Long entrancing hikes. Breathtaking views. Nights spent outside, looking at the stars in the cold, biting air.
The kind of stuff you’d expect to do on vacation in the mountains. It was certainly not a holiday for the unfit or those who prefer big cities, shopping malls and theme parks. There were none of those.
We were lucky if we had hot water. Definitely not for those who need their creature comforts. In May this year, my family and I, along with some family friends, took a two-week trip to Passu Cones, a village in northern Pakistan, in the mesmerising mountains of Hunza Valley.
We were fortunate to have a well-connected Pakistani friend, who organised everything from accommodations to transport, and even the guides. We were initially supposed to go earlier, but we had to postpone the trip to two weeks later because there were some conflicts happening in Pakistan at the time, and it would have been dangerous for us to be there. If we had committed to the initial travel dates, we might have been confined to the hotel the whole time.
When we arrived in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan, we went straight to the hotel, which was not up to my expectations. It was not the most well-maintained place and had a strong smell of (cigarette) smoke in the rooms. I also had to sleep on a mattress on the floor because I shared a room with my parents.
Fun if you’re a six-year-old kid; not so fun for a 16-year-old. Lahore was experiencing a heatwave, where the average temperature was 40�.