Pakistan travel blog: What happens when two American chicks go to Pakistan?

We made it to Pakistan! We took four flights to get here from San Francisco to Istanbul Turkey to Islamabad Pakistan and finally skardu here you can see on the mapstarting in the US we flew over and right all the way to Pakistan a country surrounded by China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran for most of our trip we stayedin the northern area which is where all the beautiful mountains are but first.

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Well, we have an app called Pao that's all about exploring the coolest spots around the world and three of our programmersactually live in Islamabad Pakistan their co-worker invited us to hiswedding and we knew we had to go and meet everyone for the first time so after hours of traveling we finally got to our destinationand within the next few hours we had lost a bag I was interviewed for national Pakistan TV and some girl came up to us and asked us to be in her Tik Tok video but what we didn't realize was she was actually famous ontik-tok and our videos with her got hundreds of thousands of views it was acrazy two-day travel experience but we finally got to sleep We woke up in theabsolutely stunning shangri-la hotel one of the most iconic hotels in the regionas it features mountain and lake views right outside your room next it was time to set out on her daywith our Travel Guide to hear her driver and our co-worker Waseem see here tookus to his village in his family's home where they cooked us a massive lunch ofhomemade traditional food they were some of the nicest people we've ever met sohospitable and so excited that we were there it was a really really specialmoment for us we got back in the car and the wind started picking up as we wentto our next spot we turned off the main road went through the sand and ended upat the highest cold desert in the world climbing up the dunes was not easy butthe view was absolutely nuts hardest because of the wind but therewere massive mountains surrounding all of the dunes we had a blast runningaround of course they had me model on the cardtoo after a long day it was time to head to our next hotel and get a good night'srest this morning we woke up in Shiar fort a beautiful fort that was renovatedinto a hotel the grounds are so relaxing and located next to a raging river thebreakfast was awesome make sure to try the french toast and fresh peach juice next our co-worker must seem surprisedus with a visit to his family's home which is over five hundred years oldthey made us a massive breakfast spread on top of the breakfast we already hadit was so good he felt so lucky to see where one of the paused programmersactually grew up it was time to hit the road again and make our way to our nextstop Deus I national park this park is massive and filled with mountains lakesand crazy views it is super popular to camp here there's even a tent set upwith a kitchen inside if you get hungry we ordered some chicken curry rice andchickpeas and there was some of the best food I had the whole trip oh and if you go to deicide make sureyou have a four-wheel drive car you'll be driving through some pretty crazyterrain as we drove who came across what wouldsoon be one of my favorite parts of Pakistan their trucks instead of havingboring old loader trucks all of their trucks are painted by local Pakistaniartists I became completely obsessed with them and one even gave us a littleride on the front so freaking cool the next day we woke up in the P TDCRama hotel known for its beautiful grounds and wooden architecture rightnear the hotel is the trailhead for a fun hike to a super pretty Lake one- wenoticed about pakistan is there is tons of pollution so if you end up going tryand take some trash with you our next stop was one my mom had been dreadingfor weeks we basically had to take a drive on the second most dangerous roadin the world to do probably the hardest hike we've ever done any final words doesn't look like it but this is atwo-lane road made up of dirt and rocks with the six thousand foot drop offit was beyond terrifying but the boys loved it and of course they had to do alittle photo shoot well we made it we're alivedefinitely one of the scarier things we've ever done we said our goodbyes wefinished the day with a hike up to where we were sleeping for the night in themorning we woke up to the most insane view of Nanda Parbat also known askiller mountain it has a 22% kill rate for those who try and climb it youdefinitely did not want to try that but we decided to hide to the base campbefore we left we got interviewed again and then set out on our adventure so guys now got ya have any last wordsbefore the stomach screw them the next day we woke up very sore andhad to make the trek down to the Jeep and then get drive back to town after making it out alive it was time tohead to the largest city in the northern area for some food but you got it we then sampled some local foodsincluding their version of a snow cone but they get their ice from the glaciers we tried some fruit some fried streetfood and then we went to the river in town to cool off the next morning we woke up in the HansaDunbar hotel with a 360 view of the mountains from not only our room butfrom breakfast and from their rooftop we then set out to our first stop of theday Lake octopod this Lake had the most turquoise water I've ever seen in mylife you can see it from the top or go downto the water and even take a boat ride if you want they let me drag to our next stop and itwas my first time driving on the right side of the car and on the left side ofthe road I think I did pretty good our next stop was Hasani bridge whatused to be one of those dangerous bridges in the world until theyrenovated it only the local people are allowed to cross it but they let my momwalk out a little bit for a picture we met some of the local ladies and theywere absolutely amazing they even told one of them I thought she was beautifuland she replied I know freaking badass thank you her final stop of the day itwas one of my favorites of the whole trip the posse of cones this mountainrange is shaped like cones and so breathtaking the pictures and videosdon't do it justice you were so excited we did the passage home dance the next day it was finally time to headback to his lala Bob for the wedding Pakistani weddings are traditionallythree days long filled with fun traditions and celebrations we ate somuch food saw beautiful decorations stunning outfits money throwing and evensome horse dancing even though the hiking and mountains were stunning ourfavorite part of the whole trip was the people I can honestly say in all of mytravels to more than 40 countries I've never felt so welcomed and safe justwalking down the street people would come up to me and shake my hand andthank me for coming to their country some even gave me presents without evenknowing me Pakistan is nothing like it's shown on the news and everyone I talkedto said to me get your friends to come visit us too so I hope you put Pakistanon your travel list and if you want to save all the spots that I went to on mytrip download the pop on the iPhone now.