Hunza had always held a mystic fascination for me. During my college days I had read the James Hilton’s novel, the “Lost Horizon of Shangri-La”. I had also seen the movie based on the novel. Later on I came to know through some articles that James Hilton had based his novel on Hunza.

The only difference was that the novel had a Buddhist touch and in the movie there is a Buddhist monastery in Shangrila. The head lama of the monastery speaks to Conway, the hero of the novel. He is supposed to have been couple of hundred years old! The main thing which the novel reveals is that Shangrila is a very pure and unpolluted land beyond the Himalaya. There is very slow aging in the land and people have very long lives. In spite of their age they look quite young. James Hilton had created such an aura of mystery about Shangri-La and its inhabitants that one would like to go and live in that fascinating land for ever! At least it had created a lot of curiosity in me to someday visit the land. My first encounter with the people of Hunza was in 1963. The Mir of Hunza was a very close friend of my uncle living in Rawalpindi. I had been in Rawalpindi that time to visit my uncle and aunt. During my stay there, my uncle introduced me to Mir of Hunza. I still remember his ruddy cheeks. He had a round face. He was short and stout with a European trace in his features. However, most of the Hunza people are usually like Europeans resembling Greeks or Macedonians. Some people claim these to be the remnants of the lost army of Alexander the Great! Though the Mir invited me to visit Hunza yet I could not go as those days it was a long and a tough journey. There was no road. Thus, when I got the chance to visit the area in 1986, I was really excited.

As per the visa given to me, I could only visit Gilgit but Mrs Saddar-ud-Din had already arranged a Toyota car with a driver for us. She had also arranged a room for us in the NAWO Bungalow in Karimabad, the capital of Hunza. On the fourth day of our stay in Gilgit we left for Hunza around 11 in the morning. The road after crossing the Indus River goes along the mountain on the right side. The drive was very smooth. The driver was mostly putting the car in top gear and it was moving very smoothly on the polished gravel like road surface of the famous Karakoram highway. The landscape was exactly like Ladakh. Brown rocky mountains on all sides. I had an eerie feeling of being somewhere in our part of Ladakh. The only difference was road signs in Urdu. Before any rough patch or a slide there is a sign in Urdu saying “Khabardar” or “Hoshiyar” meaning “Caution” in English. After the problem area there is a sign, “Alham-di-lilah” meaning “Praise be to God”. These signs coming up once in a while on the road jolted me out of a reverie which one experiences while driving in Ladakh on a monotonous landscape.

After about 40 minutes or so we reached a place where from Rakaposhi, the famous mountain is visible. The mountain looks awesome from the road like a shinning wall of snow. We stopped here to take some pictures. In fact, the word Rakaposhi also means a shinning wall. The mountain looks exceptionally close and one has to look up to see its full extent. The one thing which struck me straight away was the sight of some tall pine trees near the start of the glacier of the peak. In Ladakh we are not used to seeing pine trees. We only have willow or poplar trees. This is one of the major differences in the landscape of some parts of Gilgit-Baltistan area. The road was almost straight except for crossing some ravines here and there to go from one side of the mountains to the other. These deep ravines had been covered by pre-stressed concrete arch bridges. The driver was most of time driving in the top gear applied on long drives for higher speeds. It was just like driving on a motorway. What intrigued me was the completely stable rock cut walls. Usually on our side in a number of places where rock and soil cutting is done, the road sides are unstable and we often have slides. Later on I learnt that the Chinese had virtually given injections of concrete to the mountain side at these places. After an hour and a half drive we reached our destination, the mysterious Hunza. We drove straight to the NAWO Bungalow in Karimabad which is the main town in the valley. It was on a higher place and afforded very good views of mountains on all sides. We seemed to be in a bowl surrounded by high icy mountains. In the background was the Balti Fort of Hunza behind which was a huge mountain. The Bungalow was a simple construction. On our side some of the Bungalows are much better. Being somewhat hungry, we headed straight for the local Shezan Resaurant of the famous Pakistani chain. Babar ordered roast chicken, and some tandoori nan. The service was quick and after 20 minutes or so the waiter came to serve us. I was shocked to see the tray in which he was carrying the chicken in a bowl. It looked more like a small lamb! I had never in my life seen such large chicken legs. I was told that these were the local chickens which like the local population were extraordinarily healthy! We enjoyed our lunch and took a stroll through the lanes of what to me looked like a small village. Somehow I was not getting the feel of Hilton’s Shangri-La.

The landscape was quite overpowering with high mountains standing like ice walls on all sides. The valley was quite wide with terraced fields. However, the people looked quite sturdy with ruddy faces. Hunza is supposed to be only cancer free place in the world. The people are stout and healthy and live to ripe old age. There must be many centenarians here! Some people told us that the Hunza inhabitants called Hunzakuts are sometimes 120 or even 140 years old! We saw an old lady who must have been over hundred years. Towards the evening the weather changed with some mist in the valley which gave the scene the exact effect described in James Hilton’s novel. A totally mystic touch of a diffused scene especially the valley down below surrounded on all sides by snowy mountains. For the evening we stayed in the Bungalow and the care taker prepared dinner for us. Next day we planned to visit the fort and then go to the famous Khunjrab pass, the dividing point between China and Pakistan.