Author archive
26 June 2012
Information and misinformation Last night our hotel had advised that there were buses to Gilgit at 0600, 1000 and midnight. We decided against 0600 and opted for 1000. We checked with him at breakfast and the 1000 (now revised to 1030) was now unavailable but he could get us on at 1500. It’s apparently a […]
25 June 2012
Leaving Abbottabad Abbottabad was just a nightstop for us. I went out looking for breakfast but it doesn’t look like the kind of town where anyone eats out in the morning. So I bought a loaf of cake and a tetrapak of milk, inhaled it and quickly made our way to he general bus stand. […]
24 June 2012
We took a 3 hour ride in a minivan from Murree to Abottabad. There were 4 pax per row (designed for 3 pax), 5 rows including the driver’s cab. All together 20 people in a Toyota Hiace. Along the way we had people hold on to he racks at the back of the van as […]
24 June 2012
With last night’s accommodation fiasco, we weren’t overly enamoured with Murree. There’s not that much to see and certainly we couldn’t justify another night of hotel at an exorbitant rate. After a walk around we grabbed breakfast. There were lots of flies buzzing around; as my meal came first I got Marie to fan the […]
23 June 2012
Finding a bus to Murree I had wanted to come to Murree as it is the town where Pat (Kim’s dad) was born. I had offered to bring a ziploc bag of his ashes to scatter; probably somewhat in jest as I’d have difficulty trying to explain what the grey powder was if ever questioned […]
23 June 2012
My plan was to have tonight in Lahore. As we had done nearly all we had wanted (and due to the heat) we decided to move on to Murree. The bus leaves at 4pm so we had time to fit in the Shalimar Gardens which is brought to you by the people that brought the […]
22 June 2012
Sights of Lahore We had three hour sleep from 0330 to 0630 when the sun was already strong where we were sleeping on the rooftop. It was worth it to witness the Sufi drumming and whirling. Governmental advice is to avoid religious sites, being out late at night, crowded places, markets etc. I think we’ve […]
21 June 2012
Excellent Start Our hostel manager Sajjad put on an amazing breakfast of chickpea curry and naan (both bought) plus plums, peaches and mangoes. We washed that down with lime juice and then some chai. As we would have activities for the afternoon and the night, we decided to do nothing this morning. The heat was […]
20 June 2012
Above: Newspaper next day about the heatwave today. Flight to Lahore Our flight to Lahore departed at 1900. Our time at the airport didn’t drag on with time spent ticketing our domestic flight from Gilgit to Islamabad and then having a snack. The flight was an oldish 747-300 and we were placed in the nose […]
20 June 2012
Visit to Chaukhandi To avoid the heat at Chaukhandi, we decided to wake a little earlier at 0730 which required the use of an alarm since we had an internal windowless room. The hotel didn’t know anything about Chaukhandi but taxi driver (Asghar) which normally hangs outside the hotel knew about the place. It doesn’t […]