I Witnessed the Eighth Wonder of the World: The Karakoram Highway

I am currently in Gilgit. This is not a travel diary; rather, I will provide a detailed account of my adventures in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khunjerab Pass, Babusar Top, and other places I will visit over the next few days, in separate posts. Today is Day 2 of my journey towards exploring Gilgit and its vicinity.

There are two things worth mentioning. First, this is our first time visiting Gilgit, at least for me. My husband has done a skiing course here in the past, but that was a long time ago, and he had slept for most of the drive. Second, we are traveling in our new second-hand car, a Toyota Allion. My husband is not very confident with this vehicle so far. It's an automatic transmission, while we previously drove a manual. The mountain driving with an automatic... Well, he hasn't liked it much.

And wait, there is a third also: It was my life long dream to travel the Karakorum highway.

Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The highway is also a part of the Asian Highway AH4.

The Karakoram Highway (Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم, romanized: śāhirāh-i qarāquram; known by its initials KKH, also known as N-35 or National Highway 35 (Urdu: قومی شاہراہ ۳۵) or the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway) is a 1,300 km (810 mi) national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314. The highway connects the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plus Gilgit-Baltistan with China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The highway is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing through the Karakoram mountain range, at 36°51′00″N 75°25′40″E at maximum elevation of 4,714 m (15,466 ft) near Khunjerab Pass. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The highway is also a part of the Asian Highway AH4.
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_{We started our journey at 8 a.m. from Shinkiari as it is a 9 Hours drive (348.4 km)
via N-15 and Karakoram Hwy/N-35}

I just took this screenshot from Wikipedia. I want to show you the route of our journey today. You could say we traveled from Rawalpindi to Gilgit in the last 36 hours. However, we started our adventure from the southern part of Punjab, Pakistan.

Yes, it's 4 a.m. After a shower and Isha prayers, I can't sleep, so I thought, why not share the journey we had today? The red line shows the route I took from Wikipedia. We started our journey from Islamabad yesterday, actually from South Punjab, and had an overnight stay a little farther from Abbottabad, in a place called Shinkiari.

The first picture shows the time just before we started from Shinkiari in the morning at 8 a.m. because we were informed that the road would be closed due to the construction of a dam at Dasu. We estimated that we would reach Dasu by 1 p.m. The road was supposed to open at about 1:30 p.m. for two hours before closing again. We reached Dasu at about 1 p.m., well in advance, only to find out that the road would open at 2 p.m. However, it didn't open until 2:40 p.m.

Thankfully, there was a roadside dhaba-style cafe. There was no shade for cars, so we parked our car in the dazzling sun and went inside the small tin-made cafe. It had no fans and was an outdoor arrangement. Food was being served, but the heat made us lose our appetite. It was a painful 2 hours stay there, mostly because of heat. Here's a glimpse of the place:

_{I could see the snow covered peaks from this place, but couldn't feel their coolness}

The kids (mine and others) kept asking their parents when would they resume their journey.

They are not using their father's mobile for any activity, just checking the time and maybe browsing the installed apps. There was no cellular service or any kind of internet in the area. In my heart, I'm celebrating the internet-free time and their use of creativity to spend time, which mostly consisted of checking the time repeatedly.

And then, finally, we saw some vehicles starting to move. It wasn't that simple, though. I think my husband and son made three to four trips outside to assess the situation before finally getting news that the road blockage was opening. Anyway, we climbed into the very hot seats of the car and started our journey again. It was a very slow movement because of the stalled traffic. After about 10 minutes of slow advancement, we made some progress. Phew, it was a sigh of relief. But then the car started to heat up a little. We don't know if it was due to the weather or something else, but we instantly switched off the air conditioning to be on the safe side. In case you've forgotten, we are surrounded by mountains on the right side and the Indus River on the left. There are no workshops or service areas on this road—just a few fuel pumps and some small settlements along the way and nothing else.

And whaaaaat? The traffic came to a a stall once again. Ughhhh.

On some inquiry after 5 to 10 minutes of sitting in the car, the dearest climbed out like other drivers. Well, they had instantly come out. We got to know that the road is blocked for another three hours due to some construction and repairs. It was 3 p.m. in the noon, and the road would not open until 7 p.m. in the evening. Can you believe it!!!

We had been travelling since 8 in the morning and had only covered about 168 kilometres in eight hours. If traffic resumed at 7 p.m., we would have covered this in eleven hours. And if we were to reach Gilgit after the resumption of traffic at 7, we needed another 255 kilometres and another seven to eight hours. Do the math, and you would know why I wanted to cry like a two-year-old.

In short, a delay of five hours added to our already very long travel. After some under-the-breath curses, I finally came to terms with the situation and decided to get out of the car—mostly because of the horrible smell from the hens boarded pickup parked parallel to ours.

I got acquainted with a family or two that were sitting beside a sort of stream. Kids followed me shortly. We tried to make the most out of the situation. They put their water bottles in the cold water of the stream. We chatted a bit, and my husband took a half-hour nap beside that hen-filled trolley.

The traffic finally resumed at about 7 p.m. We were super tired, my husband especially. But we started with a positive attitude and decided not to stop anywhere for the night but to continue to our destination, Gilgit. The kids slept for most of the remaining journey. I may tell you more details of this one-of-a-kind journey on the Karakoram Highway, but right now I am becoming very sleepy. I'm sharing some hazy pictures, but let me tell you, I will not forget this journey for the rest of my life. Yes, I told you at the beginning, we did reach Gilgit a little after 1 a.m. And it was a beautiful sight. A cool breeze was blowing, and the room service was excellent. We were served a hot dinner and very hot tea afterwards. All is well that ends well.

_{when we finally saw the lights of Gilglit valley}

This is how I looked after such an endlessly long journey - Thankful and super tired!

Off to bed now!