Entry

View from our hotel room in a small village at the Karakorum Highway, in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
If I would look more to the left I could see the Nanga Parbat, one of the highest mountains on earth.

We are enjoying the march sun, in front of our room.

After some days rest here we continued our travel to Astore.
Pakistan 2009

First we came to Pakistan to travel overland from India to China, there is no other way. But then we spend three month in this country. It was an extraordinary time. We came with a difficult feeling, met outstanding, friendly, hospitable people and we were overhelmed from this awesome mountains in the north.
More from our travel in Pakistan in some previous posts.

China #2

On the border between Pakistan and China, May 2009.

All this people are from our bus and we had to wait for the first border control. Not easy at the heights of 4693 metres (15397 ft). We felt dissy.
Before I posted some information about this border at the Khunjerab Pass. See here.

The road to Kashgar.

Typical houses in the far west of the autonomous region Xinjiang.

The Karakoram Highway is for me one of the most interesting roads of the world. Really worth the effort.

A sandstorm in Tashkurgan. That's the town with the immigration office and the big border control.
A long road to Kashgar.

On the way to Gilgit - Karakorum Highway

The bus, our sons Andreas and Thomas, and me (with headscarf), Rawalpindi, Pakistan, May 2009


Road work by hand, Karakorum Highway, Pakistan, May 2009

It's hard to tell, but I really liked our travel on the Karakorum Highway and in the mountains of the Northern Areas (Gilgit-Baltistan). First we just planed this part as a way to go on land to China. Then it was so interesting, so far away, the landscape, this street above the Indus river, the high mountains. Wow! We visited incredible friendly and hospitable people in remote villages and came close to the Nanga Parbat.

Some impressions on video:
www.youtube.com/user/nomadenaufzeit#p/u/15/dMxoHpC-lsQ

Of course this country has big problems. But not everywhere. At the time of our travel Gilgit-Baltistan was o.k.

So far away

Khunjerab-Pass, elevation 4693 metres (15397 ft), border Pakistan - China, May 2009

We crossed the Khunjerab-Pass by bus on our way from Islamabad to Bejing. It took us around two days from Gilgit in Pakistan to Kashgar in China. The Karakorum Highway is a road permanent under construction and only passable between May and November. We got stuck at a landslide for some hours. This mountains are really far way.

From Wikipedia: Khunjerab Pass is a high mountain pass in the Karakorum Mountains on the northern border of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Xinjiang Autonmous Region of China. The highest paved border crossing in the world and the highest point on the Karakoram Highway.