Our trip to Pakistan has been planned. You might remember but the wedding we were going to go to in March has been postponed till December. We couldn’t get a refund on our airfares, nor on any of the ‘shalwar kameezes’ we had already purchased, so the choice was to lose close to £1000 – right it off as a bad mistake or to go anyway. We’ve chosen to go anyway.

I’ve spent the last week on the internet conversing with as many travel companies in Pakistan that I could find, trying to work out where to go, how to stay safe, what to visit and what not to worry about. It’s finally sorted. At least as far as we understand. We’ve given a deposit to local company in order that he arranges our domestic flight bookings, our hotels and a vehicle with a driver and guide. All that is left for us to do is pray that he delivers on what we’ve agreed on and that we don’t find ourselves face to face with a political martyr intent on destruction.

The trip itself is very exciting. If Pakistan is half as beautiful as I’ve been led to believe over the past week – this will be the trip of a lifetime! Want a taste?

We arrive in Karachi, and we leave as soon as possible on a flight to Rawalapindi. We travel up the KKH as far north as possible given the weather and the fact we will be up amongst the clouds and glaciers to Sost which is close to the Chinese border (elevation 2700m). We spend a few days visiting Hunza and doing some hikes amongst the mountains (this is home to the K2, the worlds 2nd largest mountain) and onto glaciers before heading back down the magnificent Karakorum Highway before turning off to take the Shangla Pass to Swat. Swat is reportedly the birthplace of Tantric Buddhism and of all Pakistans northern valleys, has the reputation of being the most beautiful. We spend some time here visiting the bazaars famous for embroidered shawls, rugs and precious stones before heading back to city life in Peshawar. Now Peshawar is one of the cities in Pakistan that is known as a ‘frontier town’ conjuring up images of romance, intrigue and danger against the backdrop of pungent odours of dates and kebabs. I’m not sure how realistic that is in this day and age, but it’s here you start out if you want to make the journey along the infamous Khyber Pass towards Afghanistan, the pass that links Central Asia and the subcontinent. It’s an entire journey, starting with the collection of a permit (if it’s open to foreign nationals whilst we’re there) and an armed escort from the Khyber Political Agent that must travel with you through the Tribal areas that are not ruled under regular Pakistan law. In all honesty, I imagine it’s the closest I’ll get to Afghanistan for quite sometime….

At the end of all that, we fly back to Karachi to spend our last evening out on the Arabian sea crabbing. Hopefully we catch some or at least someone does because we’re tempted with a big BBQ of fresh crabs before we leave the following day bound for the cold and windy UK.

What do you think? Tempting? You’re more than welcome to join us – only hurry up and decide, we’re leaving soon!