How to Travel the KKH

Coming home from our trip to the Northern Areas, our flight was canceled. We decided rather then waste precious vacation days, we'd drive back on the only road...the one and only, the famous Karakoram Highway (KKH). They call it the 8ths wonder of the world. Considering it took 20 solid years and 892 lives to complete, it's pretty amazing.

The KKH follows some sections of the old Silk Trail but it mainly follows the Indus River with the roads thousands of feet above the river basin. The KKH begins in Hasan Abdal China and ends in Kashgar Pakistan, not too far from Islamabad. It's a truckers road, built by the Chinese to sponsor trade between China and Pakistan and is mainly traveled by the gorgeous Pakistani trucks. It's supposedly two lanes, but it's a miracle anyone can actually pass on some of the sections. Much of the road is carved out of the solid rock high and then drops off for several thousand feet. Drivers have to both watch the road and keep and eye up for the frequent rock slides. Rock slides can shut down the KKH for hours or days and back up traffic until someone clears the debris. Maintaining the road is a constant battle. As it is, it's impossible to travel faster then 50 kph which is considered a decent speed.

Driving home we started in Gil Git so in total we drove almost half of the entire KKH. We started out at 4am from Gil Git, and arrived in Islamabad at 00:30. It was a little long and several passengers in our rented Toyota van were sick from something we ate, sick from the switchbacks or sick from the heights. It's slow going with the trucks and one 100 kilometer section of road took us an hour and a half. We had lunch at the office of a humanitarian organization in Besham which neared the halfway mark at 4pm. It was another 6 hours on to Abbottabad where we stopped for snacks and to let the driver have a smoke. Finally reaching the outskirts of Islamabad at 23:30, we were turned back because the police and national security wouldn't let a van inside the city limits. We were forced to drive another 45 minutes out of our way to enter the city though the trucking highway.

All in all, it wasn't that much fun but now we're laughing about it. It's rare you ever regret something that afforded awesome views of diverse and beautiful places.