Lulusar Lake, Kaghan Valley, Pakistan
Monday, 26th of June
After getting dropped off by some river rangers at Lulusar lake, I walk for a little while to find my next lift. Hitchhiking in northern Pakistan is wild. (See Bonus Video) At a stand that is selling nuts and dried fruits I get approached by this young man. He sells me a cup of milk tea and sits down next to me while I drink it. His name is Rashid and he tells me he’s from Afghanistan. I presume that he’s fled his home country, like many people have in northern Pakistan. I ask if I can take his picture and after being confused for a second he happily agrees. By now more kids have surrounded us. And Rashid is clearly proud that he was the one to sell me tea. Success is a matter of perspective.
Tuesday, 27th of June
After two adventurous days of hitchhiking I reunite with @schmidi_999 and we take an off day in Gilgit together before continuing to explore the surrounding regions. We are guests at @naveedtouristinn and we have some very interesting conversations with Junaid, the owner. I learn a lot, among other things that in theory I am a Taliban. Because in Pashtun Taliban means nothing more than „students“ or „seeker of knowledge“. Today I learned.
Wednesday, 28th of June
We make our way to Skardu and decide to find a place to sleep somewhere near Kachura Lakes. As so often, the flow leads us to what we by now call „QeshMoment“. We run into a guy owning an ice cream shop who lets us sleep in his „backyard“ (see bonus picture). We run into a very friendly couple that happens to stay on the man-made lower Kachura Lake that is basically owned by the Shangri La-Hotel chain. We run into @rahimalikhanwho invites us to join him and his father for the Eid Al-Adha celebration the next day. Such is the way of hitchhiking-flow!
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#hitchhiking #pashtun #flow#gowiththeflow
