Pakistan - Your Travel Destination in 2019: Part VI - Gilgit Baltistan

Pakistan is a country which has everything a tourist may want: landscape, warm hearted people, hospitality and lot to see. You may travel by road to your travel destinations or take regular flights closer to your start point and then use sturdy and rugged jeeps that can withstand the rigours of mountain tracks under their wheels.

I have written many posts on the northern areas of Pakistan, the Karakoram Mountains and a series of posts on the Hindu Kush Mountain in my Mar Loosemore series of posts. No matter which travel destination you choose, you will be awe inspired and take back a nostalgia that will stay with you for the rest of your lives.

Gilgit Baltistan in the northern areas of Pakistan is a region of immense travel importance and countless travel destinations. From ordinary tourists to trekkers and mountaineers, the area presents innumerable destinations and sights that one may have never seen before. The Karakoram Highway is the heart line to all these travel destinations, astride which one comes across Gilgit city, some call it Chinatown of Pakistan, Hunza known for its freshness, a secret behind longevity of its people, the Passu Cones, and finally the Khunjrab border post between China and Pakistan. En route one comes across spectacular view of the Rakaposhi Mountain and junction point of three mighty mountain ranges: The Himalaya, the Hindukush and the Karakorum.

And if you have a flare for fishing you can fish Trout right from the ice cold waters of streams running close to tracks and roads.

And before I forget to mention, Pakistan has five of the fourteen eight thousnaders, mountain peaks towering more than 8,000 meters, including the mighty K2, second to Mt Everest.

You may surf my blog and find many posts on the beauty of travel destinations in the northern areas and Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. But for now, see this beautiful video about tourists' remarks and their views on the travel destinations in Pakistan:

Whenever are you visiting Pakistan next?

Photo (Ladyfinger Mountain) | References | 1 | 2 |

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Fascinating Pakistan - Passu Cones

Karakorum Mountain Range which dominates the other two mountain ranges of the Himalayas and the the Hindu Kush in the northern areas of the Pakistan not only has four of the fourteen eight thousanders of the world, including the seconder highest mountain peak of K2, it also has a large number of seven thousanders and awesomely beautiful mountain peaks. While I have been talking of other eight thousanders of Pakistan, let me digress from these and talk about one of the most photographed mountain shapes and tops - the Passu Cones.

These number of conical projections get their names from the village Passu located along the Karakorum Highway besides the Hunza River and the fact that these are located near the tongue of the Passu Glacier, and just south of the tongue of the Batura Glacier - the 56 km long glacier which is the seventh longest non-polar glacier in the world. The Batura Glacier also reaches very near to the highway. 

The Passu Cones are in fact part of the 6,106 metres (20,033 ft) high Tupopdan Mountain, spread over some 20 kilometers, and are also called the "Passu Cathedral" for its massivity and vast frontal shape. 

A rather full view of the Tupopdan Mountain and its famous Passu Cathedral

The Tupopdan mountain is located to the north of the Passu village, part of the Upper Hunza Valley of Gilgit Baltistan region of Pakistan.

Passu Cathedral is also called the "Sun Drenched Mountain" or "Mouthful of Sun Mountain" as its pyramidal cones shine as the sun rays fall on to these. One onlooker has described the sun rays falling on to the cones in awesomely captivating words: "The first light over Passu cathedrals makes a setting for a beautiful and colorful show, with sun's rays hitting the ridge at an angle resulting in a panoramic dance of light and shadows observed on the mountain ranges."

I once ventured to go to the Khunjrab Top at the Pakistan-China border, at the end of perhaps the highest metaled road - the Karakorum Highway (KKH). Ahead of Hunza, we stopped at the Rakaposhi view point, about which I have already written and the hearty breakfast we had before moving on to Khunjrab. However, en route we were told that the road near the village of Sust, a border/custom  check post, was closed and that we should not venture forward. 

A spectacular view of the Passu Cones or the Passu Cathedral while driving on the KKH

However, our journey gave us a good chance to see the Passu Cones and I still remember its massivity, grandeur and typical coned shape peaks. In fact, the Passu Cones are the most prominent and eye-catching objects as one reaches the Passu village. In those we did not have digital cameras and the photographs which I took got misplaced over the years except the only photo of I and may family posing in front of the rising slopes of Rakaposhi.

Road travel from Gilgit to Gulmit - Passu village and Tupopdan Mountain - Google Map

There are two suspension bridges over River Hunza for trekkers to further their adventures on foot to explore the mountains and glaciers ahead. These two bridges are known as the Hussaini Bridge (photo above) and the Passu Bridge. It really requires guts to walk across these bridge as these are not in a very good state of maintenance.

Words and photos alone perhaps cannot explain the grandeur of the Pass Cathedral unless one sees its from one's eyes either on the site itself or through a video. I am sharing one of the many videos on Passu Cones and I am sure this will not only leave a meaningful impression on my readers but will also compel them to plan a trip to see this beautiful mountain and its conical peaks. This video has been shot by a para glider that starts from the Ata Abad Lake and shows the massive Tupopdan Mountain and its cones beside the Ghulkin, Gulmit, Passu and Batura glaciers - an awesome video worthy of the beautiful scenery below:

If you are planning a visit to Passu Cones, you will have to drive some 150 kilometers on the KKH ahead of the city of Gilgit, the China Town of Pakistan, and some 14 kilometers ahead of the small town of Gulmit.
Photos: Northern Areas of Pakistan 

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Khunjrab to Islamabad: A spectacular journey from top of the world on bicycle

Karakoram Highway is one of the unique highways in the world for it connects Pakistan's capital Islamabad to China at Khunjrab - the highest place in the world connected by a metalled road. 

Part of the old fairy tale Silk Route, which had long vanished,  Pakistan and China agreed to construct the Karakoram Highway, commonly called the KKH, in 1966. The area had never been visited by machines and automobile and it was the first time that people of region came to know about automation.  One of the workers narrates an interesting anecdote about the remoteness of the area: 

When after lot of difficulties, a Pakistan Army jeep managed to reach a so far inaccessible village, a villager ran and brought a vase full of water and placed under the front of the jeep. When asked what he was doing, the villager innocently replied, "Sahib, your animal must be thirsty."

The 1300 kilometres (800 miles) long KKH, or the N-35, originates from Hassan Abdal, a place some 45 kilometres from Islamabad on the Islamabad - Peshawar Highway, goes through Abbotabad, Manshera, crosses the River Indus at Thakot, on to Gilgit (through Besham, Pattan and Sazin) and then to Chilas, Hunza and Sost before crossing the Khunjerab Pass at the height of some 4800 metres (15,750ft) - the Zero Point between Pakistan and China.

It is a marvel of human endurance, ingenuity and determination. Both Pakistani and Chinese workers and engineers worked day and night over some of the most formidable and inaccessible mountain ranges of the world, with deep gorges and torrential Indus running along the track with its full might. 

The Indus River flows northwest, dividing the Himalaya from the Karakoram. The KKH runs along the Indus for 310 kilometres of its climb north, winding around the foot of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world.  Not far north of Jaglot the Gilgit river joins the Indus from the west. The highway then leaves the Indus for Gilgit, Hunza and Khunjrab rivers to take on the Karakoram Range - where 12 of the 30 highest mountains in the world overlook the KKH. 

At Khunjrab Pass, the KKH proudly stands as the highest metalled border crossing in the world. En route to Khunjrab, before Gilgit, there is a road sign inviting the attention of the tourists to stop and see the the Hindu Kush mountains converge with the Karakoram Range, a part of the Himalayan mountain system (see the board above). 

The Karakoram (the 'crumbling rock' in Turkish language) Highway is an incredible feat of engineering and an enduring monuments to the 810 Pakistanis and 82 Chinese who died forcing it through  the world's most difficult and unstable terrain, making it possible to surface on earth the Eighth Wonder of the World.  Karakoram Highway has a strategic importance that overarches the whole region. It forms the Asian 'high road' loop that binds Pakistan and China and can also serve as a link between China and the Central Asian states. In 2003, the Silver Jubilee celebrations (1978-2003) of the construction of the road were held both in Pakistan and China.

Huawei Mobile Pakistan has recently covered and sponsored a solo bicycle adventure by on Moin Khan from the freezing cold Khunjrab at the Zero Pint of Pakistan-China border to Islamabad. This post covers the spectacular bicycle adventure that covers journey from The Pak-China border to Battagram on KKH.

The video below shows part of the journey through the border custom post Sost, Bay Bar, the famous Passu Cones, the Attabad Lake, Hunza and finally ends at Battagram. 

A massive landslide on 4 January 2010 blocked the Hunza River at Attabad, 9 miles (14 km) upstream (east) of Karimabad Hunza, and made a huge lake called Attabad Lake (above) or the Gojal Lake, for the lake lies in the Gojal Valley of northern Pakistan. The lake flooding has displaced 6,000 people from upstream villages, and inundated over 12 miles (19 km) of the Karakoram Highway - thus cutting the Pakistan-China road link. Although, ferry services promptly came in transporting people and goods across the lake, it badly hampered Pakistan-China trade.

With Chinese help, the part of the submerged KKH was realigned and 24 new road with five tunnels, totalling seven kilometres, was constructed and inaugurated on 14 September 2015. The realignment restored the road link between Pakistan and China and it is expected that significant amount of trade will be conducted between China and Pakistan through KKH. KKH is also a part of Pakistan China Economic Corridor, and is expected to significantly increase economic integration between China and Pakistan. 

Watch the video below:

My Huawei My Pakistan - Khunjerab to Islamabad
Posted by Huawei Mobile Pakistan on Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Related References:
The karakoram Highway (Pakistanpaedia)
Making of the KKH
Attabad Lake (Wikipedia)

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