Got up about 3 times during the night for my Delhi belly, then woke up early as the tour guys were picking me up at 7am. Feeling much more alive today so I’m hoping my Delhi belly is subsiding, plus I took some tablets to help.

Had what will probably be my last shower for a while (cold is really cold here), had a small breakfast then packed up the last few things & dropped off my bag with the hotel & checked out.

Drove out to the airport along the freeway, passing lots of office blocks, apartments & crappy houses. All very grey, bleak & hazy/smokey. It’s hard to imagine living in a place like this, especially as travel is very limited for most Pakistanis. Feeling very fortunate that I was born in Australia!

Started the flight with a prayer! It’s amazing how ingrained religion is in the culture here.

Sat next to a mum with her screaming child … fortunately it stopped after what felt like 20 minutes but was probably only about 10. Felt very sorry for her as she was trying everything to get the kid to settle.

She got one kid settled then the other one started acting up, kicking the seat in front, undoing her seatbelt & constantly pulling the tray table down. Little turd!

The smoke & haze was so thick we couldn’t even see the ground as we got higher.

“We’ll be landing in Skardu ‘ins allah’ (“God willing”) in 15 minutes “ Luckily, God was willing & we landed without any problems.

Outside temperature is a balmy 0C … warmer than expected, which is great as I was thinking we’d be in snow already! Skardu is at an altitude of about 2,000m on the valley floor surrounded by snow covered mountains. The planes have to circle around a couple of times just so they can get low enough to land!

After picking up my bag, I was greeted by Mushtaq who will be my guide for the trek. He’s also the brother of Ali, the owner & the guy who has been organising my trek. We went outside the airport & he placed a lei around my neck then pulled out a poster for me to hold so we could all pose for photos. All quite amusing! I thought the people here would be more used to seeing foreigners but I was drawing quite a few stares… so maybe not! Or maybe they’re just wondering why a tourist would be crazy enough to come here in the middle of winter!

We drove through what seemed like most of Skardu & arrived at the hotel I’m staying at this evening. It would be lucky to make 1 star I reckon but it has hot water, a bed & a heater that they’d very kindly already switched on for me!

Because it’s so cold here, the butchers are all open air. Skardu is basically a giant freezer anyway!

Lunch was another mountain of food with enough rice to feed a family of 4 then it was time to go out exploring the town a bit.

The main activity seemed to be left so that’s where I went first, walking along the broken & uneven pavement, & dodging cars, motorbikes, goats & the occasional cow.

People in general were very friendly, & were happy to exchange a smile, a greeting or even offer me their spot by their roadside fire to warm up. Very much appreciated as there was a light snow coming down.

A taxi driver took me to a cafe & bought me a tea, I met two brothers that were much friendlier than they looked & were visiting Skardu to sell firewood from Chilash (about 8 hours away), a shop owner gave me free dried fruit & nuts then refused to take payment (I forced him to take something), bought a scarf off another lovely old guy, some younger guys who very kindly offered me a seat by their fire, & had fun meeting a bunch of other people.

No matter where you go in the world, the people with the least are always the most generous & the most hospitable. Sometimes it’s because they want something from you but often it’s just because they want to talk to you. These are some of my most fun experiences!

The hospitality in this part of the world is always amazing & you get the feeling they’d give you the shirt off their back if you needed it.

Had dinner back at my hotel & although I asked for a half serve, they still gave me yet another huge portion. It’s delicious but I just can’t eat it all, partly because there’s so much & partly due to my Delhi belly.

I was hoping it’d go away by now but not much seems to be changing unfortunately. Let’s hope it’s better tomorrow as we have to drive for 5 hours to the start of the trek.

Went to bed early as I was feeling really tired & lethargic but even though I heaped all the blankets on top of me, I still couldn’t get warm. Sadly, they’d disconnected the heater they set up for me earlier so that wasn’t an option anymore! I ended up pulling out my sleeping bag and putting it on top of the bed. A good test for it! This worked much better & kept me warm all night.