Friday August 29: Gupis – Yasin - Phandur

We drove four miles back towards Gilgit and turned North up the Yasin valley. The road is metalled all the way up to the village of Hundur in honour of a local soldier who was killed in the most recent war (1999) with India. Apparently the man was seriously heroic in holding back the Indian army near Skardu, so much so that even the Indians were thinking of honouring him. At this the Pakistan authorities decided that they would honour him and so they built a memorial at Hundur ( a 1 ½ hour drive up the valley) and a metalled road to it. That’s the story anyway – there is a memorial and it does have the ring of truth.

The Yasin valley is really beautiful (not spectacular, but beautiful), and the metal ling of the road clearly has done much to increase prosperity – it has cut down the time to take produce from Yasin village to the market in Gilgit from sixteen hours to about four. September is wheat harvest time and there many workers in the fields harvesting the wheat, stacking it, and separating the wheat from the chaff. At Hundur there is a small hospital which holds a weekly surgery; there were a lot of people attending it. At Hundur we visited the memorial , from which there was a super view of the snow capped Darcot peak which rises to 7200metres.

Back to the main road and then West along the river valley. The Ghizar river West of Gupis is a stunning turquoise colour and is famed for the quality of the trout fishing. Trout were introduced by the British throughout most of Northern Pakistan and they proceeded to virtually wipe-out most of the local species, so you would have to say it was ecological vandalism, but the trout are now seriously appreciated.

The PTDC hotel at Phandur is another situated on a hill overlooking the river to the East and a lake to the West. As a hotel it was decent enough – better than the one at Gupis in that the interior walls were plastered and so not a hiding place for creepie-crawlies), but for much of the time the electricity did not work and there was no hot water (read that before?!). Unlike all the other hotels we stayed at, this one was actually full, though we got a room; in fact when a group of army doctors turned up later and demanded a room or two, some of the Pakistanis got turfed-out (and apparently they were mightily miffed about it) which seemed a bit harsh but I suppose it is the ‘way of the world’ in this part of the world. Eshan ‘did the decent thing’ and helped them find a room in another ‘hotel’ and changed hotel with them.

Again once it had cooled down, Ehsan took us on a route-march (sorry, walk) around the lake and along the river. It was really lovely  with rows of poplar trees down by the river, together with a group of boys fishing and a couple (well, a lady actually with the husband standing guard/looking on) doing her washing in the lake.