Hey guys, Umair here from Calamity Travels. In this post, I want to talk to you guys about a particular day when we truly witnessed the beauty of Pakistan. We are, of course, on day four now on the vlogs, so if you haven’t caught up on the many blog posts published on calamitytravels.com and videos over on Youtube, feel free to check them out now… I’ll wait.

So, this day started with a grand plan, as many of our days do, and I won’t give any spoilers as we have a couple more coming from this day, but things don’t EVER go according to plan, so you roll with it and try to make the best of any situation we can. After all, we are incredibly blessed to have been able to travel to 44 countries (42 at this point) and even being alive is a blessing we often take for granted. I will preach this often, letting you know now before we get too attached. I solemnly believe that we have all been given the gift of living, so we should aim to crush it as others haven’t been so fortunate. Yes, that might be a bit cringy, but it’s true! It’s also why I decided to jump off a Colombian mountain, a quivering mess, only a couple of days ago, but that IS a story for another day.

Armed with all of our eternal optimism, we came up with a plan. We were set to go quad-biking in the Safaranga desert and visit Shigar fort, which would mean us passing through some gorgeous landscapes on the way, thus enjoying the beauty of Pakistan once more. There was just one hiccup; our driver turned up well over an hour late! (Fun Fact: we went with these guys as we met the co-owner the day before, coming out of Hussainabad waterfall. I still can’t believe we decided to go on a hike wearing kurtas (ShalwarKameez’ss), and you can also check that out on our Youtube channel.

I should let you know that if you’re looking for tours of Skardu, you will have to hire a driver. You will have a few options, but tours are usually conducted via a Prado (a jeep-like vehicle), which you will need as the roads are challenging! Well, they were in the summer of 2021. Day tours will likely start at around 5,000 rupees, but it will all be dependent upon the distance. As Usual, it’s best to haggle, and your hotel can coordinate for you, but they’ll likely take a cut. We did this day for 6,000 (Inc a 20% tip) because we ran into an owner of that tour company whilst looking for a waterfall, it’s a crazy story, and you can read that here.

Making the most of our delay, we caught up with the co-owner of the hotel we were staying in (aptly named Hotel Himalaya), charming chap! Although we had a couple of significant issues a few days later, I like to write these things as our feelings were in the moment. Anyway, lovely chap. He even gave us some apples from their garden and showed us around the hotel whilst giving us his backstory. It’s impressive how many apples we received from people’s apple trees on this trip. Pakistan is full of surprises, as you can tell if you’ve been following along on our Pakistan travel adventures!

So, after we took that opportunity because remember life is all about opportunity” (you gotta be decisive on whether you’ll take it or let it pass by, waiting for the next opportunity to arrive) More of that as we get to know one another. We then departed on our journey through Skardus many valleys, and man-oh-man, WOW! Honestly, guys and gals, if you ever get an opportunity to travel to Pakistan, please take it and tag us on Instagram, as we’d love to see more people enjoy this beautiful country! Despite being English-Pakistani, I had never travelled there. Everyone knew it was beautiful, but the fear was always there. Perhaps it was media-driven, but our experience travelling through Pakistan, like many others, was one of beautiful sights and fond memories.

As we glided through the Thorgu valley, east of Skardu city (and trust me, if you want to experience the beauty of Pakistan, then you HAVE to visit here!), we came across a makeshift lemonade stand”, if you will, only they weren’t selling Lemonade, but mango juice, my favourite!

My mother told me three rules I must abide by whilst travelling to Pakistan 1. Never barter with the elderly; if they say a price, pay it and say thank you. I forget the second rule. 3. Always show support to those you can help.

As we approached this village lemonade, sorry mango stand, the 3rd rule popped into my head, so we kindly asked our driver (the co-owner of the company, a great guy and will come up again. Such a legend!) to slow down. My Urdu is nowhere near what it should be, but how can you ever learn what’s never shown? Thanks, Disneys’ treasure planet; what an underrated movie! This trip was about getting back in touch with my roots, so I was trying, and Natalie, my gorgeous wife, gave it her all. I love that woman! So glad I took that opportunity!

As you may know, the language of Pakistan is predominantly Urdu; however, the north has many different dialects, one of which is Balti, and I couldn’t wrap my head around it, especially not on day 4! It’s as similar to Urdu as Urdu is to English; completely different! Hence, our lovely tour guide had to speak for us, and yes, he speaks English, like many people in Pakistan.

The price was 100 PKR (Pakistani Rupees) per drink (a tad inflated but remember the third rule). After all, that equates to around 42p. To convert Pakistani Rupees into British pounds, we came up with the following conversion; the rule is to divide the figure in half and then take off 20%. That was what it was in the summer of 2021; currencies change often. I would always check with XE.com and then adjust for your home currency.

So, 500 rupees would be:

500/2 = 250.

250*0.2 = 50.

250–50 = 200.

So 500 rupees is £2.

Enough of the math, c’mon it’s a Tuesday!

We were honestly so impressed by these boys’ bravery. As you may know, wasps and hornets are attracted to sweet fruits, so their kitchen set-up had many around. I had to take the tools and pretty much do it myself. If you can help out, you should. A lesson I was incredibly fortunate to have learned from so many in my life.

I essentially made our drinks as the boys looked on; pretty tasty, and I know that if their parents had been present, they definitely would not have been ok with the overcharging. Man, I’ve got to let that go! Don’t sweat the small stuff, especially if it coincides with rule number 1 or 3.

As we left the world’s most picturesque mango stand location, we continued our drive through the Valleys of Skardu, Pakistan and man; we understood the beauty of Pakistan during this journey. The drive took a couple of hours with a tiny break in the middle but going from one valley to the next with Safaranga desert in the middle has many stark contrasts. It is mad that such a beautiful place exists and so few know about it, even less visit it. I hope you take the opportunity to travel to Pakistan when it arises.

You don’t have to take my word for it. You can check the tonnes of stuff that we have that showcases the beauty of Pakistan and this entire vlog over on our channel.

Toodles.

USEFUL TIPS FOR BACKPACKING PAKISTAN:

How to visit the scenic valleys of Skardu in Pakistan

So it’s essentially pretty easy to enjoy the beauty of Pakistan; firstly, you will need to head to Skardu, Pakistan. Skardu will be the central point for a lot of your excursions. Skardu certainly was for us, as you can tell from the numerous videos we have filmed there. We documented our flight from Islamabad to Skardu, showing you how to do that journey.

Once in Skardu, ask your hotel for a driver. We paid 5,000 PKR for this trip with a 4×4, including a driver and petrol. Ensure that whichever vehicle you book, driver and gasoline are included. As with anywhere, some companies can be a tad cheeky, so to avoid surprises later, it’s best to be upfront. Also, for those of you thinking,” Can I join a tour” Yes, yes you can. However, Urdu will be a prerequisite, and the travel conditions are unlike anywhere else in the world. I am sure there are expensive tours, too, but our recommendation would be to hire a driver, travel in a 4×4 and then explore the beautiful valleys surrounding Skardu.

Your itinerary for the day will consist of Safaranga Desert, Blind Lake and countless moments of awe at Pakistans beauty as you ascend into Shigar Valley to visit the Serena Shigar Fort, which may be Pakistans’ most overrated tourist destination but let us know what you think if you plan to visit or have visited.

Enjoy! and don’t forget to tag Calamity Travels on Instagram. We’d love to see if you enjoyed backpacking Pakistan as much as we did!