#4 PASSU AND BACK 9/23

It's been a good few days. Thursday was cool and cloudy with flying unlikely for a while, so we went to Passu, about 1 1/2 hours away via the Hunza River valley. The minibus ride was great. What makes a great ride? Room for your knees, a window seat, good scenery, limited painful bouncing, no loud, annoying music, no vomit, and not too long. This met all of criteria. The views were spectacular: steep, high valley sides (some with those neat water channels), winding river, lovely villages with green fields and tall, waving poplars, huge alluvial fans spreading into the valley, breathtaking glimpses of mountain and sky. The pictures don't do justice. The roadway is part of the Karakoram Highway and was basically good, but with lots of evidence of rock slides: damage to the road, and jogs around or over existing slides, none huge. We passed several bicyclists who must have been part of a tour because they weren't packing any gear. It looked like fun, and it would definitely be great to spend a couple days in that valley instead of a couple hours.

APPLES OF DEFENSE? My first thought on seeing a stack of filled burlap bags beside the road was that they were defensive outposts or checkpoints for the police, just like in Nepal. But there were no police, and these bags were bigger than sandbags. Turns out they were apples. Hunza is a big apple-growing region, sending apples throughout Pakistan and even beyond. Much more peaceful than sandbags.

We got to Passu in time to take a short hike up by the nearby Passu Glacier. The sun was setting, and a cold “glacier wind” was in our face. We walked along the lateral moraine, saw where the glacier retreated (see pix), noticed how some rocks had been scoured smooth and how others had carved their paths into the ground. Just like in the books and films, but this was in person. We made it to a lake in front of the glacier snout before it got too dark.


Despite going to bed late and tired, I woke up early the next morning. The only other people up were the only other guests at the hotel, 3 apple traders from Gilgit. They spoke almost no English, but we had a little conversation, each in our own language, not knowing the actual words of the other, but with obvious good intent. They smiled a lot, offered me hashish, and kept smiling when I declined. It somehow made me feel young to be offered drugs. Reminded me of Nepal last year.


After breakfast Brad, Freddy and I went on a different glacier hike (same glacier, different route), first up and along a drainage paralleling the glacier, then over a ridge to approach it. We kept thinking we would get to a point where we could actually walk on the glacier, but in that area the lateral moraine was 60 feet high and very steep. We didn't even try to cross it, but at least we had a different viewpoint. It must have been 60 to 80 feet high, with a multitude of deep crevasses and a stark unevenness of the surface, and it was dirty. Passu Glacier is called the White Glacier, but it was a dirty white. Further up (we could see about 2 km) it was less dirty. We spent 2 to 3 hours going up, but the 8000 foot altitude made us pace ourselves. We took a different route back, and as we passed a man working in his field he called out and invited us in for tea.

This was my first such invitation in Pakistan, though it was common for Brad. Barkatola spoke limited but quite decent English, made fine tea, and was a gracious host. He's worked as a guide and cook for trekkers, and he has a brother living in New York City. A neighbor, a school principal, stopped in, so we had a second cup of tea before we left. The different return route put us on the road several km from our hotel. We started walking, but saved time by flagging down the first truck that came by. No English, but nice smiles from the 3 guys, and they dropped us at our hotel. Hitchhiking is apparently easy in Pakistan. Freddy does it all the time, and Brad's done it some. The KK Highway in a major route for the sizable trade with China, so hitching is often a viable option.

Saturday The apple traders were leaving, along with 3 other guys who appeared from somewhere. The high-sided pickup was overloaded with bags of apples, on top of which were pink plastic crates of something light green. Seeing my curiosity, they showed me a crate: grapes from China. Typical of two characteristics here, hospitality and cost-effective transportation, they gave me some grapes, then headed out: 6 men plus hundreds of pounds of apples and scores of pounds of grapes all straining the over-sized springs and over-filled tires of the little pickup.

After breakfast the three of us took the "two bridges hike," so named because the 3+ hour hike along the Hunza River crosses the river twice using suspension bridges the guidebook describes as "a cluster of cables with planks and branches woven in." After being sometimes mesmerized by the spectacular views of mountains, glaciers and the riverbed, you find yourself becoming very present and very focused on each step across these bridges. It was a fun adventure for us, but it's routine for local villagers and school children, some of whom cross a bridge to and from school.
Going through a village on the path to the highway found myself behind two schoolgirls. We had a brief conversation. School kids often want to practice their English. They ask, "What is your name?" or "How are you?" (sometimes they immediately answer, "I am fine, thank you.") These two were Karima (12) and Fatima (11). They stopped at Karima's house, her "new house" she proudly pointed out, and it was new construction. We were parting. "Do you like apples?" she asked. My simple yes answer resulted in apples for me and Brad and Freddy. This would not be an isolated event.

At the highway we hailed a mini-bus for the 15 minute trip to our hotel. The weather was nice, so we rode outside, standing on the rear bumper and holding on to the roof rack. The fare is the same whether you ride inside or out. Hitching, whether you get a ride with a car or a truck, is free. Drivers don't want your money. They’re happy to have you as their guest. We reached our hotel, grabbed our stuff, and caught a minibus for the ride back to Karimabad. Another good ride for me. Was in the last seat along w/ 3 other guys, but after 15 minutes two of the guys got out, and no one else got in. Brad and Freddy preferred to hang on outside for the entire trip, about 2 hours. The view was great, but that’s too long for me to hang on.