Part II: Trip to AJK, June 2009 updated

SARAN: Sitting at the EDGE Pondering upon LIFE!

Poocha mene Qudrat se "kya he meray liye?"
"Paharro'n sa ooncha jazba or wadiyo'n si gehri soch!"
Qudrat ne ek aur paheli daal di!

#Hudanama

NOTE:
As this year there is no going #North or even #Punjab for me so I planned to update my old blogs from June 2009, when for the first time I visited to Azad Jammu Kashmir's few cities including Muzaffarabad, Saran, Shaheed gali etc. These posts are re-edited and images are finally added (fortunately I found the old folder). Hope you'll love these posts Part I & Part II, as for me this journey is as fresh as yesterday... Let's go down the memory lane with #Hudanama ka Safarnama!
Originally posted on 28-6-2009

Day 2: 22.06.09

The next morning was as magical as the previous night, even better. The whole family scattered in the area, I preferred having my tea even outside, not to forget that the breakfast was yummy with layered-prathas and omelettes. Let me just shut-up and show you what we enjoyed almost 9 years ago, have a look:

Our View!

This Man is love, My Mamu!

Me the CHAI CHARSI!

Sara Lodges backside view, ladies strolling

Me and MOM! Im  a selfie expert as its clicked from behind, myself lolz

The Mountain Tops

The deep down valleys!

I love my feet, that yellow flower and my denim flats

... and my shadow too!

SARAN LODGES in the morning!

The beauty of this place turned my world UPSIDE DOWN, literally! 

Although we didn't want to leave at all, but "chalti ka naam garri" so we started once again. On the second day of our journey we took the road to the top of the mountain where a SUFI SAINT was buried in peace at the height of 10,000 ft above sea level, the locals honor his shrine a lot and people from all parts of the country come here to get their prayers directly to the heavens above with the reference of this Holy man who spent his all life in praying to Allah. He is known by the name of PEER CHANASSI and the place is also named after Him, but his real name is HAZRAT SYED SHAH HUSSAIN BUKHARI R.A, SHEHANSH-e-KOHSAAR (Emperor of the mountain) We paid our homage, met few devotees who traveled here from many far away places like Sakkar etc.

Shrine of HAZRAT SYED SHAH HUSSAIN BUKHARI R.A

Me at the Peer Chanasi mazar

Spotted a pickup with pick-up lines!

Then we drove all the way down to the lively city of Muzaffarabad. This city is much different then many Northern Area's cities, it has a pace and attitude of its own, one really feel out of Pakistan, yes this is Kashmir, Azad Kashmir. We saw few same colored buildings of Presidency and secretariat and the Assembly of AJK. Then we bought mangoes and took the road to River Neelum, dipping them in the cold water of the glaciers and standing there under the hot fierce Sun. We even sucked the last drop of pulp from under the skin of the mangoes, even licked its seeds bald, then we had a game of "who throws the mango seed far!". The adventurer in me got scolded by mom as I wanted to step a head in the river, as this river is so fierce that it's known to drown/take away the big trucks too. Still I managed this selfie!

Enjoying the Mango Selfie! N95

My N95 did a remarkable job in clicking every single moment, but as their was no electricity at SARAN Lodges previous night, so the battery was on its last breaths.  The only difficult task was to capture the boards showing way to Indian held Kashmir from the fast moving car…lolz!!! But finally the task was done and we all cheered as we got the images of the boards showing the kilometers left to Chakothi and Srinagar.

Road to IOK

Shahra.e.Quaid.e.Azam leading to Kashmir

Finally the battery died after committing this marvelous job, so when we stopped at the Saheli Sarkar hotel, Muzaffarabad, to have lunch, the cell phones were charged while we ate the delicious food. Again started the venture to capture every moment of the journey. Now once again we were going up the narrow road on the opposite direction and the destination was Shaheed Gali’s AJK Tourism Department Resthouse which, we were only able to find after circling around Muzaffarabad and crossing over and over again the Neelum River’s bridge. Now once we were on the whirling and curling narrow roads, and our cell phones catching signals and becoming alive with the tones, which we heard after the gap of full one day…lolz a necessity of our modern life. Here we were in the Resthouse of Shaheed Gali at the height of 5,000 ft above the sea level, peaceful and lonely place. But it was not ALL to us as another local family was there, which came in for a get together and was arranging for a mouth watering meal, which we could eye only… alas!!!

We went for a walk to the little market up the hill and found very delicious baked saltish cookies called KULCHA in local language. Laughing and joking we came down to the rest house and there it was the sun set, I took advantage and adjusted my seat to the open scenery and started recording my memories of this venture for the first time at such height in black and white. I was tired but still very calm and peaceful in my own secluded loneliness within the presence of my beloved family, far away from the hassled routine of my life in Lahore, the world of ever changing news and happenings, some good and few bad and worst, breaking news, news alert tickers, live headlines, mathematical figures and not to forget 1, 2, 3 CUT PCR!!!!!!!! 

After a peaceful night sleep we all were up early, enjoyed the weather the scenery:

After breakfast, we drove down to Muzaffarabad, bought KULCHAS and Kashmiri Tea as souvenirs for family. And with a heart full of Contentment, joy and peace drove back to the hussle bussle of Lahore!

Muzaffarabad

Blurred truck

Bismillah Kulcha Shop

The boy making Kulchas

Hope you enjoyed this Updated Trip to AJK, do share your feedback, I love you all!
#Hudanama

Note: All the images in this post are #Hudanama's personal property thus the images and the content cannot be copied, reproduced or used in any way. For permission or details email; hudanamas@gmail.com
Images are taken with Nokia N95 :)