Hunza

“If there is any paradise on earth, this is it, this is it!” Well, these are the words of Akbar when he visited Kashmir and mine when I saw Hunza!

Hunza is a combination of small valleys ending with “Abad” like, NasirAbad, MumtazAbad, HassanAbad, HaiderAbad, AliAbad, SadiqAbad and KarimAbad. The most well built and tourist friendly valley being KarimAbad, where you get all sorts of hotels, motels and rest houses for every budget. There are a good number of restaurants on the KarimAbad bazar offering every kind of food from the commercially known ones to the specially made local recipes. You can get every thing imaginable in KarimAbad, and I do mean everything. From hotels, motels, rest houses, net café, food and beer! Yes, you read it right. Every type of beer from the local to the foreign brands available and displayed openly in almost every store in KarimAbad.

In KarimAbad we met a lot of tourists and this was the only place we had seen any so far. Chinese, Germans, British, New Zealanders and American too. The Hunza area is the most peaceful place in Pakistan, at least this is what I think. The first day in Hunza, we headed to Baltit Fort. This beautiful fort was built some 4 hundred years ago and faces another fort called Altit. This multi-story fort had everything for the “King” of the region from rest house to wheat storage to family quarters to a personal jail. Presently this fort is under the custody of Baltit Heritage Trust after being restored by the Agha Khan Trust for Culture. A very well run fort with a café shop and a guide to give you the complete details of the place, this is certainly a must see when in Hunza.

After visiting Baltit Fort, I had to see Hopar Glacier as my brother had recommended me not to miss it. Hopar Glacier is in Nagar about 40-50 Kilometers from Karimabad. The road to Hopar Glacier is the best ride I had so far and would take it again and again. Zig Zag road and calm locations is just what you would vision when thinking of going to the North of Pakistan and this road gives you exactly that. Although 60% of the road is of mud, but the thrill and enjoyment of the travel leaves you thinking nothing about the road but everything about the place. A true paradise on earth, Nagar is a very clean and well built valley, where I would love to stay if presented with a choice.

When I was in Baltit Fort, I had a chat with the manager in-charge of the antiques displayed inside the fort. He shared a lot of information about the fort and the locality with me. Hunza has its own festivals like Ginnani, a time of the year when wheat is reaped. Bhophao, before the wheat harvesting. Nauroz, the new year of the people which falls on March 21^st. Another festival if the area is “Thumo Shelling”. In this festival, cleaning of the house, carpets and all household equipment is done and special food is cooked to celebrate the event. This festival takes place on December 21^st. During this festival, people of the area buy animals and store their meat till March. 11 July, 23 October and 13 December are also celeberated by the people. These dates relate to Prince Kareem Agha Khan of his “Takht”, birth and visit to Hunza respectively.

Gayailine and Hoilo Garma are the local dishes of Hunza usually cooked during festivals.