I Found My Shangri-La

Last Summer, I found my perfect Shangri-la, an adventurous yet beautiful transition from utopia to eutopia.

If you are following my travel blogs, you should know that I traveled up to Passu Cones near Khunjerab Pass (Pak-China border, the world's highest). That expedition was only the first half of the trip, for the province Gilgit-Baltistan is mainly known for two valleys - Hunza and Skardu. I had to visit Skardu yet.

We had to come all the way back to a village, Jaglot, at the crossroads of Gilgit and Skardu.

Moreover, Jaglot is also at the crossroads of the world's three highest mountain ranges. We made a pit stop at a place known for the best viewpoint of Three Mountain Junction where Himalayas, Karakoram and Hindukash all come together in one scene.

^{Three Mountain Junction}

It's one thing to study about these mountain ranges in the school curriculum. It's another experience, to individually visit these ranges. But, witnessing all three in a single scene was next level.

To my right - Karakoram
To my left - Hindukash
In front - Himalaya

Mountain Range	Highest Peak	Height	Ranking	Location
Karakoram	K2	8611m	2	Pakistan
Hindukash	Tirch Mir	7708m	33	Pakistan
Himalaya	Everest	8849m	1	Nepal

I felt so small surrounded by those colossal figures. We took a couple of photos and then just stood there taking in the view.

After traveling for 4 days and witnessing most of the mountainous region, you think you've seen and experienced it all; whatever comes next, couldn't be much different. Boy, was I wrong...

Like Karakoram Highway, S1 (the strategic highway that connects Gilgit to Skardu) is also a carpeted road, renovated only a few years ago, making it far less dangerous than it once used to be. However, to me, it's still... eerie.

Let me explain why.

The road is constantly winding; if you are sitting behind the wheel, you'd know the ordeal of steering towards left or right, at all times.

Secondly, you have to be vigilant about the two-way traffic.

Thirdly, the mountains are overarching, sometimes it's impossible to tell if a vehicle is coming at you.

^{S1 highway - It's before renovation when the width of the road was only 3.6m. It's now 7m, thankfully. But the mountains are coming over head just like in this picture.}

You think you'd drive carefully but the smooth road and almost non-existent traffic speeds up the car before you realize, you are going at 50km/h instead of 30km/h, and then suddenly a sharp turn comes and you barely manage to keep the car from falling into the furious river flowing hundreds of feet below or narrowly escaping the vehicle coming from the front, if you are not in your lane at the turn.

By now, you've gotten the gist of how difficult is to drive on S1. But there's more...

The usual monotonous scenery - dry mountains everywhere with absolute zero population and a river flowing down below. Not a single restroom on the way. No cellular network. It's funny that you come to see mountains but you see too many of those in one go, and you get sick of them.

Last but not the least - the Earthquakes.
There's a 200m patch on the highway, where there's very high seismic activity. According to locals, there's an earthquake every few minutes in that zone which causes frequent landsliding. Just look at the mountains above, they look like, they will fall apart even if poked with a finger - such was the texture.

You just have to pray hard while crossing that rough patch. (A week later, heavy rocks fell on a car and killed almost everyone on the spot) I swore to never go back to that highway again. However, the air route to Skardu is also the most dangerous one in the world despite being breathtakingly beautiful. I don't know yet how or if I will visit Skardu again.

^{If you can spare a few minutes, watch this video.}

After what felt like a whole day (two hours in real), we finally reached Skardu. Small twisting roads going up and down, adorned with apple trees on the sides, led us to the famous Shangrila Resort at Kachura Lake - nothing less than a fairyland nestled among some of the world's highest mountains.

^{Shangrila Resort}

I've spent my childhood, collecting pictures of the said resort, keeping the newspaper and calendar cuttings of it. Standing on my own feet at the same spot, felt surreal.

The clear water, the green pine trees, bright red rooftops of cottages, and tall mountains - everything together makes it all magical.

I wish I could share more pictures but unfortunately, I've lost most of them. You can find tons of pictures online anyway.

I was happy to find my Shangri-la at Shangrila.

We had the most delicious lunch at the resort and later set off to explore the rest of Skardu.

To be continued...

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^{Part 1- The Best Views Come After the Hardest Climbs
Part 2- All Mountain Landscapes Hold Stories
Part 3- Take Me Back}