A walk in the mountains

After spending the night at PTC Hotel in Balakot, I got up, started the car and headed towards Naran. It had been raining lightly since night. There is a big open and beautiful road leading to Kagan Valley. I began to wonder how things changed over time. I first came here in 1965 at the age of fourteen. At that time, the route was like a narrow trail. Most government department GTS jeeps on this route. Were running The road was open for four hours to come and four hours to go. Because if two jeeps came face to face, it was not possible to pass. There was a small PTDC motel in Naran. Which had a few rooms and some tents. The best place is Youth Hostel Thajo which is now rare. GTS Rest House was built in the same year. Maybe we lived in it before. There were no hotels, only huts. The jeep was heading towards Naran. Everyone was sitting in shock. Someone in the house asked the driver, such a dangerous road, there would be many accidents. The driver spoke immediately. That is a matter of day. Look down, you see a broken jeep. The five men had fallen, all five have not been found till today. They should look ahead. A small bus has crashed. Fifteen servants were sitting in it. He was a stupid driver. It is difficult to get here by jeep. They all died. Just after the turn, let me show you, two jeeps are lying down. Eleven or twelve of them were among them ... It was not long before my mother, my late grandmother who was traveling with us in the jeep, got angry. She said to the driver, "Shut up, you can't see. We are already blindfolded with fear. You are telling horrible stories." This is the way, so let's not go back. We persuaded my mother to go ahead with great difficulty, after that the driver was sitting in the car as if he had sniffed the snake.

Kagan Valley is a very beautiful valley. The beauty of it is that once you visit it, it calls you again and again. I have been here many times. Over time, the road has become better and better. The hotels are better and the facilities are better. Now its path is a wonderful open road. Just a few kilometers from Balakot, heavy rain started. The road also started to look dim due to this heavy rain. I stopped the car and asked the lady sitting next to me, there may be some accident on the way in such heavy rain and if we reach Naran safely then the roads will be closed due to landslide and now we have to stay here for ten days. And we will have to wait for the way to open. If you are ready, let's go ahead, otherwise let's go back. Decision to return and we reached Rawalpindi in a few hours passing through Mansehra and Abbottabad in heavy rain. The news of the night confirmed my fears. Landslides closed roads and killed many people in accidents.

PTDC is an institution of the Government of Pakistan. The purpose of this organization is to promote tourism and provide facilities to tourists. There are PTDC motels all over the hilly area which provide the best facilities for tourists to stay in this area. I spent two months in the Northern Territory and the PTDC Motel was always my favorite place to stay. Clean rooms, spacious and modern nice bathrooms, that was the beauty of these motels. This time too I stayed overnight at PTDC Motel in Balakot. But I was very disappointed. The room was fine, but the washroom was very dirty. Once the room was changed on complaint but the washroom is very smelly. Despite the new construction, no faucet, no commode and no gutter were in good condition. Despite the scorching heat, the AC did not work. Come on, since the heat is only a few days, they did not feel the need, but the bathroom must be clean. The government needs to pay special attention to such small things as providing good environment to tourists is a reflection of our good national environment.

I have a son who lives in Rawalpindi so I have a house there too and I spend some days there on holidays. When we left, we first reached the beautiful mountain of Thandiani near Abbottabad. The road was beautiful. A beauty that is hard to describe in words. One place is the river below and high mountains and dense forests on both sides. On the other side of the road, between the poplar trees, just below the peak, a retired general has built a mosque in his hometown. This mosque was enhancing the beauty of the valley. A place where even standing is difficult for someone like me. The mosque on such a slope was a strong passion of faith. While enjoying the beauty of the road, I came close to Thandiani. Two or three kilometers before Thandiani, many hut-like hotels were seen. There were only two that were a bit reasonable, one can sit there and drink tea, one can stay for a day and a half but there is no arrangement where people stay on the top of Thandiani. There is a rest house which is booked from Abbottabad. Few people live there. There were some installations on the top and some gated residences. No decent seating and no bathroom. A very dirty canteen and a few cottages. This is the total asset of Thandiani. The more people go there, the more a good canteen and some clean bathrooms are essential.

The tourism department should also pay attention to this.

I had to go to Kagan Valley now. Instead of asking the locals, I took a new beach route instead of Abbottabad. This road goes from Thandiani to Boi and Garhi Habib to Balakot. This road was also very beautiful but very barren in terms of tourism. There was no place to stop or sit during the two and a half hour journey. When I reached Boi, I stopped. I was feeling the demand for tea. The hotel was visible from the dirty tea. I asked an elderly man at a shop, who was probably a gifted doctor in the area, if there was a good hotel here. Got the answer, of course, they left the shop and motioned for me to follow them. There was a similar hotel two floors above. He said to the owner, "I want to have a good cup of tea so I have brought it to you. The owner of the hotel also got along very well with the traditional sociability of the area. He started asking where he came from, Lahore." What do you do, tell me to be a retired teacher. His next question was, what grade was it? I laughed and asked where you were teaching. They said how did you know that I am also a teacher. I laughed that our primary teachers are always in the circle of grades. I told him that if I teach in university then he did not mention grade. After that he praised his food, he mentioned pure milk for tea. But the standard of their thinking was not higher. From Boi to Garhi Habib even today the beautiful views of the river are breathtaking. I think the government should provide funds to the local people for the development of tourism and establishment of good hotels in the area. Tourism is the world's largest industry. The government has to work very seriously to promote it.