travelpakistan – The Nonny Way

One fine day, as we sat, dreaming about some far off exotic location and feeling burdened with all the work on our hands, we decided to take a trip. We couldn’t go anywhere far off and exotic, but we could take a short trip to a nearby location. Living in Karachi, means having limited options but there are options nevertheless.

Princess of Hope road — Isn’t it a must to take pictures everywhere 😉 on our way to the Princess of Hope, we couldn’t resist stopping for pictures

New year was coming up and so finding a trip wasn’t difficult. There are many tours happening around this time and most are family friendly as well. Our search led us to finding a weekend trip to Kund Malir beach. Thus, again we embarked on an adventure, this time all girls. Sounds cool right. It does to me because it was such a huge thing for me. Travelling with my girls, not a care in the world. Yaaasssssss!!

Day 1

In case you don’t know, Kund Malir is located in Hingol National Park in Balochistan at a distance of 150 kilometres from Zero Point on the Makran Coastal Highway. We travelled with Karachi Travellers Group and it was quite a pleasant, safe and peaceful experience. They plan everything to the last detail leaving no surprises. We left Karachi early morning on Saturday and within 2 hours, we reached our destination. After we freshened up, we had daal roti at a nearby dhaba and went off to explore the surroundings.

lunch at a local hotel near Kund Malir Beach — Our scrumptious lunch nearby at a local hotel

The whole place gives off a very rugged yet calm vibe. As it is not usually crowded you can find your peace on the beach and just relax with the waves. Nearby, you can go explore the trails and mountains like we did.

Have you met the Princess?

Princess of Hope at Hingol National Park — Princess of Hope that stands tall in Hingol National Park, overlooking the area

When you travel the road on the Makran Coastal Highway you come across the Princess of Hope, from Karachi it would be after about 190 km. It is named thus by Angelina Jolie when she visited the area as the rock formation looks like a princess overlooking her surroundings. When you ponder closely at her, she does seem to be majestically standing atop the mountain, carved so beautifully, although legend has it that it’s a natural sculpture shaped by the winds of the Arabian Sea.

Kund Malir Beach sunset — Beautiful sunset at Kund Malir Beach

After we were done exploring the mountains around the princess (and taking tons of pictures) where we attempted but failed miserably to climb to the top, we came back to just chill at the beach.

Sitting by the beach, listening to the waves, watching the sun go down at you, it is all such a surreal and beautiful experience. It is unforgettable. Sometimes i think that’s what our life is, a string of unforgettable experiences, or this is what it should be about, creating those unforgettable experiences. I know I’m fascinated by it. If you have these beautiful moments to look back on, it makes you feel so humble and grateful that you have had the chance to experience something like this. What is a life lived without creating such beautiful memories? I wonder.

At night, we had a BBQ scene which as you know is always such a hit on the beach, songs, laughter and games with my best pals. I will forever remember and cherish the memory of it. We slept in a tent (first for me) with smiles on our faces, talking goofy, with the hope that we’ll wake up to watch the sunrise. Do you think that happened? Well if you did, sorry to tell you that our lazy, tired selves couldn’t catch it.

Day 2

So, after we were done with the morning breakfast, the fun did not end there. The beach day lasted one day, and as it was Sunday now, we had to return back and return to work the following day. So our return journey started with a stopover at the mud volcanoes in Hingol National Park.

mud volcano at Hingol National Park — a closer view of the mud pool at one of the steeper volcanoes

There are three big mud volcanoes known as Chandragupt mud volcano 1, 2 and 3. One of the 300 foot high volcanoes is a Hindu pilgrimage site with a Mandir close by also. some people did try reaching the top of that but i don’t remember anyone making it. we climbed to the mouth of one of the smaller mountains and witnessed it oozing mud. We did also witness Hindus who came to the site for worship.

mud volcanoes at Hingol National Park — Hindu community that came for worship at the mud volcanoes

At lunchtime, we stopped over at a road side hotel for food and I kid you not, they had the best daal (lentil). By the time we reached home, we were half dead and exhausted but also, happy people who managed to break the monotony.

Oh and I must tell you, the place didn’t have any signals to i guess it counts as the perfect escape also (he he he).

Have you visited Kund Malir Beach? What are your thoughts about it? Come, tell me in the comments below:

Trip of a lifetime?

In Gorakh Hills?

For those of you who don’t know, Gorakh Hills is in Sindh and yes, it was a trip of a lifetime because it was the first (or second?) time ever (first (or second) trip ever) that I took with my friends and IT IS A BIG DEAL in the part of the world where I come from. Lulz.

So if you, like me, belong from a fairly decent household in Pakistan, you can understand exactly why travelling alone with friends is such a big deal. However, after much convincing I got the permission and although it was back in 2015, that I took this trip with some of the best people I made friends with at work, I still reflect back on it with much fondness. It really was a great trip filled with fun, laughter, tons of pictures and COLD- yes it was freezing cold in Sindh, up on the mountains.

A little about Gorakh Hills

So Gorakh Hills is a hill station located northwest of Dadu city, at an elevation of 5,689 feet. You can say it is almost at a distance of 500 kms from Karachi in the Kirthar Moutains. You can travel by car or bus till the last town of Wahi Pandi at the foot of the mountains but from thereon you have to ascend by jeeps as the roads are quite rough.

Ascend towards Gorakh Hill — View on the way to our ascend

Mountain views on the way to Gorakh Hill — The glorious mountain views on the way

Gorakh in Sanskrit means shepherding, spefically in difficult pastures, which could be the reason of the name Gorakh Hills and practically true because tribesmen do bring their herds for summer grazing here. Locals believe that the word Gorakh comes from the Balochi word “gurkh” which means wolf, and those were quite in abundance in the Keerthar range before and a threat to cows and sheep. If you want to read more on the history and origin of Gorakh Hills,I Found a very interesting post that you can read here.

My Experience

It is hard to believe that at this point of writing the blog post, it has been almost 4 years since we visited, but honestly I remember it like it happened just last year. So we booked our tour with RnB Tours and I have to say it was a very pleasant and comfortable experience. We left early in the morning (like around 6) I remember it was still dark when we assembled at the meeting point and started our journey. By afternoon we were there, sitting across the table waiting fon our lunch. On our way there, we made a stop for breakfast, so don’t think they starved us. Lolz. We made ample stops (for food/washrooms/views/pictures) on our way to stretch our legs so I will have to say that the journey was well planned and not haphazard in any way that it put us behind schedule or anything.

You will find that there is just one guesthouse there and a couple of rooms where you can relax, but the guest house provides some great food. We chose to rest in the rooms and since we were a group we took one room, 4-5 people could easily share a room. There were tents too, and people did spend their night out in the wild. If you can stand the cold, I am sure it would be an experience.

Guesthouse at Gorakh Hill — View of the guesthouse

Guest rooms at Gorakh Hill — View of guest rooms

I do recall us going into a partial food coma and dozing off quite peacefully at night. But wait, don’t think that all we had was food and rest. no no no. We retired for the night only after we were done chilling around a bonfire, singing songs, playing antakhshari and enjoying the cold night breeze.

Basically when you are with fiends, every moment feels blissful. In the morning after breakfast, we took the short trek upwards to the summit, which has a beautiful, no, beyond beautiful view of the mountains and the surrounding areas. (wait for it:p)

The trek to Gorakh Hills — The way leading to the top

Gorakh Hills at sunset — Sunset at Gorakh Hill

We caught the sunset at Gorakh Hills and it was mesmerizing to say the least. To be honest, I was just too tired to catch the sunrise but i am sure it would have been sight to behold from these hills.

It was a weekend trip which means spending two nights there and returning on Sunday. We did not have to worry about food at any point, not even during the travel as RnB made sure the stops were well managed. We even stopped for lunch on our way back on Sunday.

So if you are in Sindh and haven’t experiences this site as yet, I suggest you do. Gorakh Hills has a calm, peaceful vibe where you can unwind and bask in the mountainous silence.

Have you been there? How was your experience? I would love to know!

Tag: travelpakistan

Weekend Trip to Kund Malir and visiting Princess of Hope

Trip of a Lifetime: Gorakh Hills