KHAPLU AND SHYOK RIVER
Our first trip out of Skardu was an overnighter to Khaplu. We hired a Jeep and driver (who stayed with us our whole time in Baltistan) and took the meandering trip east along the Shyok River to the village of Khaplu.

The people here are Nurbashi Muslims and supposedly more tolerant, similar to the Ismailis of Hunza. However, we found them a little standoffish.  Since we don't mind being left alone, it was actually a pleasure to simply enjoy the scenery.

PREVIOUS  | NEXT

Bridget really liked the flowers at the Khaplu PTDC hotel. She made three flower arrangements which she donated to the front desk.

One guidebook says that the views along the Shyok river are as good as any Pakistani public road offers. The Khaplu PTDC hotel view is certainly world class, although I think the view from the PTDC in Karimabad is better.

We took two day trips out of Khaplu. The first was a continuation up the river until we got turned back at Siachen. We had really wanted to go up the Hushe Valley but that was closed too.  Still we got to see and go over the most beautiful bridge I have seen in Pakistan. To me, it rivals the Golden Gate bridge in sheer beauty.

The Bridge to Hushe is cable and wood with two pillars on each end, making it typical of most of the big bridges we saw in the northern areas. They really can sway and bob!

The second day trip we went on was up to the King's Fields (aka Khaldok Brok) which is fours miles and about a thousand vertical feet up from Khaplu. After some fairly harrowing climbing in the Jeep we got to a fairly narrow plateau which seems quite fertile. When we were there they were in the middle of the harvest. We were able to identify lentils, wheat and potatoes but there certainly was more stuff. Nearly all the labor was by hand but we did see two tractors which presumably took the crop down the hill. We also saw donkeys doing the same thing keeping the old ways very much alive.  Like most of the northern areas, the fields were irrigated by ancient irrigation systems.  One man told us that these systems were built and maintained without metal tools as recently as his grandparent's time.

PREVIOUS  | NEXT