karakoram highway Pictures

Spain Cordoba_10-18 June 06

2007-10-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

China Taklamakan Desert

2005-11-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

A short one day trip to Taklamakan desert from Kashgar. Taklamakan means "if you go in, you won't come out". The trip was organized by a tourist agency in Semen hotel where we stayed in Kashgar.
Trip cost around 100 USD for each person which includes the traveling and guided tour, but our guide didnt speak any english :-))). The translation was done by a 11 year old girl who was travelling with us with her mom.
After we arrive there we realize that it was not a real desert, may be just a part of Taklamakan desert for tourist ......., but anyway good enough to take picture and to take pictures. We had a choice to either rent a desert Hovercraft or camel, but we choose the camel. it was a nice 30 min ride in desert. we came back to Kashgar around 1700.

China Kashgar

2005-11-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

We stayed 4 days in Kashgar, this place is an intense mix of chinese and Uygur culture. It is very intresting to see the vibrant Muslim centre within Chinese territory. Kashgar is a important hub on the Old Silk Road. It is the largest oasis city in Chinese Central Asia and 90 per cent of its population are Uygur. Kashgar Has a history of more than 2'000 years.
Even though the culture and old heritage is fading away very quickly or it is better to say that Kashgar is become more commercial. Chinese and Uygur does not mix too much, Chinese and Uygur dominant places and saperated in this city. we have been visiting both chinese and Uygur areas and enjoyed the food and historical places.

Sheesh Kabab restaurant .... very cheap and extremely delicious. in average we spent 1 USD for two person for a big meal
.

Spicy and dry froot shop

A house in Old town in Kashgar(you need to pay some money to enter to the old town of Kashar, plus a guided tour .. of course the guid didnt speak any english)

Some children in old town

Old town view

Bazar in Kashgar on the way to Id Kah Mosque

Old town

People's park, Statue of Mao

Old town

A home in old town

Id Kah Mosque, it was built in 1442

Some history of Id Kah Mosque

Inside of Id Kah Mosque, around 20,000 people can worship

Id Kah mosque

Id Kah mosque

China Karakul Lake

2005-11-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

Karakul Lake (Kirgiz: "black lake") is the highest lake of the Pamir platueau, is located approximately at an altitude of 3600m. Surrounded by mountains which remain snow-covered throughout the year.

There you can have a good view of massive Muztagh Ata (24757 ft /7546 m), the "Father of the Ice Moountains". The glaciers and snowfields are overwhelming. The high wind swept the plateaus between the parallel ranges that constitute the Pamirs, the "Roof of the World"(called the Onion Mountains in early Chinese records).

There are two settlements of Kirgiz nomadic people, they live in yurts or in houses made of stones. After we get out of bus we were surrounded with Kirgiz people who were trying to sale us the over night stay in there Yourt plus Kirghiz home made food. But we decided to go to a Kirghiz village a bit far away from Karakul Lake, as the Yourts near the Karakul lake is full with backpackers and other tourists. We met one person who invited us to his home in a near by village for a minimal amount of money, so the whole package include camal ride to and from the village, home made dinner and breakfast. The only problem we had there is they don’t speak any English.

A mosque in the village.

One of our host, enjoying Kirgiz music

Ignacio wih a Kirgyz hat and our host.

nice view of Muztagata Mountain

Kirgyz family, this is the place we spent the night

Kirgyz women preparing dinner

we are starring a camel ride from Karakul lake to the village

our host, the guy on the left is a Kirgyz musican, he plays key board

Kirgyz child

Me and Kirgyz women near Muztagata Mountain

having some tea with locals. plus we tried the yak cheese and kirgyz tea

Muztagata Mountain

yaks (for those who dont know how they look like ....)

Nice chinese made 4x4 jeep

China Tashkurgan

2005-11-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

After having a six hours of long and bumpy ride from Sost to Tashkurgan we finally arrive in a hotel. Actually after the final immigration in Taskurgan, there is a bus service which take you to the hotel. we spent the night there and next moring we started our journey to Karakul lake, the plan was to spend one night in Karakul lake and then go to Kashgar.

Khunjerab Pass (the higest border crossing in the world)

2005-11-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

The Khunjerab Pass is 4,733 meters (15,528 feet) high, which is the highest border-crossing in the world. It is also the highest point on the Karakoram highway. In order to go to China we bought the tickets from NATCO (Northern Area Transport Company) they provided us with the four red 4x4 jeeps, the one you see in the pictures bellow, we arrive from Karimabad to Sost around 2 pm, we rented a room in hotel, it was cheap (300 Rs for two person) and good. Sost is not really a town; it’s a hub for transportation to and from

China

. The seaniery is magnificent from Huza to Sost, beautiful view of snow caped mountains. After spending the night in Sost we woke up early next morning, checked out from hotel and went to Natco but bus stand, after having custom we sit in our 4x4 jeep to start the journey toward the world's highest border pass. In our jeep we had two other foreigners (New Zealander guy and a British girl), we first stop at the entrance of Kungerab pass Park to pay some entry fees, after a few KM drives we were stop because of a land slide. We had waited for around half an hour before we begin our journey again. It was snowing at that time in the month of July. We stoped again afert few KM and this this because of a big truck from China was stucked in the road, so the whole road were blocked, so the people decided use the off the road track, we begun by putting stones to making off the road track some how plane to pass our jeeps.

The intresting thing happened when we get to Tashkurgan/China the first village near the border, at that point we had final imigration point in China. First the imigration officers cheacked our temperature(i think because of SARS/BirdFlue) and when my turn came, i handed in to the imigration officer my passort, then he asked about the medical certificate, all Pakistani national need to have medical certificate from a doctor in Sost in order to get to China, as i wasnt aware about it, so i didnt get any... i told him that i dont have it as i wasnt aware of it....he said, without it i can not enter to China, he told me in Urdu pakistan wapis chaloo, which means go back to Pakistan, i almost panicked and my chances to go to China was fading away, i showed him my KELA card and my medical insurance from Finland, which off course didnt help much, and after a long discussion he let me in.

Karimabad(Hunza) to Sost ( Last village on Pakistani Chinese Border)

2005-11-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

Hunza

2005-11-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

view of Hunza valley
Ultar Mountain

LadyFinger mountain and ulter peak. Ultar peaks, still unclimbed. Many peple lost there lives in attempt to climb it, we saw some memorial of 2 Japanese climber who died in an climbing attempt.

An intresting and most beutiful place in Hunza valley where it is possible to see many highy mountains line, ladyfinger, ultar peak, golden peak and rakaposhi. this place is called "view point"

Memorial of Japanese climbers. They are also burried there
Golden peak, this peak get its name because during the sunset, the last ray of sun make the peak completely golden
Rakaposhi mountian(7788m high). Rakaposhi, is one of the most magnificent peak found in the world today. It is situated near the town of Gilgit and with a height of 7,788m/25,551ft it is easily climable from all sides
ladyfinger

Eleventh-century Baltit Fort, located 2,800 m above the sea level in Himalayan peaks

Gilgit

2005-11-23T07:47:00.000-08:00

Nangaparbat Base Camp

2005-11-18T16:35:00.000-08:00

We spent 3 nights in the Fairy Meadow. We took one day hike to Nangaparbat base camp. It took aound 6 hours hike from FairyMeadows to base camp, we had a stop over in Beyal.

Czech Republic climbers team is starting the expedition

Memorial of Hermann Buhl

Nanga Parbat - Fairy Meadow

2005-11-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

Nanga Parbat - Raikot Bridge

2005-11-17T04:24:00.000-08:00

Known as the "Killer Mountain," Nanga Parbat (8125m) is the 9th highest peak in the world and perhaps the most challenging. Anchoring the western end of the Himalayan Range, Nanga Parbat was first climbed in 1953 by Herman Buhl.

It has three main faces known as Rupal, Diamer and Raikot, which are totally different in appearance and shape and their routes start from different valleys.

For Raikot face, where we go up to Raikot Bridge on KKH to switch over to local jeeps for Jail, it took a challening journey of 1.5 hours to reach to a small valley called Tato, and from there we continue 3 hours of hiking to get to Fairy Meadows.

Other faces are:
For Rupal Face, start from Gilgit or KKH to Tarashing, a green alpine village at the head of the jeep track. It takes another two days to arrive at Rupal base camp.

For Diamer base camp the track is the most lengthy as it needs three days to reach and the last is

Nanga Parbat is also located where the continents have collided. Here the Indian plate is going under the Asian plate at a rate of about few inches a year. Consequently, Nanga Parbat is still rising. In fact it is the fastest rising mountain in the world

Mansehra

2005-11-17T04:19:00.000-08:00

Naran

2005-11-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

Abotobad

2005-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

In the evening we left Islamabad towards Abtobad, we took a public transport, there are many public bus services from Islamabad/Rawalpindi to another cities. We spend the night with one of wakar's friend family.
We had a very nice dinner, in the morning after breakfast his father drop us to the bus stop to catch the bus for Naran

Day 3 Islamabad

2005-11-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

We left Lahore on 13 July late night to Islamabad, Nasir aready bought us the tickets from Dawoo bus service. The journey took six hours (if i remember correctly) . We arrive Islamabad very early morning, we didnt do any seigth seeing there. A friend of mine (Wakar) was in Pakastan for his holidays, we met him in Islamabad. He help us bying the air tickets from

Kashar (China)-Islamabad-Karachi
Karachi-Lahore

Day 2 Wahga (or Wagha) Border Flag Ceremony

2005-11-15T07:07:00.000-08:00

A unique ceremony held on the border of Pakistan and India every evening just before sun set. Wahga until recently was the only way to cross borders between Pakistan and India (the Kashmir border just recently opened). The ceremony is quite popular and well attended by the people on each side. My patriotic feeling was too high while getting closer to Wagha. As i heared too many war stories from my father in this war front in 1965, i took many pictures to show it to him

Along the Karakorum Higway to China

2005-11-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

In summer 2005 my friend (from Spain) and i decided to travel on silk road. We both living in Helsinki. Our initial plan was to travel through Uzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan, China and then to Pakitan. We were planing to start from Helsinki by air to Moskow/st-petersburg, fly to Uzbekistan and then travel by road all the way to Pakistan. But we realize that we dont have much holidays for such a long trip. So finally we decided to travel on Krakorum higway (7th wonder of the world) all the way to China.

we started our trip from Helsinki, we flew to Sweden, then we took Swefly (its bank corrupted now)from Sweden to Lahore.

Day 1 Lahore

2005-11-07T04:36:00.000-08:00

We arrive in Lahore in the morning of 12 July 2005 around 7:30 am. My friend's brother (Naseer) where waiting for me there.
Weather was a bit warmer, but less warmer then i expected.
Naseer took us to the hotel, actually he wanted us to stay in his house, but we said that we have hotel aready booked. One the way to hotel in his car, he asked if we aready have breakfast, he acutally proposed us to have a very Lahori style breakfast, which is Paayai(foot of lamb) plus Naan plus Lassi. I looked at the Ignacio, it was hard to say No... , we didnt want to miss any single chance to be closer to with the culture and taste of food.

Food was good, portion was very big, and just in the middle of the breakfast, Nasir asked... so whats the plan for lunch...., me and Ignacio looked at each other, and i said in my mind... was'nt this is a lunch. Lahori is fond of eating, and there food is delicious and portion is very big.

We could not forget the hospatility of Nasir and his brother, he offered us his new car for two days, plus one of his friend who was our tourist guide plus driver.
We spent two days in Lahor, we pay 2000 Rs for a bed room, with two single bed(1000 Rs each including breakfast), hotel name was "shadman palace", quite nice place.

Many sights in Lahore go back to the times of the Moghul Emperors. Lahore has its own red Fort, one of the biggest Mosques in the subcontinent and some beautiful gardens. Many sights in Lahore go back to the times of the Moghul Emperors, so visiting this city really took me to the times of Mogul Emperors who rule the subcontinet for almost three centuries. Lahore for sure is the Cultural Capital of Pakistan