Skardu-Part 2

Well, the blog and its blogger are back!
















Lets get started right away.












You are in the jeep.You were just given a basic introduction of Skardu and you are willing to learn more, breathless to see the beautiful sights that you have only heard about, to witness the mountains you're seeing from miles away while sitting in your bus, desperate to get out, to touch the ground, to touch the soft snow, to already feeling THE SKARDU alive...













Well, youre about to do just about all that,though not in reality,duh,virtually/in imagination of you own kind.













Well, lets get started.

































BUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM-thats our jeep moving on the rocky roads of Skardu,be careful,there a lot of turn and twists along the way,which endures the thrill and excitement of the adventure.Its completly safe though,LOL. Oh, and by the way,we have just crossed the thrilling bridge.





































































































And now on the clear road.Muahahah.That was fun wasnt it?


























Oh and by the way FWO have been working really hard on proper maintainence of the roads so theyre fine to drive on.
















And now towards the tourists spots and destinations of Skardu town,the capital of the district/sub division of FANA, SKARDU.














But first, a bit of insight on the weather of Skardu:-









From Wikipedia:-





The climate of Skardu during the summer is moderated by its mountain setting and the intense heat of lowland Pakistan does not reach here. The mountains also block out the summer monsoon and summer rainfall is thus quite low. However, these mountains result in very severe winter weather. During the April to October tourist season, temperatures vary between a maximum of 27°C and a minimum (in October) 8°C. However, temperatures can drop to below -10°C in the December-to-January midwinter period.










And now the attractions.Lets head off for the Buddhist Rock, which is the only rock with Buddhist carvings on a tall rock with a vertical, beige-colored northern face. Carved here is a lovely image of a meditating Maitreya Buddha. It is located along Satpara road.







Speaking of which, we now have to drive towards Satpara lake!



Its a very beautiful lake situated at quite some height. The water is just so clean here that you can clearly see wats beneath it. It is also famous for its rare trout fish.















Now thats beauty...









In the next post,SKARDU PT#3.Well be touring:-



*Skardu Fort.

*Mindoq Khar(Palace)

*Shangrilla Lak

*Deosai





Only in the next post.



Chao.

A new shorter URL

For you'll convenience,the URL has been shortened to come2pak.blogspot.com instead of come2pakistan.blogspot.com

And if all is well,the next post will be brought forwarded to an earlier date,12th September,Friday.

8 days later,the next post will be published.

Some useful links!

Here are a few YouTube videos which you can enjoy. Ofcourse,they all concern The Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Picture Previews with Pakistani folk music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsGE0NXr40 WATCH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs9KDg2Nlc8&feature=related WATCH!

Visitor's videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MioTmPSmBg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxXsipLpom8

Subscribe!

Hey there

Ive added a subscribtion button now.

Hope you all can see it.Its right there on the top right side.

So subscribe if you want to in order to get hold of the latest updates!


And yes Im working on this blog,Im saving all my posts so that I need not work hard later on so I can save some time for myself later on.


-Nabil

Blog reopening

This blog is reopening on 20th September. Sorry for stupidly closing it down.

what the next post will be...

The next post will be a continuation from where we had left.......SKARDU PART 2! Coming 20th September.

Hmmmmm......

Due to " no " response whatsoever,Im planning to end the blog soon.I'll just observe for a couple of next weeks and if there is still no comments or e-mail for me to read about my blog,I will be permanently ending this blog.

Destination::::::::::SKARDU

Lets get started right away.

From Wikipedia

Skardu, along with Gilgit, are the two major tourism, trekking and expedition hubs in the Northern Areas. It is the mountainous terrain of the region, including four of the world's fourteen Eight-thousander peaks (8,000m and above), which attracts the attention of tourists, trekkers and mountaineers from around the world. The main tourist season is from April to October—outside this time, the area can be cut off for extended periods by the snowy, freezing winter weather.
Accessible from Skardu by road, the nearby Askole and Hushe Valleys are the main gateways to the snow covered 8,000 m peaks including K2 and also to the huge glaciers of Baltoro, Biafo and Trango. This makes Skardu the main tourist and mountaineering base in the area, which has led to the development of a reasonably extensive tourist infrastructure including shops and hotels.

Bazaar is a polo ground and next to that, Kazmi Bazaar.
Skardu appears remote, dusty town at first glance, but the mixture of people here make it colourful and ethnically diverse. The crowded streets are mainly populated by Balti Tibetans. Due to this strong presence, Skardu has sometimes been referred to as the little Tibet of Pakistan.

The picture below is of ' Shangrila Resort '.

Another picture of SKARDU.

We'll continue our tour in the next post...

Destination: THE NORTHERN AREAS

We are in that light blue area right now.

Yes, we're kicking off our tour with FANA-Federally Administered Northern Areas of Pakistan. They are the main tourist attractions of Pakistan and it encompasses all kinds of vicious cycles of having great adventures, beautiful sceneries, scenic beauty and living the lifestyle of the friendly people of Northern Areas.

Ive bee here only once and its one of my favourite places Ive been to, in my life, so far. I had a lot of fun and a lot of my great and wonderful memories lie in the Northern Areas. I so want to see all those places again. I miss em. Its one of the best things that could ever happen to me and its one of the most beautiful and wonderful places of the world of all time. I'll post my pics of Northern Areas soon.

===NEWS===

New wonder of the world to be made in the Northern Areas, people! The beginning news is that they're planning to carve out a cave through the mountains and lying down the essential infrastructure like the roads(through the mountains), communication networks etc. It will take long, ofcourse, to make this. I just hope it turns out really well :)

===DISCLAIMOR===



Most of the photos I'll be posting and have posted in my previous posts are taken from other websites and sources, for e.g: WIKIPEDIA.

===================================================================

Before we get started, I want the world to know,( oh that sounded cheesy ) that yes, it's true that my country is going through some tough times,both on political and economical level but it does not mean that we do not welcome foreigners or prevent outsiders from entering our country. We are a peaceful country. Try us. Come here and you'll have a blast. Every country faces problems. Media just tends to exaggerate everything thing.

You need not be paranoid. If you'll fear us (for no particular reason) then I'm sorry to say, that you are missing all the great places that Pakistan has to offer to you.

OK, moving on, here's the map:-

Click the image to enlarge it. The key represents the 6 districts of N.A( Short for Northern Areas cuz Im tired of writing the full name!)

The 6 districts are:-

*Skardu

*Ghanche

*Gilgit

*Ghizer

*Diamore

*Astore

I'll start off with Skardu in my next post.

====SELECTED N.A PICTURES====

I'll post more later as we'll continue our journey within the N.A ;)

aowwww you can see the moon in this pic.

Next Destination: SKARDU.

Lets get started...

OK so here's how you'll be touring Pakistan with me as your guide! I know there are not many people on the trip but I know I will pick up some pedestrians along the way...





We'll start from the top, the Northern Areas and then come down all the way to the province of Balochistan.





Here's a general introduction to Pakistan :-





Pakistan lies in the continent of Asia,to the South West. It lies just above the equator so its a little too hot in summers but still we get to enjoy all 4 seasons, which are, summer, winter, autumn and spring.



Since my blog is about " touring " Pakistan therefore I need not tell you about the latitudes or longitudes in which Pakistan lie or the length of the borders with neighbouring countries,etc. I know you're not interested anyways.Hehe.



Okay, moving on, I'll just tell you about the name of provinces, important cities and areas of Pakistan. I'll be also giving out the complete list of languages spoken in Pakistan. Just scroll down please..

The currency of Pakistan is Pak.Rupee. Could not think of adding this important piece of information under a heading right now.Sorry.



PROVINCES



There are 4/four/fantastic 4!/ provinces of Pakistan. Only 4. I guess that's easy to remember ;)

I know some Chinese people who when asked how many provinces are there in China, their reply is " 52...oh no wait!...Its 50...oh that's the number of states in America! ". LOL even they don't know about the number of provinces in their country but they did know of Pakistan ;)



The 4 provinces are:-



* N.W.F.P(North.West.Frontier.Province)--------CAPITAL CITY-----------Peshawar

*Punjab(Largest province according to population)------CAPITAL CITY-----Lahore

*Sindh--------------------------------------CAPITAL CITY---------Karachi

*Balochistan(Largest province according to area)--------CAPITAL CITY--------Quetta

Capital city is Islamabad which lies in the crossroads of Punjab and the N.W.F.P

Largest city is Karachi according to area and is also one of the largest cities of the world.

Besides these 4 provinces,there are terrories as well. They are as follows:-

* Islamabad Capital Territory
* Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)

Languages spoken in Pakistan:-

*Urdu---------------National Language

*English---------------Official Language---------------50 percent of people in Pakistan have basic understanding of English.

Provincial languages:-

Punjabi----------------------------Punjab---------------About 70% of Pakistanis know how to speak Punjabi.

Sindhi-----------------------------Sindh

Balochi---------------------------Balochistan

Pashto----------------------------N.W.F.P

Statistics

Punjabi 45%
Pashto 18%
Sindhi 10%
Urdu 9%
Saraiki 8%
Other 6%
Balochi 4%

Everything National

*Flower=Jasmine

*Sport=Hockey

*Tree= Deodar

*Animal=Markhor

*Bird=Chakor

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS BUT VARYING EVERY NOW AND THEN BASED ON STATISTICS AND OFFICIAL REPORTS

*Religion:- 95%Muslims, 5% others

*GDP:-8.4%

*Literacy rate:-53%

*Annual per capita income:-US$736

*Population:-153.96 million

There you go, all the basic information about Pakistan. More will be posted soon. The trip will start soon!...in the next post!

See ya!

Coming up:- THE NORTHERN AREAS.

Welcome!

Welcome to an all new blog created by me just so that I can let you all know about what my country ' Pakistan ' has to offer.Stay tune ; )