The Beauty of Shangla and Islamabad | From one end to another in Pakistan | Part 3

---

I started to get tired and that is why I decided to take a short nap of 1 or 2 hours, and then woke up when we were at a gas station which everyone decided to stay at. I was surprised to see that they had something called VIP toilets, yeah it was something new to hear about VIP toilets but they were actually very comfortable and clean.

When we arrived at our spiritual father Sani baba house, we came in and saw Sani Baba sitting in front of us, and first we met him and talked to him a lot about how everything is going and how he is, because last time we met was in 2015 as i told you guys before. Then we took a bath and came to eat dinner, and unsurprisingly we ate such good food in a different way without chairs and tables sitting on the floor without a spoon, it really was a nice experience. Came to our rooms that were shared between me, Hive account@shahzad-ansari and my grandfather. It was so cold because imagine we were at the peak of the mountains near the lake so of course it would be cold, but the blankets were so thick and warm that I think everyone slept in like 5 minutes.

Woke up early and took a cold warm bath because the weather was still pretty cold even though the sun was shining hard on us. Forgot to mention that the house was tremendously big and had more than at least 6 rooms and outside there was a garden where I saw everyone was eating breakfast and chickens were eating their food. When I came to the table it was paratha with egg scramble and chai. We enjoyed breakfast and then started to pack our things, but before that, my uncle Hive account@shrazi wanted to show us Mai Paks Tomb and so we went there. As you can see in the pictures we were walking on the edge of what I think was a mountain, so we had to take our steps carefully. The lake, trees and plants were all so beautiful. We prayed at Mai Paks Tomb and then set off to Naran Khagan.

During our way to Naran Khagan there were so many beautiful places that came and the best part is when we were nearing the mountain area. Blue sky, greenery everywhere, you can even hear the rivers sound flow beside you. The roads were zig zaggy and you literally couldn't see if a car was coming on the turns, so imagine driving for 3 hours on dangerous turns without knowing if a car is coming or not, but one thing is certain that the scenery was the most beautiful scenery i have ever seen, no doubt. 

At one point it was getting a bit dark and so we saw a place where a water stream was running, and on it they had put chairs and tables so you could enjoy your food with some cold water running on your feet. We ordered the famous dish kata kat and the interesting thing is that they had made another place where all the fishes were trapped and they were catching fresh fish there and cooking them. It was actually very delicious and thinking about the place everything was matching perfectly.

We came to Naran where suddenly after eating fish I felt I had to go to the toilet. The good thing is that there were some restaurants there and hotels. I told Hive account@shahzad-ansari to just stop at the next coming restaurant or hotel so that i could go to the toilet. We saw a restaurant and stopped and asked the person there for where the toilets are, he said rudely "we don't have toilets." Hive account@shahzad-ansari said how come you have a hotel and restaurant with rooms but not a toilet and he replied sorry they aren't available. Therefore we understood that no one would offer their toilet like that, they always want something back like if you buy something. Just a few steps forward there was a very beautiful looking hotel and so we went in now knowing what to do. Hive account@shahzad-ansari said do you have drinks? He said yes we do, and then we said one coke liter bottle and then went to the toilets. When I came out of the toilet suddenly everyone was talking about rooms and how beautiful the scenery is from here, and so we decided to stay there for the night. Ate some food and worked outside and enjoyed the scenery. Me Hive account@shrazi and Hive account@shahzad-ansari were sitting at the top level beside the road and the rooms were downstairs close to the river. The people said that there are jackals here and that's why you should be careful. While Hive account@shahzad-ansari was working I was enjoying everything outside and we suddenly heard a noise of what we thought was a jackal, but after looking around we saw that at least 5 dogs had attacked the whole floor that was downstairs. We thanked god that our rooms weren't on that floor and then decided to go to sleep as it was getting too late.

We woke up early and decided to move forward up to Khagan and see what's there. After driving for some time we saw a board that said diversion and in front of us we saw construction workers. Getting a bit closer we could see a dam there which was so big and looked like they had cut the mountain a bit to make some room for the dam. We came to a place where on our left side we had some grocery store and on our right side a small restaurant. As you guys can see in the picture the water stream could be seen running from the top of the mountain, ran through all the rocks and came to the road where i took my pictures. There was a nice looking blue jeep there, so I decided to ask the man there cleaning the car if I could take a picture, and he said okay. Later on everyone took their places as the table and chairs were put on the rocks. We ate paratha and omelette with chai because it was a breakfast and to be honest the paratha was very soft and the omelett was a bit spicy because it had chilli in it, and I accidentally ate it. After taking some pictures Hive account@shahzad-ansari then decided that we should head back home, and because we didn't want to get exhausted, we decided to stay in Islamabad for a few hours in Astana. When we were going upwards to the mountain it took more time, but coming back felt like half of the time it took us to go up.

We were now in Islamabad which is the second largest city in Pakistan, and was once the capital as well before Karachi. There are many places in Islamabad that you can visit, and we had already made a plan for that. Resting for 30 mins, me, Hive account@shahzad-ansari and Hive account@shrazi decided first to visit Bari Imaam. I have heard a lot about Bari Imaam from Hive account@shahzad-ansari before, where he told me that when he was at my age, my grandfather and grandmother took him and my uncles to Bari Imaam as he did with me to show them our rituals which is to feed the hungry people there. Even after pappa and mamma marriage they came to Bari Imaam where my mom fed the hungry people and to keep the ritual going. Because mamma, my grandfather and grandmother couldn't come, we on behalf of them fed the hungry people and one thing Hive account@shrazi told me was, that even we took a bit to show that everyone is equal and should be equally respected.

We prayed at Bari Imaam as well and then decided to visit Faisal Mosque which is the world's sixth largest mosque and the largest mosque within South Asia. In my first blog of this trip I talked about our by-road trip to Peshawar in 2015. When we were coming back home from Peshawar in 2015 we visited Faisal Mosque, so I remembered some highlights of it. It was night time and the Mosque could be seen from miles away with its bright lights. We took some pictures and then went back to Astana where we were staying. Taking our things and then setting off again, we came to Karachi at almost 12 pm.

This trip was a different kind of experience and of course it was the first time in my life that I traveled and explored Northern Pakistan. That is why I called this blog "from one end to another in Pakistan."