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.

They like pictures

A thiny shop, in a small village at the Karakorum Highway, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan 2009

Family on the motorbike

Islamabad, Pakistan, 2009

Pakistani takeway

Lahore, Pakistan, March 2009

Linked to Mellow Yellow Monday.

And my first link to The Creativ Exchange.

People from Pakistan

They see the Nanga Parbat every (cloud free) day, Tarashing, Pakistan, March 2009

Hunza, Pakistan, May 2009

Gilgit, Pakistan, April 2009

Tarashing, Pakistan, March 2009

Lahore, Pakistan, March 2009

Amazing people, amazing places. We traveled independent. And had a great time going overland from India all the way to China through this Pakistan.
More people from around the world I posted before here.
Linked to ABC Wednesday, P is for ... (yes you know).

Woman

For the International Woman's Day I choose these photos. Siama and her mother Josephine live in a slum in the center from Islamabad at the Sitara Market. Pakistan, May 2009.

It's hard for them to find a job. Siama showed me here references, she has worked in households for many years. This paper was for her a piece of hope. And she is hoping for a call.

Closer to the sky - Nanga Parbat

View from the Karakorum Highway.

Closer to this awesome mountain: in the Tarashing Valley, Astore District, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. March 2009.

That's where the trekking of the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat starts.

For our family it was an big adventure to come here.
Watch our impressions in this video: Im Himalaya

For more Sky Watch from around the world, go to Sky Watch Friday.

Meeting

My son Thomas with nomadic gold-hunters. Several families live along the Indus River in tents. We met those people while walking a street and waiting for a possibility to hitchhike to Astor.
The surrounding mountains are stunning (from this point the Nanga Parbat is visible). The Indus runs through this rough stone "desert". But get in touch with these people was a highlight.

To travel with small children was easy for us. One thing is important: Time. Time to adapt.

Karakorum, Pakistan, March 2009.

F is for Faces

In the Karakorum, near the Indus River, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, March 2009.

This is my ABC Wednesday. To watch more go to this site from Mrs. Nesbitt.

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.