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You know, I have this memory from when I was a kid
There was a this forest out behind my house.
I would spend hours and hours there.
It was the most beautiful place in the
world.
And that’s how I feel here…
Oh my gosh, right now we are driving
through these tiny little roads
going higher and higher up into the mountains,
and there are such, such beautiful lush farmyards out here and orchards
so many trees, and bordered in mountains, this is so beautiful!
Where are we going now? What is the village called, Munim?
– Hopar.
Hopar, yeah.
These views are SO beautiful! We’re going higher and higher
there’s no guardrails anywhere
On this day in northern Pakistan, we were
on our way to a tourist area nearby
And now I should introduce Aqeel.
Aqeel was our driver in northern Pakistan
And Munim and I quickly started calling
him “the racecar driver” because he loves driving fast!
Aqeel also loves music and hopes to be a singer one day.
As we were on route, Aqeel asked if we would want to visit his hometown instead,
a tiny village high in the mountains.
Of course we did.
Oh my gosh guys I have come to a fairy tale right now!
I feel like I am in a movie set like the Shire or something!
This is where people actually live. It’s like an enchanted fairytale glen!
So I am in a village right now called Hopar Village. We had to drive very far up into the mountains to get here
And the views of this place! Oh my gosh, they are… To call them beautiful is inadequate
They are just so amazing and stunning.
This whole place is just full of these beautifully made rock walls and flowering trees, and grass, and moss
And bordered by these massive snowy mountains.
This is actually very close to a glacier. It’s the only place in the world where the people live above the glacier
and then there’s a glacier down below.
Walking around here with Munim and
– Aqueel Hussein
He is from this area so he’s showing me around
Were you born here? Or close by?
– Yes.
You were born here?
– Yeah. But now we are living in Gilgit.
So this is one of the small pens where they keep their animals.
It’s built of stone. It is actually so lovely.
And there are, I think, the cutest calves that I’ve ever seen in my life, here!
– A little girl, she is coming.
– Hi!
– Do you want to see cow?
Is there a cow in here?
– Yeah, mother cow.
– What…
Okay, there’s more cows in here.
These blossoming trees, they’re apricot trees actually, are just everywhere.
Oh my gosh this is beautiful! Look at that!
I have just heard the most interesting fact about here! So the people’s areas don’t have any boundaries or fences
It’s just open to anyone. So actually in all
of history, this area has never had a thief come here
So they don’t need any such thing as locks or fences breaking off their lands
And that is just – I mean what what kind of world am I in right now??
Look at this enchanting scenery behind me
They’re drying their clothes up here with this amazing view of the village.
This is where they are storing wood for the winter. We just saw some women that were collecting the wood.
It’s a grove of… of magic! I’m so happy.
This place is… I don’t know, it reminds me of maybe what you’d expect to see in super scenic Japan
when all of the cherry blossoms,
the Sakura blossoms, are happening.
or Switzerland or… or Lord of the Rings!
Oh my gosh, where even am i right now?
This is… this is like a place that you think doesn’t exist.
Hi! I am here with… what is your name?
– Sikawad, my name is Sikawad. Ma’am, how’s your trip? How is Gilgit-Baltistan, people?
I love it! It’s so beautiful here
beautiful scenery and everyone is so
welcoming and nice and and friendly here
that’s like one of my favorite things
and I love having chai with everybody
It’s great!
– Yeah, chai is special here.
Yeah. Where are you from?
– I’m from Nagar (Valley), Gilgit, Pakistan.
There are some very rare animals that are in this area of Hunza Valley
And that would be – two of them would be the Snow Leopard and the markhor, which we call the ibex.
It’s a really big goat with these spiraling horns
and they actually kill snakes! They’re very fierce.
And these animals are being protected because they are rare there’s not so many of them left in the world,
and they exist in this area. So if there’s ever time when the Markhor comes and is eating the fruit
off of the trees in this village, or say a snow leopard comes and attacks one of their animals
then they are not allowed to stop the leopard or the markhor,
they just let it eat or let it – I guess take their animals.
And then they report that to the government,
and the government will refund them the money for the loss of the animal.
But that’s just to keep the rare leopards and markhors safe.
Oh my gosh. Having chai right now.
Thank you!
– Welcome.
Thank you so much.
– Welcome!
Chai everywhere
I am at a local house right now, they have invited me inside. And this is their kitchen.
Actually they originally had an older house, but it was damaged in a flood.
So they have now recently moved here.
Are you guys okay to be on the camera?
– Yeah.
You want to say hi?
Hi!
Hi!
Hi! Good to meet you!
Hi!
Hi!
You all live in such a beautiful place!
Oh, wow.
I think this must be one of the most beautiful, peaceful, charming, fairytale places I have ever seen.
Okay, been exploring the village, now guess what time it is? Can you guess?
Of course… Tea time! More chai.
Okay I’ve left the village now
and we are driving again through the
most beautiful scenery!
And Aqeel wants to sing me a local song.
So first of all, welcome to Nagar.
– Thank you.
And I will sing a song special for you. After my song, the boss translate for you what I want to sing, for you.
In my song, advice and prayer also mentioned for you. Ok?
Oh, thank you! So good!
– Thank you!
You have such a good voice!
– Thank you
After Aqeel sang his song, Munim translated the lyrics for me.
some of them went like this…
Even in times of sorrow, don’t forget to live
You don’t know which moment is the last
moment of your life
Don’t forget to live
Okay from the village, I have now come to Altit Fort.
And it has a lovely walkway into the fort here that’s all green with so many trees.
And so there’s actually 2 forts.
And the lower one is called Altit,
the higher one is called Baltit.
And both forts were inhabited by royalty.
This fort is so cool inside! So this was
built 1,100 years ago
It is the oldest monument of the Gilgit area.
And right now I’m standing in what used to be a guard tower
So the Silk Road and
the river is right in front of me out of
these windows here and this fort was
used to guard against anyone that was
going along the Silk Road because so
many people were passing back and forth
at this time, so there needed to be a fort here.
And this is also where the Kings lived. There’s a fort above it that is 800 years old.
This is so cool in here, and wandering through all of these little passageways and doors.
Behind me right now, this is where 600
years ago, one of the Kings buried his own brother alive inside
Because the brother had started a rebellion and was challenging his power as king –
(phone ringtone)
Who is that?
Not very ancient! (laughing)
He did this because the brother had started a rebellion, and was challenging his power as the king.
The human skeleton is still inside right now. And it was only discovered recently when they were scanning it.
So all of the doors in this fort are quite short. This is the door right here, and I’m not tall.
And so my guide was just telling me that the people in ancient times were actually quite tall in this fort
So they didn’t make it because they were short.
They made it because first of all, you had to you know bow your head to go in, which is a sign of respect.
But also, if invaders were to come into the fort,
then their heads could easily be chopped off.
I’ve just come up this stairwell to this
view of the village below, and all of the fields and the mountains
Oh my gosh! Look at this!
Behind me right here is Hunza’s first ever mosque. It was built about 500 years ago,
because with the arrival of the Silk Road and so many traders coming through, Islam was introduced to the area.
So inside here is the very first mosque.
At this ancient fort, there was an intense selection process
for who would be courageous and brave enough to enter the fort’s army, and join their forces.
So if you see these two rocks right here,
the test would be,
that someone would have to jump from that rock to this steep rock!
Look – look where it goes!
They would have to jump onto that rock and then jump all the way back,
and if they were brave enough to do it – and survived of course – then they would be entered into the army.
That is crazy. This rock is so steep. I
hope I can show you on the video.
Okay, leaving the fort now. How epic is this place guys?!
And look at the views of the river! Oh my gosh.
Such amazing stories here! So thank you
so much to my guide. What a cool place.
I’m so glad that I came here. You know, when you travel, sometimes you think,
I’ve seen so many forts, I’ve seen so many… whatever, temples, cathedrals.
So you think, maybe I should skip it, but places like this…! I’m just really glad that I didn’t.
Thank you so much, I loved it! You had, you know so many interesting stories about this place.
Thank you for your encouragement.
Bye! Thank you!
Oh my gosh. We are dri – oh my gosh – so fast!
Up to this place called Eagle’s Nest right now
And again, we are driving through the most beautiful villages
with all these flower trees and there’s mountains and stone and
It’s a good thing that he is a good driver, because in a lot of these places there’s no guardrail, and we’re so high up right now
Where are we going?