A Canada based travel agency, Bestway Tours and Safaris organises a 24 day Safari from Yarqand to Hunza, which has become very popular with foreign tourists from many parts of the world. It is a cultural tour of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Pakistan. Extracts from the online brochure of the tour make a fascinating reading. The ancient Silk Road was most significant in Central Asia, Chinese Turkistan (Sinkiang) and Northern Pakistan (India of pre-partition days). The 24 day Safari traverses the most important parts of the Silk Road. The journey has been tailored to bring back the memories of the bygone days. The bazaars, camel routes, sand dunes, majestic mountains, intense culture, and ancient peoples. It is a fascinating and unforgettable tour which begins at Tashkent where the participants arrive by International flights and ends in Islamabad wherefrom they again take off back to their home countries. After exploring the cities of Samarqand, Bukhara, and Khiva, the tourists reach the great game centre of Kashgar. From here they drive to Tashkurgan, Hunza, and Gilgit. Kashmir’s great king Zain-ul-Abidin (Budshah) spent seven years in the court of Tamerlane at Samarqand. Tamerlane is considered to be the founder of Uzbekistan. In ancient times the journey from Samarqand would take months on the backs of Bactrian camels and horses. Now the journey can be performed in a matter of days in luxury cars or coaches. The journey from Kashgar to Gilgit can now be completed in only 16 hours by luxury coaches, which operate thrice a week. Both Chinese and Pakistani authorities are planning to start the service on a daily basis shortly. Kashgar, locally called Kashgi, is a city where time seems to have stood still. One finds walking through the narrow lanes of old town, a scene from the bygone days of the Arabian Nights with a culture that has remained intact stocked with people whose lifestyle is being friendly. Amongst the most popular professions include coppersmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, jewellers, and cobblers all using tools that are at best antiques. Miles from nowhere, mid-way between Rome and Beijing, and this exotic oasis used to be the last outfitting station on the centuries-old Silk Road. Trade remains in bygone style, at least on Sundays, when the entire community gathers at the world's liveliest market. Known as "the pearl on the Ancient Silk Road", the Sunday Bazaar is dotted with stalls here and there. Throughout the bazaars, one finds shopkeepers that sell almost everything while others specialize in local produce, arts and crafts, garments, knives, timber, coal, and animals. The two most important landmarks of Kashgar are the Id Kah Mosque, the largest in China and the Abakh Khoja’s Tomb, the most revered monument, which is an architectural marvel. The journey from Kashgar along Karakuli Lake and Muztag-Ata Mountain is dramatic. Tashkurgan the border town of Turkmenistan inhabited by Tajiks is the next stop before entering Pakistan through Khunjerab pass. The road to Hunza is a beautiful drive, with majestic views of the high mountains of the Karakoram and the distant Pamir Mountain Ranges. Hunza is most famous for the longevity of its people, due to the simplicity of their lifestyle and natural diet, combined with the unpolluted mountain air. Tibetan traders referred to the beauty of this humble paradise as "Shangri-La". James Hilton was probably inspired by Hunza to write his famous novel, the “Lost Horizon of Shangri La”. Sometime back a team of German Scientists had declared it to be the only cancer free place in the world. En route to Gilgit one can witness what is surely the most spectacular view of the majestic Rakaposhi peak. One feels so close to the peak yet it takes days of trekking before one can reach the base! The glacier of the peak almost touches the road and there are a number of tall pines on the mountain. The Pak-China memorial to honour the memories of those workers who sacrificed their life during the construction of the Karkoram Highway is just before reaching Gilgit. There is also a historical rock carving of Buddha at Kargah. From Gilgit the tour goes through Chilas, Abbotabad, and Taxila to reach Islamabad where it finally ends. It would take only eight hours from Gilgit to reach Kargil if the road was open. The travel from Gilgit to Skardu is four hours and from there one can reach Kargil in four more hours. Instead of ending in Islamabad, the tour could end in Leh or Srinagar. A jeepable road already exists from the Line of Control to Kargil. A longer variation of the tour (about one week to ten days) could go from Skardu to Khaplu, Turtuk, Deskit (Nubra Valley) across Khardungla (the highest motorable road in the world) to Leh, Kargil and finally end at Srinagar. It would be a tour combining History, Culture and Adventure in one go. The travel from Kashgar to Kargil would be only two to three days with a night halt at Gilgit. In the ancient times, there was regular traffic between Kashmir and Yarqand. Leh was an important hub on this route. The Leh-Yarqnd route was open throughout the year. From Leh the caravans would go through Nubra valley across Saser La and Karakoram pass in summer and during winter they would reach the base of the pass near Daulat Beg Oldi over the frozen Shyok River.

Now let us consider tourism on our side of greater Ladakh. Starting from about 500 visitors, almost all foreigners in 1974 when it was first time opened up for tourism, the figure has touched about 75,000 in 2008 including 50,000 foreigners. Tourism has been the greatest boon to the economy of Ladakh. In fact, the starting of direct civilian flights to Srinagar, Jammu, and Delhi mainly prompted by foreign tourist arrivals, has ended the centuries old isolation of Ladakh. At the moment Leh is the most developed town of its size in the entire country. Still the potential of tourism in Ladakh has not been fully exploited. It is the most challenging destination for adventure tourism, be it the mountain sports like mountaineering, trekking or the white water sports of rafting, and kayaking. The number of mountain peaks without names and quite a few still virgin is in hundreds. In case of Siachen glacier which is still closed for the foreign expeditions, some of the peaks like Saser Kangri and Mamostang Kangri are the most challenging. Siachen glacier itself can take in over a dozen expeditions without any problem. A large area of Ladakh like the Chanthang plains, Siachen glacier, and a number of other valleys remain still restricted for foreigners. On the contrary, the Pakistanis are allowing foreign expeditions freely even in the “No Man’s Land”! By relaxing the restrictions and allowing foreigners to visit some of these new areas even if in conducted groups only, the tourist arrivals will appreciably increase. This can help in staggering the traffic and relieving pressure on most frequented areas. In fact, it will also be possible to extend the season presently limited to July, August, and mid September to end of October. It can also start sometime in mid April. However, the greatest boost would be to allow cross border tourism for foreign visitors on both sides. Such revolutionary steps will straight away double the figures on two sides. Apart from the natural avenues for adventure tourism available extensively on the two sides, there are varied cultural, religious, and ethnic resources to increase the tourist traffic. Some exquisite and new attractions could be long camel safaris, mountain biking, trips on ATVs’ (All Terrain Vehicles) and so on. Among sports, the Polo matches in summer and ice-hockey in winter are two big attractions which can have competitions from two sides and can also have participation from abroad.

(To be continued……)