Next year (2002) we were lucky to be able to combine our 2002 holiday with the first weeks of 2003 and therefore enjoying 6 weeks.  What to do with six weeks of holiday ?  Where to go to ?  Luxuary as a problem !  Scenery in Nepal was beautiful and the sight of monks wandering around their stupa quite impressive, but for some reason it was not a place to spend 6 weeks.  There were some topics on our 'request' list : there had to be mountains, BIG ones, it had to be accessible in winter time (December-January), it had to be a Moslim country (since we had never been before in a Moslim country besides Marokko), culture would have te be 'challenging' and most of all people had to be open and friendly.   For obvious reasons not easy to find !  So we came up with the idea of going to Pakistan and India.  Both countries are so big we had to choose which places to visit so we split the Journey in 3 places: Northern areas in Pakistan, Rajasthan in India and to close the year and start a new one : Kerala in South-India.  From these 3, Northern Areas in Pakistan was the most difficult.  I saw a picture on the internet of Baltit Fort in Karimabad and .... done, nobody could set this beauty out of my mind.  This was the place I wanted to visit, even it would be snow covered in Winter, not easy to acces and...unknown ??? 

The idea of going to the mountain area of the Karakoram, finding the castle, doing the KKH (Karakoram Highway) in wintertime, the end of Ramazam (december 2002), visit the beautiful city of Lahore with its wonderful old Fort and town,.... We had a thouht about it (5 seconds) and yes, this is the place we wanted to see !!   Even if it would take us the whole 6 weeks, we wanted to visit Pakistan and Northern Areas  (even as if I'm writing memories are coming back).   Can't really say our folks liked the idea, but...why worry.

So, December and January 2002-2003 we would fly on Delhi, head by train to Amritsar, cross the border at Wagah and head for Lahore.  Lahore would be are "base camp" for a few days where we would try to get some usefull information about the road to Gilgit.  The Karakoram Highway had been blocked by  earthquakes a few days before we took off and flying to Gilgit is not always possible in winter time.  

If Lahore would give us the answer to are questions, we would head the KKH for Gilgit, and from Gilgit try to head for Karimabad.  The route to Karimabad would depend on the weather conditions. It was December and snow is common in the Karakoram from November 'till May.  Bye the time we would be freezed out, we would head back for Gilgit and try for Lahore.  If all worked fine, we would come back from Gilgit to Lahore and cross the border back into India to visit Rajasthan and Southern India, Kerala (Christmas on the beach !).

The world has become a little bit different since 9/11 and the war in Afhanistan, Iraq....  Blame it on Osama, blame it on Uncle George, it doesn't really matter.  Besides the casualties (Bless them on both sides cause they are a son of a mother and father), the wounds are not that deep in our Western Countries. 

But people in countries like Pakistan, India, Nepal, Indonesia,.... who are dependant on foreign tourism suffer a lot (and still are).  As backpacker, you can help the local people in these troubled times.  Head for their country.and enjoy their hospitallity.  Spend some money so they can fund their schools and education.   Beauty and Grace didn't chance since 9/11.  So don't worry..... and go.

So in September 2003 we head back for Pakistan to see the same Hunza Valley in Autumn.  We stayed for two weeks in Hunza and Nager Valley, enjoyed the warm hospitallity of Ifti,  his family and Rowena (a Canadian NGO worker but with one hell of an English accent), met the wonderfull people from the Medina Guesthouse in Gilgit again (where we had a wonderful experience in December 2002), and enjoyed Hunza valley again.  Snow was already low for this time of the year, so the scenery was amazing.  Forget the Alps, forget Matterhorn, forget Annapurna.  If Reinhold Messner would be 40 years younger, he would do it all over again,