It was too late to cancel our keep in Gahkuch after we learnt that the marriage we have been alleged to attend had been postponed. So there I used to be, with my travelling companions, within the small busy city in distant Gilgit-Baltistan, the northernmost territory of Pakistan. Rugged mountains rose throughout and the broad Gilgit River, milky-grey from fantastic silt, glistened close by. The air was cool and skinny, the sunshine was brilliant and clear at 2,000m above sea stage.
The primary avenue of Gahkuch was lined with small retailers promoting farming instruments and family items. Meals stalls offered kebabs and the ever present milk tea, scooped into small cups from pots consistently on the boil, and bakeries churned out recent flatbread. We browsed within the small retailers and purchased some greens on the market stalls.
A person in plain garments approached our information, spoke briefly, then walked away. “Navy,” our information mentioned. “He was asking concerning the different particular person.” He meant our lacking companion, who was again on the lodge.
It was oddly reassuring to know we have been being watched. At each checkpoint alongside the way in which, our credentials have been inspected and our passage famous. But, the troopers and policemen have been courteous, even pleasant. Once I requested to {photograph} one policeman, he grinned and adjusted his cap for the image.
There was just one correct lodge in Gahkuch. It was spacious if a bit gloomy, with a big garden. We have been the one friends and pre-ordered our meals effectively prematurely so the prepare dinner might go to the marketplace for elements. Resort workers accompanied us on our buying journeys, translating, bargaining and carrying our purchases.
The lodge prepare dinner was an unkempt-looking man who took an hour to arrange meals from scratch, however the meals was good. There was mutton biryani, hen handi (curry), fried hen with greens, and mashed spinach for dinner. He had a brother who was additionally working as a prepare dinner in Malaysia, well-known and effectively regarded by lots of the Pakistanis we encountered on our journey. Some had mates or kin who had been or have been working in Malaysia, and a waiter as soon as thanked us with “Terima kasih”.
We left Gahkuch the following morning, travelling on the virtually empty highway within the river valley. Our vacation spot was Gilgit, about 90km away. The river ran beside us — gurgling, shimmering within the early gentle, working over a rocky mattress — with its broad sandbanks. The valley had rugged and tough terrain rising steeply on both facet. It was postcard-magnificent nation, empty and hauntingly lovely.
Visitors was very gentle: the occasional passenger van, with some passengers clinging to the again; a motorbike or two; and some garishly-decorated lorries. We stopped at a small roadside tavern in a sunlit, grassy meadow. Throughout the constructing, individuals have been cleansing trout freshly caught from the river, so we had grilled fish within the shade of bushes in a subject by the river.
The one different guests have been just a few native households. Pure curiosity and hospitality collided with deeply conservative values. The womenfolk retired once they noticed unusual males, however they have been very pleasant and welcoming to the ladies in our small occasion, sharing meals and banter with them farther away and out of sight.
Within the late morning, we turned onto a rutted highway and handed by way of small villages, sure for a vestige of a distant previous. A number of kilometres later, the trail ended at a cliff face. Excessive up on the rock wall was a 15m-tall bas aid. The determine was standing, with one arm partially raised, the opposite arm to the facet. The face was broad, with elongated earlobes. It was the Kargah Buddha, estimated to be from the seventh century CE, when Buddhism was prevalent on this a part of the world.
Based on an data board on the website, the determine, additionally recognized domestically as Yatchani, represents the Maitreya Bodhisattva, with the one different determine in an analogous type being present in Ladakh, India. The board elaborates on how the carving was thought to symbolize a fierce demon, and provides that it’s dissimilar to Gandhara artwork, which is a Greco-Roman type of Buddhist artwork developed within the seventh century CE and named after the Gandhara area of northwest Pakistan.
We continued on our journey to Gilgit, the biggest city and administrative capital of Gilgit-Baltistan territory. The traditional metropolis was as soon as a significant vacation spot on the previous Silk Highway and an essential Buddhist centre, with Chinese language and Tibetan affect in the course of the sixth to seventh centuries CE.
The Gilgit manuscripts — Buddhist texts found within the space by cattle grazers — are a number of the oldest on the planet. They have been written on hardy tree bark and embody 4 Buddhist sutras, together with the Lotus Sutra. Believed to be virtually 17 centuries previous, they’re saved in India (having been airlifted from Pakistan in the course of the Partition interval) and are nonetheless within the technique of being deciphered by specialists.
Simply earlier than city, we stopped and walked alongside a wood suspension bridge over the Gilgit River — to take a look at an clearly man-made cut-out in a rock referred to as Agortham’s Boulder within the shallow water. It’s thought that an historical ruler of Gilgit, Agortham, had constructed an iron cage on the rock to imprison his daughter for trying to overthrow him.
Gilgit is taken into account a frontier city due to its proximity to the borders of Afghanistan and China, and it felt prefer it. Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of the Kashmir area, which has lengthy been claimed by each Pakistan and India. In addition to the tensions with India, the Taliban have been energetic in elements of the northern territories years in the past.
There was a noticeable navy presence within the metropolis, with checkpoints manned by armed navy personnel on a number of roads. A helicopter with the marking “Indian Military” was prominently displayed on a visitors circle on the town. Based on a Pakistan Defence web site, in 2011, it had been on a spying mission and was captured after touchdown close to the border.
Gilgit can be a gateway to journey. Many journey brokers marketed mountaineering and biking expeditions to the encompassing countryside and past. For instance, there was a biking journey to Xinjiang, China, over the excessive Khunjerab Cross. There was thus a sensible choice of lodging, together with luxurious choices.
The Serena Resort, Gilgit, was hidden behind a tall wall on a hill. A safety guard scanned the undercarriage of the automobile with a mounted mirror, a spiked steel ram barrier was lowered, and we drove by way of a steel gate and handed barricades within the driveway (to gradual the automobile down), earlier than going by way of a steel detector within the reception space.
Inside, the lodge was luxuriously appointed, with thick carpeting, wood furnishings and a view of the in depth gardens. Past was the majestic Karakoram Vary of mountains, with the snow-clad peak of the 7,788m Mount Rakaposhi seen.
The most important market within the territory is in Gilgit. Referred to as the NLI market, it’s a massive sprawl of well-stocked retailers with an limitless array of electronics, garments, jewelry, and toy and provision retailers, with small eateries and eating places scattered right here and there. The dried fruits and nuts stalls stocked a big number of native produce — honey, jams, dried fruits and varied grades of nuts. At a jewelry retailer, the shopkeeper recognized us as Malaysians, having spent three years working in a textile outlet in Bahau, Negeri Sembilan!
Fish doesn’t function prominently on the Pakistani meals menu, however we had the weird alternative to have recent trout once more. We had referred to as a number of locations earlier than discovering the nice, clear restaurant, overlooking the river in a gorge beneath. We feasted on fried trout, with hen biryani, hen karahi (curry), chapse dowdo (a noodle soup with thick-cut strands constructed from freshly made capati, present in elements of Gilgit-Baltistan), greens and extra tandoor-baked bread than we might probably eat.
We flew out of Gilgit the following day after present process the strictest safety protocol I’ve ever encountered at any airport. The airplane, a turboprop ATR, soared into the clear blue sky. The pilot had suggested us to sit down on the left for a view of the mountains, as we’d fly over Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest peak on the planet. The creased, mountainous territory of Gilgit-Baltistan unfolded beneath us, a seeming eternity of rocks, rivers and snowy pinnacles. Gilgit pale away right into a small gray patch of clustered buildings, misplaced within the huge panorama, with the braided ribbon of a river beside it, glistening like silver within the morning solar.
This text first appeared on March 16, 2026 in The Edge Malaysia.
