Leaving Karimabad
Another day of having the Sufi singing as our alarm clock. Today for sahur we are having tomato soup with Hunza bread and tea.. I made the instant tomato soup the night before so it will be easy just to hit up today. Luckily the cooker was working a little faster today so we got to eat it with the hunza bread which tasted like whole meal bread but heavier and real difficult to swallow. Finished our food and waited to solat while Felix went back to sleep.
Today we plan to leave Karimabad for Passu while Felix will head back to Islamabad and slowly back to the south of Karachi before the 21st Sep when he will start his internship for 3 months. As he has a long way to go he woke up at about 0700hrs and prepared to leave by 0800am. We bid our farewell and wish him luck for his journey and he left.
We waited till about 0830hrs before we got up to get ready and pack up to leave. We waited outside of the guesthouse for a Suzuki (like mini taxi) to get to Aliabad to get our bus to Passu. It was raining and so cold that we could see steam coming out when we speak. Finally after about 20mins a Suzuki appear with many young ladies already on board. I squeezed in with them while Ramli had to hang outside as there is no more seat available as our huge bags occupied too much space. 15mins downhill finally we arrived at Aliabad town but miss the bus station as we weren’t sure where it was. One of the ladies asked me where we are going and she told me that we have left it. But its alright they will tell the driver to send us back there as the Suzuki’s last stop is at the college that they are studying at.
After all the ladies got down the driver got us back to the station and we bought our tickets to Passu for Pkr100/pax + Pkr30/backpack = SGD2.30/pax. The driver told us we will move off about 30mins later as the van is not filled up yet. We saw the lists and there was only 5 confirmed passengers including us and there is another 10 more passengers we need to wait for. We waited and waited and waited and waited about 1.5hrs later finally the van filled up and we were on our way.
The ride thru the mountains and snow capped mountains was fantastic, one could never forget the view of this beautiful place. Only thing that was annoying was the roads as the Chinese are still building it since last Aug. It is all bumpy and dusty…
Anyways we arrived at Passu at about 1600hrs and we asked the driver to stop at Sheesper Inn which was good reveals on the Lonely Planet. We got down and the driver honk for the hotel manager to come out. But seems that no one is inside, Ramli went in to check and seems the place is close so the driver asked us to go to Passu Inn instead. Alright than since it is closed.
We checked into Passu Inn and saw the Chinese lady we met at Madina Guest House in Gilgit and than saw her at Haider Inn at Karimabad and now is the 3rd time we bump into her on the road. We went into the room which costs Pkr400/night = SGD7.00/night with attached bathroom and hot shower and rested. This place is much colder than Karimabad…Our finger tips are all numbed and our bodies chilled to the bone. But we manage to doze off below the 2 thick comforters.
The Passu Peak
The long way down
The mountain view just outside the Passu Inn
Awoke by 1800hrs to solat and headed out to wait for buka. We ordered egg fried rice and veg soup since there isn’t meat available. It took him about 30mins to prepare the food which was just in time for us for buka. Finished our dinner and went back to our rooms to rest for the night again… Tonight is going to be a cold cold night..
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