Day 60 Gilgit 27th Aug 09

We planned to go to Bargot Valley with Carlos, Felix and Howard. We rented a jeep and paid Pkr700/pax = SGD13/pax. We left the guesthouse at about 0930hrs and was on our way on the 2hrs jeep ride to Bagrot Valley.

While waiting for the jeeps turn to cross

The bridge linking to the cave tunnel

Along the way Carlos told us there is a surprise we would see later but he didn’t want to disclose cause the first time he saw no one told him and he was really surprised. Hmmm we wonder what it is.. The jeep drove about 20mins and turn to bridge to cross the river and we saw the surprise Carlos was talking about. Across the bridge there was a tunnel dug out thru a hill just for the crossing of the vehicles from this bridge. It is truly amazing how the locals could think of it and gone thru so much hard work to make the crossing work..

The beautiful valley that greeted us... Fooyooo!! kekek

First View of Bagrot Valley

Here we go...

The jeep passed many villages with the locals all amazed to see a jeep full of foreigners. They were waving and saying hello when our jeep pass them.. After going up hill about 1 hour we finally arrived at the starting point to Bagrot Valley. As the lonely planet indicated we could see the glacier on the left side. So we started climbing up the steep hills slowly slowly.. There were villages at this valley, the locals has wheat fields and potato fields which brightened up the valley with the greens and yellow etc.

The view of the valley was magnificent!! No words could really describe the beauty of this valley. Snow caped mountains surrounded the valley and we are blessed with a clear blue day and this made it much more beautiful. We walked on and rested under a apricot tree. A boy was on the tree picking the fresh apricots from the trees and I thought I wanted to have some too so I start picking from the floor and branches and asked Carlos who was also picking to keep for me till Iftar… He tempted me to eat it now as it is so fresh and sweet but I told him it can wait… Was nice to be able to pick fresh fruits from the trees…

The view further up...

The villagers we met half way..

We pass a family who was cleaning their fields of weeds, the daughter passed me a crescent shape knife and gestured to ask me to try out cutting the weeds.. So I did very clumsily with the whole family giggling at what I was doing.. And when it was their turn I felt really embarrassed.. they did it with so much skill and most importantly fast. Wahahha if I were to do it for them it would take me a long long time.. Took some pictures with the man of the house and walked on… I felt sad cause I couldn’t take pictures with the mum and daughter…

The paddy fields..

Son of the family... He looked tense and stress..

We walked about 3hrs but still have no sight for the glacier and later decided to give up as we needed to start walking back to the starting point before it is too late. We climbed down to the river bed thinking we could be able to cross the river to the village across and than continue back to the start. But after 45mins of walking on stones and pebbles we returned back to where we came as the bridge is broken and the current is too strong for us to pass thru. On the way back we stopped and rest at the river and soaked our tired feet in the cold glacier water… it was so relaxing…

Everyone was exhausted as we had to make 2 detours on the way back but still we managed to arrive at our starting point where the jeep was waiting for the last 6hours.Hoped on the jeep and was on our way back to Gilgit..

We went for our shower and adjoined back later to go dinner at the Ramzan restaurant which was said to serve good food. Felix, Howard came along with us. We ordered our food and I waited at the restaurant while Ramli and Felix went and buy the long awaited mango milk shake and Howard went to the guesthouse to get his water. While waiting for them I was enjoying the commotion at the restaurant.. The boss was sorting out the plates of fruits and dates for Iftar and he was screaming to his staffs to get a plate to sort his and that and was hitting the hand of one of the man who tried to help. It was hilarious..

Just at adzan Felix and Ramli returned with a pleasing look on their faces. Ramli had one mango shake and Felix had 2… He must be really thirsty.. Ramli told us that the mango shake boss didn’t like Muslims.. Hmm cause when he knew Ramli was waiting for adzan before he could drink the mango milk shake he asked to confirm if he was Muslim. And said muslims no good and not sure what else. And when he was preparing the 2^nd shake for Felix he asked him if he was Muslim when the reply was no he poured extra milk or syrup for Felix.. So weird…

Anyways we enjoyed our dinner very much and returned to the guest house and spoke with Carlos and Mr Beck before we went to bed.