I availed the opportunity recently to visit parts of our northern areas....
travelogue
As the convener for FPCCI’s Central Standing Committee on Tourism Development 2020, and an ardent advocate of promoting local tourism, I availed the opportunity recently to visit parts of our northern areas, particularly as my committee has been working diligently on presenting the government with working papers on how we can promote local tourism all across the country so that economy thrives, jobs are created and while we ensure our people have beautiful locales to visit, the environment is also protected and benefits from it.
Can you then imagine my shock when the places I chose to ‘check out’ – which I had heard people rave about for decades, but had not had the opportunity to visit – turned out to be major disappointments! Our party had decided on Shogran, Batakundi, Naran, Kaghan, Saiful Muluk, and finally Hunza for our trip, and my husband and I had decided that we would accompany them up till Saiful Muluk and then return as we didn’t want to be away for too long.
So, flying into Islamabad, my husband and I rented a four-wheeler and drove up till Mansehra check post where we met up with the others who had driven from Karachi and Lahore. The motorway was a fantastic drive, complete with two highly impressive tunnels at Abbottabad, but the one thing sorely missing en route right up till Mansehra was washrooms. There were none on the way as I had heard that the Punjab government had made some state-of-the-art ones off the motorway, which one could use at a payment of rupees 50 per person. We ultimately landing up using the bathrooms in the accommodations for the people manning the toll gate!
Driving for another two hours till we reached Balakot check post, the gateway to Kaghan Valley. I had heard so much about the beauty of Kaghan Valley, however, the relatively uninspiring landscape and mountains shorn of trees that we passed came as quite a shock.
Stopping only to take pictures at the raging Kunhar River, the 166 km river that originates at Lake Lulusar, and is the main feature of Kaghan Valley we spotted signages announcing fresh trout available along its banks and passed a number of restaurants that served just trout.
The road all the way had been perfect and in another 45 minutes we reached the town of Kawai. The one-hour drive to our hotel – Cedar Wood Resort -from Kawai was via a narrow, steep, winding, uneven, rocky track that is only recommended if you are in a four-wheeler. After what seemed to be an unending 45 minutes, we finally reached our hotel – an aesthetically beautiful resort boasting a profusion of seasonal flowers and attractive landscape. That’s where its merits ended. I wish the owners had spent as much time on the maintenance of their establishment as they had done on beautifying the place, for the bathrooms were a disaster– majority of the flushes of the WCs were not working, and the so-called ‘cleaned’ bathrooms were a mess. The staff had literally hosed down the bathroom after the rooms’ occupants had left – toilet roll, soaps, et al - and then left them wet for the next set of guests to check in. To make matters worse, there was no running hot water, and even in the peak of summer it was too cold to take a shower.
Our initial plan had been to stay at Shogran for three nights and to do day trips to all the nearby touristy areas, but having done the trek up to the hotel once, we were in no mood to do it on a daily basis. Hence, we checked out and made our way towards Naran.
En route we stopped at Trout Park Fish Point and Restaurant for lunch. With clear streams gushing forth and charpoys laid out over running water where one could sit and dip one’s feet in its icy cold temperatures, while partaking of delectable fried trout, the wayside eatery was a refreshing stop.
However, Naran turned out to be so crowded and so congested with hotels literally stuck to one another that we decided to drive to Batakundi instead, which proved to be the best decision we could have taken.
The isolated Pine Top hotel overlooking magnificent views of Kaghan Valley’s highest peaks, was unoccupied, so we had the entire resort to ourselves. The chalets, each comprising two rooms with clean, attached bathrooms, kitchen and a sitting room were just what the doctor ordered, and the cool, low temperatures was the icing on the cake.
The next morning, we left for Naran and couldn’t believe it was the same town we had passed through the day before. Practically desolate now, as it was a working day, we booked jeeps from there to take us up to Lake Saiful Muluk. It involves around 45 minutes of bumpy riding that is akin to a roller-coaster ride, but less smooth, and crosses a massive glacier on the way, the track in front of which is eroded, water-filled, and difficult to traverse. When we did the trip, there were all together 50 jeeps but we were told that at the peak of the tourist season there are an average of 1500 jeeps doing the trek, and a long queue plying the narrow path.
Located at 10,500 ft above sea level, Lake Saiful Muluk is described by one travel magazine in the following words: ‘No trip to Kaghan Valley is complete without a visit to the legendary Lake Saiful Muluk. Words cannot describe the beauty and serenity of the setting and picture postcards do no justice. The crystalline waters of Lake Saiful Muluk reflecting the surrounding snow-peaked mountains is an image that must be seen in person’. Obviously, when we took up the challenge of undertaking this trek, we had this vision in mind.
What we saw as soon as we arrived at the parking area for the jeeps, was a garbage dump. Passing it, we climbed down a steep path and found ourselves flanked on both sides by shabby stalls selling pakoray, tea, toys and what not. That was our first impression of Lake Saiful Muluk. Kicking ourselves that we had tortured our backs undertaking this horrendous journey for this anti-climax of a vision, we decided to make the best of a bad bargain, and went down to the lake, which left those among us who had seen it ten years ago, just as depressed, as they felt its level had gone down considerably and it no longer looked as impressive as it once did.
Since the lake had a little barrage of sorts that allowed the water to collect in a stream flanked by rocky formations, we climbed down further to take some pictures. With our moods slightly improved, we sat down to hear the story of Saiful Muluk from the baba that is always looking for an audience. As the legend goes, the lake is named after Prince Saiful Muluk who fell in love with a fairy princess from the mountains here. She had been kept captive by a white giant and he helps her to escape with him. According to the legend, they live to this date in a cave near the lake.
We then decided to take a boat ride of the lake. It was a good thing we did. Surrounded by impressive snow-clad mountains, crowned by the summit of Malika Parbat (Queen of the Mountains), the view is undoubtedly picturesque when seen from a point where there are no nearby eye-sores to ruin the view.
Our boat owner took us across the lake where we were allowed a ten-minute stop to get off and slide down a glacier. Would you believe what we saw there, among other things – a dirty diaper! And this at a time when tourists had still not started coming in their regular numbers thanks to Covid-19! To the credit of the authorities, there were dustbins everywhere at Lake Saiful Muluk. It’s so sad that our merry-making public who want to have a good time in natural, scenic environs are not pushed about leaving the place worthy of visiting even a second time!
My earnest suggestion to the authorities would be to hire uniformed locals who have been trained in keeping touristy places clean, and empower them to heavily fine littering visitors. It’s the only way to ensure that these places remain tourist attractions. What’s more, vendors should not be allowed to set up stalls at their whims. There should be proper SOPs, like anywhere in the developed world, and stalls should be catering to the various needs of tourists rather than just proliferating rampantly and adding to the mess.
On our drive down, some of us got off to take pictures under the massive glacier – a rare treat indeed - and then we headed back to Naran. Exhausted, we went back to our hotel to call it an early night, as the next day we were leaving back for Islamabad, while those who were travelling by road were going further up to Hunza. I came back with the sorry realisation that we have so much to offer in terms of tourism but so much more that we have to set right before it can develop into a full-fledged industry.
