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gateway, not charming in itself, but heavy with anticipation. Locals there will wave you into roadside dhabas, determined to ensure you’ ve had both chai and a plate of lentils before riding further.
Hunza, by contrast, is every traveller’ s postcard dream. Baltit and Altit forts stand watch over apricot orchards, glaciers tumble into turquoise rivers, and the people of Karimabad greet you with a quiet dignity. The Hunza Valley has long been known for its hospitality, and for a rider it feels like the perfect balance of challenge and reward. From here, a side trip to Hopar Valley reveals another gem: the Hopar Glacier, a snarling river of ice that seems alive, groaning and shifting underfoot. The road to get there is a patchwork of gravel and dust, but at the end, there is always tea. A farmer, a guide, a family living at the glacier’ s edge, it doesn’ t matter who. The ritual holds.
Further north, the Karakoram Highway winds to Khunjerab Pass, the world’ s highest paved border crossing into China. At nearly 4,700 metres, oxygen thins, snow lingers even in summer, and marmots scamper across the road. Here, too, we were waved down, not to check documents but to offer a thermos of hot tea against the bitter cold.
“ Drink,” the officer said, his moustache seemingly alive as he grinned beneath its furry cover.“ This is Pakistan.”
And indeed, it is. From the lowest bazaar to the highest border, the gesture is constant: hospitality first, bureaucracy later.
Riding dirt tracks in Pakistan is not easy. Bikes break down. Roads vanish in landslides. Weather shifts without warning. Yet every difficulty is met with a generosity that borders on miraculous. On the road to Tisar along the Shigar Valley, one of our group dropped the bike, apparently‘ swept sideways’ by the raging current of a glacial melt. Within seconds, a group of villagers appeared to help, to have the bike from the waters, and to offer the inevitable, tea. We worked side by side until the bike coughed back to life, and only then were we allowed to ride on. Payment was refused.“ You are our guest,” they said
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