Traveling with friends is always fascinating. There are some lovely quotes about this saying:
Good company on a journey makes the way seem shorter.” -Izaak Walton
“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.” -Tim Cahill
I can validate the sanctity of the quotes given above by our journey from Lahore to Chilas. We set off for Skardu from Lahore and we had set our first overnight stay target for Chilas. It is a long journey of 800 KM which includes a long mountainous range and often takes around 20 hours of driving. Now, this seems like a lot. And sure it is, however, how it feels matters the most at the end of the day. Truly, it was a wonderful journey packed with a lot of fun with amazing friends.
We left Lahore on a Friday night and continuously drove to Mansehra via Hazara Motorway or Expressway. We had always used the Naran and Babusar Pass to reach Chilas in the past. This time however we decided to check the other route which is a lot longer and not so famous among tourists. Hence we continued the Karakoram Highway which passes through the junctions of Battagaram, Thakot, Besham City, Pattan, Dasu, and Kohistan area up to Chilas.
We stopped over at Besham city for breakfast at Ramada hotel. It was an amazing place in the sense that we got a chance to have a quick nap which helped us regain our energy for the rest of the drive. The waiter there told us that the road near Dasu was under construction and we should cross that before noon else there might be delays. We left Besham City after breakfast and continued our journey. Soon after that, we realized that we had made a bad decision choosing this route given that we had an option of going through Naran. The road was bumpy and the heavy traffic was making it difficult to maintain a constant speed.
We were though enjoying our journey by cracking jokes and making each other's fun. We stopped after Dasu at roadside and recorded some videos. They journey in the Kohistan region is quite tiring as it's a mountainous region. Last 2 hours proved to be a bit of stretch. We changed drivers a couple of times to ensure our safety.
Finally we reached Chilas. Our purpose to stay at Chilas was two fold. a) We did not have energy to drive any further and needed to stop somewhere overnight so we decided Chilas can be a good option. b) We had never been to Chilas so we thought why not visit the city. We visited a couple of hotels to find a good room and found one at a very reasonable price. As far as I remember it was in 2000 rupees per night. We walked in the bazar of Chilas City. We bought some pears which turned out to be extremely juicy and sweet.
Негізгі бет We devoured the food at Chilas
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