Skardu Airport
This airplane is literally parked off the side of a runway right over here to my right, it’s incredible! Well we’ve arrived at the airport and there’s only one baggage lane that’s how small this airport is.
That’s our car for the next five days, guys!
Check in to Indus Hotel Skardu
There are lots of dirt roads here. Looks like it’s really dusty behind us, wow! So we just checked into this hotel. It cost us about 11,000 rupees for two nights. i’ll put the conversion down below
Let me show you the room really quickly! So here’s our beautiful little room for two nights! Over here we got light switches made out of wood,
a nice little closet, a phone here, a double bed for two, a really small local tv with some cable, I think. Got a chair in the corner and actually a really beautiful view!
This is actually where the planes are landing. So the landing strip is just right over there at the airport. Let me show you the bathroom really quick. I actually haven’t even seen this!
Where’s the light switch in here.. here it is! So here’s our nice little sink. Got some soap, some shampoo, more soap, and our shower. It’s an open shower like in Bali, not really too much here and there’s our bed!
Visit Shangrila Resort Skardu (Kachura lake)
So we’re actually going to go ahead and explore the town a little bit. I have no idea what’s on the itinerary. So we’ll just take you guys along the way once we’re there.
So we’ve arrived at a place called Shangri-la Hotel and Resort. Now the reason why we’re here specifically is that it’s actually one of the most famous resorts here in Skardu. it’s also one of the most expensive, I’m going to assume. I mean look how beautiful this place is! This is located right on the mountain. Got a huge lake in the middle, beautiful trees,
they have fruit trees here growing all over the area for apple trees, cherry trees. And if you’re wondering why it’s called Shangri-la. Well Pakistan and china have a really good relationship
China invests a lot of money into infrastructure here. From the highways, bridges, buildings, businesses, everything basically! So that’s why they have a great relationship here.
Not sure if this resort itself though is owned by China. But nonetheless, it is beautiful! With this beautiful mountain surrounding it and look at the lake! They’ve even got a plane here parked in the middle of the park here. Somebody’s cooking something up, smells good. So you guys can see people actually out here taking boat rides on this lake,
not sure about the cost of it actually.
But we did pay 1,000 rupees to get into this resort itself. Honestly, after being here for the last like 10 minutes, it’s all right. I mean it makes sense if you’re actually staying here to actually come here and stay here on the lake, it’s really beautiful. But if you’re planning to come out to Skardu, I would probably skip this place. i mean.. It’s a lake. What else are you gonna do on the lake besides take a quick touristy boat ride on here? But i will say this the architecture here is really beautiful! And it’s situated in the most beautiful scenic spot here in Skardu between the mountains.
Visit Upper Kachura Lake
So we have just driven up the mountain a little bit to Upper Kachura Lake is what the name of it is. We’ve driven through a few little villages along the way, it’s like the street is so so tiny. But we’ve arrived here, it’s still part of the village as well. Very local area, goats, cows. Oh, grape trees yeah! They’re growing a lot of grape trees, apricot trees, and apple trees here as well, yeah. The roads are so tiny here, i don’t know how the cars drive up this mountain. Looks like they’re going maybe corn what it looks like corn, maybe.
The fishing rod is available. So we’ve come up to the lake. There are two things you can do out here, you can rent a fast boat to go around on the lake or a slow boat which is like a Pakistani boat. The prices are 3,000 rupees for the fast boat or 2,000 for the slow boat. so i’ll put the conversion down below. Look there are goats up here!
Wow!
As you guys can see there are actually a lot of locals here at this lake. And apparently, a lot of them just do swim on this lake. The water seems to be pretty cold, let me test it out actually. Oh yeah, it’s pretty good, it’s pretty cold! But if you do want to take the boat 2,000 rupees or 3 000 for the fast boa. It looks like he just goes around the entire lake one time and that’s about it.
It looks fun people seem to be enjoying themselves here on the boats and yeah it’s just absolutely stunning! I mean as you guys can see from the drone shots.
It’s magnificent with this lake right in the middle, between these two mountain ranges is just stunning! We flew actually into here this morning but we didn’t see the lake, we saw the mountains.
But it’s another thing to experience, this thing here! Absolutely come here, guys! Totally worth it.
And by the way, if you guys do come here, it’s free.
You don’t have to pay for an entrance fee, there’s no entrance fee.
So the sun is beginning to set actually behind the mountain. It’s only like 3 or 4 o’clock, I think.
But because the mountains are so high it gets dark pretty quickly here.
Dinner at a local Restaurant
But we saw a few little like restaurants up here, cafes along the way down.
We’re going to see how much it costs to eat there, probably expensive.
So we arrived at the midway point between the lake and the parking lot area.
We’ve actually met some friends right back here.
They’ve invited us to sit down and eat and have a drink with us together.
And the guy right here is grilling some chicken,
some fish. We ordered some fish to share with the table.
It’s the local Pakistani way of inviting people and just talking and having fun together.
So our food here has arrived we got grilled fish; half a kilogram actually;
and some french fries came out as well.
And kindly enough the men, the gentlemen here that we met at the table
of course, paid for our food here.
So kindly! it’s so nice of them. K: If you watch this, thank you so much!
I mean that just shows the generosity of the people here.
This has happened just countless times i don’t remember even how many.
And it gets to a point i think of just like it feels very unusual not paying for your own food
but then again the people are just amazing here!
So we’re gonna go ahead and eat here have a quick dinner and then head back to the hotel.
All right guys that were an incredible, incredible dinner! That was so good!
One thing you guys must know about Pakistan is that even if you’re getting fast food,
it’s all gonna be freshly cooked and we got french fries and fish, which was delicious.
These are some local houses of people living here.
Got somebody’s motorbike parked here. Can you guys imagine living here?
Well guys we made it back to our hotel. The hotel we’re staying at is called the Indus in this view hotel.
For those of you that are wondering,
in case you guys have ever wanted to come to stay at this specific hotel,
it’s located very close to the airport actually. Maybe like 10-minute drive away
and the area looks beautiful. What’s left of the river. This is supposed to be a river, i believe.
I don’t know too much about it but there’s really not too much water or maybe it’s a low tide.
But this hotel has a really beautiful garden area overlooking the river.
And if you’re lucky enough in the morning when the flights do come to Skardu and leave Skardu,
you can actually catch the flight actually like circling around the airport.
Because the flight into Skardu is just absolutely incredible!
The the plane flies so close to the mountain peaks
because it’s got a land basically right in between the valley.
It basically just circles around this little valley until it lands down at that main airport,
where the river is and where the town is. But overall first impressions of Skardu,
it’s incredible!
Conclusion:
Every time you drive down the road you’re just looking left, looking right,
the mountain peaks are just absolutely stunning! It’s incredible to see them
and as the sun is setting over them it’s even better, honestly.
Good morning from our second day here in Skardu. It’s
actually not been the most enjoyable stay, I have to be honest.
We did not get any sleep for the last two days. You know overall the hotel is beautiful,
the food is actually really good too. The rooms are pretty local. Like on the local level.
So do expect that if you guys do end up coming to stay here which i absolutely don’t mind.
As long as I have a bed to sleep in, I’m okay with it. Overall though, the bathroom did stink a little.
I think it’s the plumbing issue here. Bali has the same issue with plumbing
with villas there but yeah.
The staff really didn’t care too much about quiet hours, let’s just put it that way.
For the past two days, there’s been this family that is checking out
right now all the way over there
Like three cars full and they had probably maybe like
6-8 kids running through the hallways of this hotel until midnight.
Even the adults were in the dining area talking, and laughing all night long
and we did not get any sleep for those two days.
Because this hotel pretty much is just one level, as you can see. It’s only one level.
And it’s got the reception area,
it’s got the dining area, and it’s just got one hallway with rooms on each side
So it echoes any time somebody talks, it echoes through the entire hotel room
and so as you can imagine having 6-8 kids running through the hallways here, screaming, yelling, and the adults talking all over each other, it was not very enjoyable.
And the fact that none of the staff did anything about that kind of irritated me.
Even when I went out into the hallway at like 11.30 at night nobody at the front desk.
I was trying to tell them “hey,
could you tell them to go to sleep or something” nobody at the front desk
and so we didn’t go to bed until like 12.30 at night and even at that it’s like…
we have to wake up early to go to our next destination obviously.
So if that issue gets fixed then come stay here, if not avoid it.
So we’re going to go ahead to our next destination guys. If you want to watch the next video,
click above on the link on one side or the other don’t know which side it was at.
But if you guys enjoyed today’s video give
it a like. Comment down below any questions you might have
and I’ll see you guys in the next video! peace!
A:
Only in Pakistan
right here there’s a cow coming.. K: instead of cats or dogs it’s cows
You can also book Skardu tour packages from iMusafir.pk