An Escape to the Jungle – Sharan, Kaghan Valley

Day 1: 13^thJuly 2017

• On 13^th July 2017 at 10:15 pm, my husband and I grabbed Careem to Thokar Niaz Daewoo bus station.
• Took 11:00 pm bus to Abbottabad. Slept the whole time. Reached at about 5:30 am.

Day 2: 14^thJuly 2017

• From there, we took Daewoo shuttle to Mansehra starting 6:15 am. Couldn’t sleep, thanks to these noisy guys who sat right behind our ears.
• From Mansehra Daewoo station, we took a local taxi to Lari Ada. I was excited to see it as it reminded me of Abrar’s song ‘Tumhare aur mere ghar k beech mei hai lari ada lari ada’. (There’s a lorry station in between your and my house).
• There are no set timings of departure of wagons there. They say when we have enough passengers, we will start. I kept humming ‘lari ada’ till the passengers assembled.

• Even though I was wearing a shawl, every man and woman was staring at me as if I’m an alien.
• We took that local wagon to Balakot city. We sat in the front. There was no window. I still slept the whole time. We reached Balakot city at 8:30 am.
• Took a local taxi from city to PTDC Motel Balakot. Had French toasts and omelet paratha there.

The journey from Balakot to Sharan with group mates

• I fell in love with our jeep. It was red and was fairly open and airy.
• 9 of us crumpled ourselves into the small space and our journey began.
• There was a local driver and our guide Rasheed for the trip.
• The journey was very bumpy. The views were stunning. The forest was dense: full of pine trees.

• Jeep tyre got punctured in Paras where we got off and had challi (corn).
• It was beginning to get really dark. There was fear-of-the-unknown yet excitement to see our destination.

• Rasheed was very funny. When I asked him about wildlife in this jungle, he replied ‘Reech (bears), tigers, leopards and pichal peri (lady ghost)’. He even painted a horrific picture of what she looks like. We started screaming. He loved it.

Destination

• Around 8 pm, we reached our destination and were overpowered by the sheer beauty of the pods.
• The area has a barrier and has a set of rules written down on a board.

 

• There was a constant sound of water flowing in a stream nearby.
• We explored the pods inside out and were amazed at how clean and exotic they were.

• At night, we sat together on the chairs in the garden and had fun conversations.
• We went for dinner to the dining room tent on the other end of the garden/hill.

• After dinner, we went away from our pod lights and stargazed till we got a neck sprain.
• The stars were just gorgeous. There was glitter sprinkled all over the sky.

• Coincidently, we saw 4-5 shooting stars during that time.
• Got into bed 11:30ish.
• Didn’t realize our pod window was open. Felt pretty cold at night.

Day 3: 15^thJuly 2017

• Got up and ready by 8:30 am and had Omelet Paratha breakfast.
• At 10:20 am, we started off on a trek to a mountain top Manshi.
• The track started from right next to our pods. The moment we entered the forest, the trees welcomed us with their colossal grandeur.

 

• The scenery and landscape were beyond stunning. The lush green color was a therapy to the soul.
• We passed streams, goats, cows and sheep. 

• There was a lot of wild vegetation. Mushrooms and red berries were everywhere.

• There were no other tourists except for us. It’s really an unexplored and untouched forest.

• While walking, a snake came up to our track. Rasheed quickly snapped his stick at it and it lay down stunned. We hopped over it and continued our trek.

• It took us about 3 hours to reach Manshi top. At times the incline was pretty tough.
• We kept asking Rasheed ‘Are we there yet?’
• Our group mate Ali offered a sweet to all of us including Rasheed. We all put the wrapper in our bags or pockets. A minute later we saw the same wrapper on the track. We knew Rasheed was the culprit.

• When I found the right time, I spoke to Rasheed and lightly said that we have to keep Pakistan clean. He smiled and said ‘This is all dirty, you see this wood on the ground, stones, mud and wrappers’. I realized he had no idea about bio-degradable. I tried to explain it to him. He seemed convinced and said he will keep wrappers in his pocket in future and not throw them outside.
• When we reached the top, we were literally in the clouds and visibility was low but very dreamy.

• We saw 2-3 local wood houses near the top and they were so happy to see tourists around.
• They made fresh Makai ki roti, 2 types of Saag (spinach curry), fresh yogurt and lassi for us.

 

• We felt so indebted to them as they were so hospitable. Their whole family even sat with us while we enjoyed the super organic food.
• We were then informed that another local man in a nearby house had made fries for us so we went there and enjoyed the spicy fries with tea.

The trek down to our pods

• When we were about to start trekking back to our pods, Rasheed asked us if we wanted to go back on the route with the Reech (bear) or the one without it. We asked him if the Reech was harmless we would love to see it (Duhh!!). He told us that a few days ago, he took away someone’s nose and some weeks back, he ate up 3 men. That was enough for us to decide the path back.

• It took us 2 hours to trek back to our pods. We walked past Youth Hostel which was made in 1920s. Rasheed told us that groups of 15-20 girls and boys come once a year to this place and put disco lights up on trees in the forest and have a party there.

• Reached our pod garden. Took swings. All of us brought goodies from our pods in the garden and had baked beans, Pepsi, Kurkuray, Fruitella, Doritos, Toffo and Nimco.
• It was freezing cold and I had to wear my hoodie, leather jacket and my new 20 rupee ear muffs.

• At night, our group mates told us that they are in their pods because some drunk guy is roaming about in the garden and trying to be approachable.
• We all got together in one pod and started playing Monopoly deal.
• Yummy dinner (Bhindi, roti and chicken karhai) was served in the dining room.

• While we were having our usual conversations at the table in this most serene and peaceful place, suddenly our hearts started racing as we heard about 6-7 clashen coff gunshots right next to us.
• We were frightened. I was sitting right next to the dining room tent’s entry so I could clearly see that the old bearded men who were sitting on chairs in the garden close to us were culprits.

• Rasheed came to us after hearing the gunshots and we told him this is unacceptable and that he should call the security guard straight away.
• The guard came to us and assured us that he has talked to those men and told them to behave and that they will not do it again.
• Our mood was pretty much spoiled, we sat in the tent scared for our lives.

• A few minutes later, we heard 10-12 gunshots again. We became very angry and each of us wanted to walk straight up to those guys and ask them what the hell are they doing. Is this any way to celebrate your happiness? Those gunshots can actually take innocent lives.

• They were drunk and that added to our anxiousness and helplessness. Nobody wanted to do anything that could even trigger those men slightly.
• Sheepishly, we made our way to our pods. Thank God, those creepy over-aged bearded drunkards with guns retired at around 11 pm. We took a sigh of relief, got ready and called it a day.

• I caught a cold somewhere then. Couldn’t stop sneezing. We had run out of tissues. Haaris ran to Ali’s pod next to ours and borrowed some tissues.

Day 4: 16^thJuly 2017