Our last day in Hunza was a fairly subdued one. We started off the morning by taking a walk along one of the water channels that funnel the glacial melt water from high up Ultar Glacier down countless channels, ditches and cascades to the lush green fields, meadows and orchards that cover every inch, Read More
While “Hunza” is used to refer to the local region, in reality it is divided into two: Hunza on the north side of the river, and Nagyr on the south. Our plan for today was to head up the namesake Nagyr Valley to the village of Hoper next to the massive but accessible Hoper, Read More
After a few days of constant travel, having a couple of days in Hunza to unwind has been a nice change. It was also our opportunity to meet the local team from Silk Route Expeditions, who would be coordinating everything during the Pakistan part of our trip: Didar Ali – Owner & Guide Muhammad, Read More
Given the length of the journey and terrain we had to cover, we had broken up the bulk of the trip from China to Pakistan into two days. Our first night in Pakistan was spent in Passu, a small village by the KKH. The next morning we continued south down the road towards Hunza,, Read More
What a day! Today I achieved a long-time ambition of traveling over the Karakoram Highway from China to Pakistan, a dream I had since a guy called Christian (whose apartment I took over in Baden) first told me about it as he departed Switzerland to bicycle to Delhi via Central Asia and through the, Read More
With a long day of driving along the Karakoram Highway (KKH) ahead we had an early start after breakfast. The initial drive south out of Kashgar is surprisingly mundane, but we stopped off in the town of Upal after an hour or so to stretch our legs and check out the local bazaar (a, Read More
Having met the rest of the tour group in the hotel lobby over breakfast, we set out to sightsee around Kashgar for the day. I was curious to see what had changed since I was last here in 2006 on my epic Silk Road trip across the region. I was expecting the worst, as, Read More
I went to SFO ready to take on the challenge of getting to Kashgar via Shanghai (including an airport change across the city in the 4-hour layover), Beijing (an overnighter) and Urumqi (brief layover) before touching down in KSH some day and a half after I started. Unfortunately these best laid plans were put, Read More
Yet more travels under my belt, but not a blog update in sight. Sigh… France: Bordeaux, Medoc, Cognac, Provence, Avignon, Arles, Corsica, Dordogne (Rocamadour, Domme, Monpazier), St Emilion, Chamonix, mountaineering week around Mont Blanc massif Spain: Barcelona for Andy & Laura’s wedding, Montserrat Germany: Munich Netherlands: Amsterdam x 2 Switzerland: Zurich, Baden, Lausanne, Berner Oberland,, Read More
So much for promises! I sadly STILL haven’t updated this site since I last promised it waaaaay back in April 2009. I’ll blame it on the fact I’ve been a busy boy (as always), but I have to admit that I’ve become more likely to post photos on Facebook than here. I’ve now set things up, Read More