Summer Vacations: The Pre-Hunza Edition

Vacations are a summer’s thing… we all hope, plan, or actually go around that time on vacations. Picking out the summer to beat the heat and taking a trip to a different area preferably a cooler location is the highlight of vacations. So this summer I planned a vacation too; actually I had been planning this for years, only this summer I executed the plan to the final. My sister or as I prefer to call her my partner in crime worked on this vacation for a good long time, months and months we had discussions, we picked out locations, we invited friends to join us, we dug internet for information, we spoke to people who’d taken vacations to the certain areas we’d wanted to go to.

My idea of the vacations was the northern areas of Pakistan, the mountains, the snow, and the different people; in general I had a very generic picture in mind. However my sister who had been living up in the north for two years had more particular places in mind, she was more aware of names and she had probably done more research than me. For me the idea was to get away from my everyday routine and take a break, for her it was exploring the world.

Two months before the actual trip took place we had a long heated debate where she said she’ll arrange the tour for us, while I insisted that we should book a tour with a reputed company. I was of the mind that booking with a tour company gave us peace of mind, it may be a little expensive but as first time explorers to a different place it took away the hassle of organizing and bargaining and planning and the worries of the trip.

Instead of plan-as-you-go you would be able to relax and enjoy the trip; someone else would have to worry about everything. But from the budgeting point of view my sister insisted that organizing a tour on our own would be better.

We asked our friends around, our invitation was extended to pretty much everyone we knew, initially there were loads of people who were interested but then we were sure that most of the people will not go by the end. And that’s exactly what happened, we had the two of us and one of mine and one of her friend’s join us for the trip eventually.

The planning phase was just as much fun as the whole trip was; my sister was away in Islamabad so I had to plan all shopping with my friend. Oh well let me introduce you to their names (or the names we’ll use-coz I’m not sure they want to be published) so talking about them makes it easier; my sister Bash, my friend Zee and her friend (who became mine too by the end) Ann.

Coming back to the planning, our trip was planned right after eid, which means that most of our planning and shopping happened during Ramadan. When the whole world was out there shopping for fancy shoes and clothes, we were out looking for the right denims and hiking shoes. Ramadan is naturally a busy month, which left very little time for communication between us, we’d exchange a few lists or messages right at the end of the day before bed if we had made any progress.

My major concern was the booking of air tickets and the right hotels. I searched and found Shaheen Air the cheapest, also the timings suited me just fine (actually all airlines from Karachi to Islamabad pretty much fly in and out around the same time; maybe at a half hour difference). Eid time is a very busy time for airlines, so I booked my air tickets almost 2 months in advance that made things really cheap for me, coz around the actual time of Eid, even though PIA was offering a 14% discount on its tickets, the prices were so high that had I availed the discount I would have still paid more than what I did by booking early. Once the airline tickets were out of the way the hotels took priority, had to book a cheap yet decent place for one night before the tour began and one night after the tour ended so we could move out the next day.

Our tour was a 7 day trip to Hunza and Skardu but I had extended mine to Sialkot to meet my best friend who I was going to meet after 12 years and then move on to Lahore, where Bash intended to do some shoe shopping.

Since we were going placed I wanted to pack light and yet cover up for 10 days. And like a lot of people and non frequent travelers are unaware of I’ll share all that I took with me and how much I used what I did. Because my trip had an extension I packed two places. My hiking bag, that I bought from Saddar for Rs. 3000 included all my tour clothes and because I didn’t want to look like a tourist in Sialkot and Lahore, and also coz both these places were going to be considerably warmer, I included my more normal clothes for both these cities.

For my tour I included:

2 pairs denims

4 shirts

1 night suit

3 Stoles

1 sweater

1 shawl

4 pairs of socks

Cap

Pair of slippers

Pair of joggers 

Power bank

Mobile charger

Flashlight

Camera 

Medicines (Paracetamol, Anti-Histamine, Ibuprofen, Muscle relaxants, Imodium, Flaygyl, Pain Reliever Cream)

Toiletries (facewash, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste & toothbrush, moisturizer, sunblock)

Don’t forget your hair brush! (I forgot mine)

Oh and bit of makeup (my favorite red lipstick, a pink one, eyeliner and mascara that didn’t come too handy for me)

For my extension trip I included:

2 lawn suits

1 pair of sandals

1 night suit

With that packed, I was ready to travel… Hunza I’m coming to you but wait I’m stopping over in Islamabad for a day.