Sunday, March 26, 2017

Lost in Phandar

Phandar Valley
Time is money and money is time. Time is something we either race against or ignore altogether. Time is what makes you choose life changing decisions and ultimately to grow old with experience.
Even today there are some places where time slows down. Cultures are more preserved and people genuinely seems happier, but there is a place I stumbled upon where time does not exist at all, this is Phandar in northern Pakistan.

Phandar Valley is located around 160 km from Gilgit, it is also know as Little Kashmir. I dont know why I decided to visit Phandar as it was not part of my original back packing trip plan.

I took a local van and it took around five hours to reach Phandar from Gilgit and went to Sadabahar hotel which was suggested to me by someone in Gilgit. I spent around two days there and met only one tourist family there which shows the performace of tourism department.

Ali - Phandar local
I met one local guy in the van on our way to Phandar, later on I went to his house and met his other friends and cousins. I must admit that it's an incredibly beautiful place, locals are not too wealthy but I think it's one of the happiest villages of Pakistan. I had the pleasure of having evening tea with superintendent of police (SP) who confirmed that crime rate there is almost 0% which makes it not only the safest but happiest place as well :)




Close your eyes and you don’t step back in time, you just realize that time does not matter here, everyone and everything moves at its own pace, there are no deadlines to be met and no expectations to follow and you are lost in Phandar...






Phandar Lake






















Khalti Lake