Day 1 – Lahore to Naran

On Friday, July 22, 2016, the wait was finally over. The team comprising André Hörmann, a documentary filmmaker from Berlin, Germany, Salman Rashid, a renowned travel writer from Lahore, Zeeo Zia and Fayeem Avzl, two young film graduates who originally hail from Hunza but have studied in Lahore, Naurin Zaki, the director of the Annemarie-Schimmel-Haus (ASH) with her husband Imran and Haris and myself (Naadir) who are currently doing an internship at the ASH, arrived at the Annemarie-Schimmel-Haus, the German Cultural Centre Lahore at 5.30 in the morning. As soon as we arrived, we started packing and loading our suitcases and trekking material in the hired Hiace van. It took about half an hour to be fully ready, after which we left the Centre.
We were finally heading north , our destination being Naran via the Karakoram Highway. We are all excited, as for most of us this was the first time traveling to the North, and the atmosphere in the van was light and cheery, with Salman Rashid regaling us with his exciting tales and André Hörmann excitedly questioning us about the culture and history of the country. We stopped a few times on the way, but the film crew’s first film shot was taken in Hasan Abdal of a signboard signaling the start of the Karakoram Highway (KKH). It was a long tedious journey and at last after almost 11 hours on the road, we reached Kaghan, a beautiful valley with lush green mountains and a splendid view of the river. I was trying to catch Pokemon on Pokemon go, and was excited at the prospect of rare mountainous Pokemon exclusive to the North. However, rather disappointedly, there was no GPS signal in these parts.
Approximately half an hour after Kaghan we arrived at our destination: Naran Valley. It was rather different from what I expected. I had imagined a scarcely populated scenic escape, but Naran was the opposite -loud, filled with tourist and no different from Lahore. Still it was surrounded by picturesque hills and was pleasantly chilly, which one can’t say for Lahore in July. We were staying at the hotel De Manchi for the night, and after checking in and freshening up, we were back on the streets of Naran in search of food. The group dinned at the Moon Restaurant which was a well set up place and seemingly quite popular. After filling our stomachs with Punjabi food (that was all there was on the menu) and planning the next day out, our weary party finally hit the sack after an exhausting yet satisfying day.