam then who is not willing to go there when there is not such a difference of time visiting Murree or Swat.

Now, the people do not have to be worried about the traffic like in Murree in peak season and now the Swat and Kalam is not like the previous ones, many development works are in progress that will shrink the distance for the people who want to visit a different place on this Eid. The good news is

Swat Motorway is going to complete on 25th of this May and it will be open for traffic and this motorway linked with Peshawar-Islamabad motorway and will reduce the journey from 6 hours to 3 hours from Islamabad.

Another good news is that other project is also in pipeline for the construction of Chakdara-Kalam expressway and it will connect Swat Motorway and these construction projects will bring business and tourists to Swat and Kalam and this will be a 4 lane expressway, this will smoothen the traffic.

Travel for the sake of Food

Bangkok Thailand

When it comes to food street, then Bangkok Thai street ranks at number one in world. The speciality lies in the taste, cost and convenient meals that not only fulfil your hunger but also connect you with the culture of city.

When you are new to Bangkok the first thing that comes in mind is what to expect from Bangkok food street?  The answer is that in Bangkok street food comes in many forms, it can be offered on roadside cart, there can be number of stalls in a row or it can be normal restaurant with table chairs.

Following are the food that you can try in Bangkok:

Papaya salad, Fried rice, Noodles, steamed chicken, grilled chicken, fish BBQ cooked in salt.

Often people are worried about the hygiene of food, the basic tip is to go to the busy places as they would use fresh ingredients.

As mentioned earlier food streets are everywhere in Bangkok but when it comes to the variety and hot spots then Chinatown is the place.

Chinatown is also knows as food heaven of Bangkok. People visit Chinatown after sun set in search of special street side food. The energy that comes from the rows of wooden shops is just contagious! it would led to you to visit again and again. For best experience plan your visit during New year, and you will observe Chinatown at its best. Chinatown is an experience that is simply worth it and not to miss.

Pakistani Food Street

Food Street Lahore

Pakistani food is known to be one of the best desi food in world. From most famous Savor Pulao to Charsi ka Tikka, there is huge variety of meals present in food streets. In Pakistan special place is allotted to the food street with controlled entry system for security purposes. Unlike Bangkok most of the food is offered in proper restaurant instead of road side stalls.

Food Street Lahore

Islamabad Cricket Stadium Food Street is one of the renowned food street located in capital of Pakistan. There is huge variety of meals that includes Shinwari tikka, Rayn, Steam Roast, Chicken Karahi, Mutton Karahi etc. Pakistani’s are known to be foody people and from sunset to 12 o clock in normal days food street is full of traffic.

The major problem that Pakistani food street now a days facing is use of unhygienic practices due to which there were number of serious incident happened like food poisoning, diarrhea etc.

On the other hand there are restaurants that are very conscious about their reputation and offer best food in town. Kartarpura is the food street that need not be missed, located at Raja Bazar side in Rawalpindi. There is Nihari of Kala Shah that is reputable and renowned because of its more than 40 years of service. Kala Shah Nihari is famous because of its taste, people have to weight in ques for their turn and most of the time their stock get ran out because of their high sales. Similarly case is with other renowned names.

Pakistan is full of foodie people, even from foreign countries people visit Pakistan because of its diverse nature of food. Government must consider ensuring hygiene practices in local restaurants for promoting food industry of Pakistan and increasing revenue.  

Pakistan General Post Office Time to Mint Money From Tourism

Post office has opened 36 rest houses for the tourists. Now you can stay at less than RS.1200 per day. The post office has opened their rest houses for all tourists in order to have increase in the monthly earnings. These rest houses and hotels have low prices than the other rest houses and hotels of the market. It’s a cheerful update for all the backpackers that they can enjoy a room in budget.

"In the total earnings, there will be increase of Millions. These rest houses are located in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and other cities of Pakistan", said the post office.

Among these rest houses, 11 are of A category, 20 are of B category and 5 are of C category. The rent of “A” category rest houses is RS.3000; whereas, of “B” category is RS.2200 and the rent of C category is Rs.1200. The only aim of them behind the opening of these rest houses is to have an increase in the earnings. This will undoubtedly enhance the GDP of Pakistan.

The good part is that government is now using best use of its capitals to upsurge its revenues. This will not only increase the revenues of Pakistan post office but also help and increase number of the tourists to stay in budget accommodations. It’s a win-win situation that overall leads to the great benefits for the economy of Pakistan.

The auxiliary proposal is that this strategy can be adopted by other state enterprise which can add revenues from tourism rather than relying on their pure functions. One of the examples is of Pakistan Railway. The problem of recovery of its own land became a dispute for Pakistan Railways in year 2017. It was recorded that it was 4120 acres of land which worth around Rs. 89 billion. This encroachment was conducted in country by government and private organisations, counting the Rangers and Army in them. Billion rupees of land have remained occupied for commercial plots, housing and cultivation purposes, making the organisation frustrated. To avoid this they should develop rest houses and earn from their legal property. As we are observing an era of great tourism ahead in Pakistan, so all the public limited companies should increase side profits from this strategy.

Rapid Look on rest houses Locations of Post office:

• The A category rest houses are open in Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan, Jehlum, Mianwali, Peshawar, Lahore, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Quetta.
• The B category rest houses are in Murree, Attock, Chitral, Abbottabad, Ayubia, Mīrpur Khās, Sorab, Amri, Taftan, Kalat, Muzafarabad, Mirpur, Kotli, Gilgit, Skardu, Sust, Gujarat and Layyah.
• The C category rest houses are available in Pindi Point Muree, Saidu Shareef, Bannu, Ziarat and Sialkot.

Minimarg is Now Wide-open for Tourists By Government Of Pakistan

Government of Pakistan has certain to allow domestic and foreign travellers to visit Minimarg valley of Astore district. Now Afterwards June 15 ,2019 tourists can stopover at the Minimarg and adore the most beautiful part of Gilgit-Baltistan. After Independence of Pakistan, this is for the first time that Minimarg valley will welcome travelers both domestic and global.

I had merely just heard about Minimarg, a beautiful town near to the Indian borderline. It’s around 35 km from Chilam post. First you had to get approval from Army, as 80 brigades is placed at Minimarg. We needed reference of at least captain rank officer who can call at Chilam post to move forward. Thanks to this government this tension has been resolved.

A stunning lake, Rainbow lake is situated close to Domel that is a village in the very distant Minimarg valley in Astor District. Time stops at Rainbow Lake. I consider this is the greatest I can label the fascinating beauty of this lake. Rainbow Lake is small in size however do not lack in beauty. It is nourished by fresh water small streams from neighboring mountains. Rainbow Lake is gifted with crystal pure water that change shades from greenish-blue color to lime throughout different periods of daytime. The lake holds big sized brown Trout fish and is famous among the trout fishermen.

Yet, Rainbow Lake and Minimarg Valley is very hard to reach. Minimarg Valley can merely be come within reach through 14,500 foot great Burzil Pass. It remains blocked due to dense snow fall that remains there around 7-8 months in a year. Possible times to go Minimarg are June, July and August.

Quick Suggestions:

As we share boarder with India so we have to be watchful. Allowing without reference is fine but do have standard identity card check and entry exit evidence of tourists.

There are no sound rooms available apart from Army guest houses. Not everyone appreciates camping. So I suggest to balance between Mother Nature and constructions, there must be decent class camps built-in for tourist.

Don't leave plastic waste there. Avoid littering and abolishing the region by cutting out branches, as it all destroys the beauty of wildlife. We have to practice it like it is made of glass, be careful with nature and leave it as we see it.

Trip to Toli Pir

Toli Pir is located in Azad Kashmir, Tehsil Poonch, District Rawalakot. It’s a hill top area with height of approximately 8800 ft above sea level. Its only 20 minutes’ drive from the district Rawalakot and the Poonch river can be seen from this location. It is the highest mountain located in vicinity of Rawlaakot. 
This trip was planned by our finance teacher of Comsats. We gather at 7 o clock in morning at parking area of Comsats University. Coaster was hired for group of 30 people. Bus was departed at 8 o clock with all the class mates.

It took almost 3 hours 20 minutes to reach the District Rawalakot as we adopted the route from GT road towards Kahuta. Road is congested and narrow because of single road for two way traffic, secondly there were many blind curves that requires to be cautious while driving. If you have no experience of driving in hilly areas, it is strongly recommended to hire experienced driver and enjoy your tour.

Though road conditions are not good but scenic beauty of Pines tree make your trip amazing. All over the route you would see greenery, small huts and not to forget the height area view. Till Rawalakot there is not even a single reasonable place where one can stop for the refreshment, so it is recommended to take your meal along with you for enjoying the picnic as well.

We stopped at Dhabba in main city of Rawalakot for refreshment. Weather was bit cold even in month of May. So we ordered chicken karahi along with chowpati for whole class. Food was delicious and everybody enjoyed it. After  having food from Dhabba, bus was departed towards Toli Pir. It took us almost 20 minutes to reach the parking area of Toli Pir.

People say that if there is any heaven on earth then it is Kashmir, Toli Pir proved it right. It’s a 15 min walk from the parking area to the top of Toli Pir hill and literally you can feel the clouds here. It’s the place of peace where you can get out of your anxiety and depression and the view let you think, how beautiful God has created nature. It is one of the most beautiful discovery of my life in which nature was seen from very close.

Tourism May Proves to be a Helping Hand Towards Pakistan’s Falling Economy

Pakistan has everything from the world highest mountains to deepest rivers and sea, weathers from summer to winters, spring to autumn, from deserts to beaches, from snow to valley, Pakistan has every possible thing that is essential, and the things tourists are looking for. The only thing that Pakistan is lacking in this industry is maintenance of tourist’s attractions and proper decor needed. But new government has did many things in recent months to boost tourism in Pakistan like it is discussed in previous blogs that the visa policy for tourists is changed and tourists can get it easily and also on the spot visa can also be provided and many facilities like Helicopter service will be provided to tourists from hotel to destination and back. The thing to boost tourism to that extent that it can improve the Pakistan economy is the proper marketing channel that is the need of the time to improve the Pakistan image and make the tourists and the foreigners realize that there are many beautiful places to explore.

As of statistics given on Emerging Pakistan Tourism contributed 2.7% of GDP and it is expected to grow double in the upcoming years. To increase the tourism in Pakistan media can play a vital role by publishing the interviews of foreigner’s visitors and by showing the hospitality of Pakistani people. And by engaging the foreigner’s bloggers and you-tubers with them to show case the true positive image of Pakistan. More the tourism activities in Pakistan more the economy moves towards stability.

Memorable Journey Towards the Heart of Mountains

Shogran is the Pakistan’s most beautiful hill station, situated in a green plateau in the Kaghan Valley northern Pakistan at a height of 2,362 metres (7,749ft) above sea level.

Shogran is located at 34 kilometres away from Balakot. I went there with my family, cousins and relatives on 8th September 2018. The transport we prefer was Toyota Hiace. We went straight from Islamabad to Abbottabad, Usmania resturant. We all had lunch over there. Food was delicious. Then after eating, we started our journey towards Shogran. The road from Islamabad to Abbottabad is good, but the road that takes you to the Shogran hills is not constructed well. The road from kawai to Shogran was okay at that time but not due to poor maintenance is not so good. We went from Kawai to Shogran in 30 mins. It is a beautiful place where the air is so fresh, the mountains are so close and seemed ready to welcome us. The must visit place in shogran is Forest Rest House. It has a big grassy lawn, with an outstanding view. Me and my relatives, we all sat there on the fresh green grass and enjoyed our snacks. All the uncles and boys played bat ball on the garden, while the women and the girls were enjoying their badminton racket match. There are some markets on the hill which provides you tea, coffee, chips and some of the shops has traditional things like cloths, bags, shawls etc. Hotels and motels are available on a very affordable price. One of the best hotels to stay were Arcadian Spruce woods, Pine Park Shogran, Cedarwood. We stayed for a night in my friend’s hotel over there. It has nice and big bedrooms. His farm was well maintained and clean. There was a lot of beautiful birds, ducks in the farm. We did bbq at night, and then we had some soup. The stars seem so close at night, the sky looks like it has diamonds in it. The wind was so cold at night that we did a bonfire on a side and enjoyed gossips. Mobile phone service is also available there.

The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful view, nice and shinny day. We did our breakfast. We enjoyed a lot while drinking tea with such an amazing weather. After breakfast we had to go back, as we went there for a day, but we all were sad to leave such a nice place where anyone can live for there whole life. We took a lot of photos in the morning for memories. And then we started our journey again back to Islamabad.

Trail 5 Margalla Hills

Trail 5 Margalla Hills

One of the most popular and best tracks is located at F-5 Margalla Road Islamabad. This track is almost 3.8 km long, divided into three routes. First route of 1.8 km is simple and straight to hick as there is no steep path and route is clear from rocks, this route leads to the spring where hikers can fill their bottles with cold water stream.

There is steep route as well also known as “trail 5 dangerous”. So, it gives a good combination of tough and relax time. “Trail 5 dangerous” has steep slippery path and it is highly not recommended for beginners to use and as well as not to return from this track especially. 

My journey to trail 5 started with group of my Comsian fellows. We were 15 people, bunked the International Relation class and gather at trail 5 for getting out of monotonous routine. We started our hiking session at 0900 PST in crew form.  All mates were wearing joggers, highly motivated as they were mentally ready for 3 hours continuous hike session.

Initially route was like piece of cake, everybody passed it easily. After 1.5 hours of hick we decided to take break for 30 minutes near water spring as everybody were exhausted. So, we filled our bottles here and opened our lunch boxes for restoring the drained energy.  After the break, again hiking session begins.  Our group was divided into 2 directions, one towards normal track and other towards dangerous track. I opted towards dangerous track as it was shortcut for reaching near Pir Sohawa road. It was in short million-dollar view from the curve of the steep mountain, where one can observe the nature closely. 

There were monkeys spotted at track, it is highly recommended to hold stick or teaser to avoid any sort of unfortunate accident. Though chances are very less, but still accident can be happened anytime and after all it’s a wild animal. (P.S The boy climbing at tree is Sedrick J Nicholson who was our CR at that time.)

The moment we reached Pir Sohawa Road was not less than “EID” for us, after 4 hours of hick we were able to reach this place. At the point everybody was just like, now no more steps! So, we decided to hire careem/uber. Unfortunately, our 3g was not working at that point so we decided for plan B. Plan B was to find some lift! 15 people were fitted in 3 vehicles successfully and were dropped at “Monal Resturant”.

At Monal, the moment we sit for lunch each and every person consumed almost one liter of water. After 15 minutes order was placed in which we ordered chicken karahi, malai boti, chappati, lasagnia, pizza and sandwiches.  Gossip session started till the arrival of our food! The level of hunger was at its peak and my fellows were like “Kab Ayay Ga Order”. Finally, after 30 mins order was placed and yes it was amazing.

After having food from Monal, we departed from Monal by hiring a single cabinet. All fellows were settled in back of Cabin. It was really an amazing trip and a day well spent with best people of that time. I didn’t remember what I ve studied in my IR Class but i do remember this day, and it is one of the golden day of my life.

Helicopter Service can be a milestone to boost Tourism in Pakistan

PTI Government is doing lots of efforts to boost and revive tourism in Pakistan. Now Pakistan is going toward stability, the current Prime Minister is doing a great job in improving the image of the country to foreigners to explore the beauty of Pakistan. This will be a great deal to improve our revenue by advertising the good image of the country.

Prime Minister created the tourism task force for the revival of tourism and he said that Pakistan has many hidden beauties and open doors for the tourists and said that they will also focus on eco and religious tourism. He launched the portal, where tourists can send their documents and details so to get Pakistan’s visa in 7 to 1o days. The previous policies were not such flexible but now the old mind set is changing.

Recently, on Thursday 14th March 2019 Prime Minister launched the e-visa service for 175 countries which is a very good step to boost tourism, this will prevent tourists who are willing to visit Pakistan form much hassle.

The second biggest initiative that Prime Minister is going to take is the launch of Helicopter service in northern areas of Pakistan with low fares in comparison to flights, it will help tourists to spend lots of time in exploring beauties than in journey. This service will be available in:

• Chitral
• Swat
• Malakand
• Bunir
• Kalam
• Upper Dir
• Osho
• Kolkot
• Lower Dir
• Gilgit-Baltistan

The final discussion about the launch of this service is on Tuesday 19 March 2019. License will be given to the firms willing to provide services to tourists from resorts and license will be valid for 5 years.