Monday, June 24, 2013

Massacre near Nanga Parbat: IG and Chief Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan suspended

Islamabad: Chaudhary Nisar, Federal Interior Minister, has suspended the Inspector General of Police and Chief Secretary, reacting to the massacre of nine foreign tourists and their Pakistani guide near the base camp of Nanga Parbat mountain. He made the announcement today while addressing the national assembly.

He said that the security lapse will be investigated and the causes will be found out. (Pamir Times) 

Terrorism: 9 foreign tourists and their two Pakistani guides killed by militants near Nanga Parbat

Updated at 05:51

“Government of Pakistan will make arrangements to transport the dead bodies to respective countries. Senior minister of the federal govt will accompany the bodies as a mark of respect”, said Chaudhary Nisar, while talking to the media, flanked by Chinese and Ukrainian ambassador.

Updated at 05:45

Dead bodies of the murdered tourists have been flown to Islamabad. Tight security measures have been taken around the Chaklala Air Base. The bodies will be sent to their respective countries, tonight or tomorrow, an official of the GB govt told Pamir Times.

Updated at 05:40

People are condemning the terrorist act, asking the government to take strict action against the terrorists. You can also join www.facebook.com/thapamirpage to share your reaction to the heinous act of terrorism.

Updated at 03:50

The dead bodies of the victims of terrorism in Diamer are now being shifted to Chaklala Airbase, in Islamabad. Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan, Syed Mehdi Shah, and members of his cabinet had come to Gilgit airport while the bodies were being sent to Islamabad in C-130 military plane.

National Assembly of Pakistan has condemned the terrorist attack near the base camp of West Face of the Nanga Parbat mountain.


A dead body is being taken out of an Army helicopter in Gilgit
Updated at 03: 19 PST

Dead bodies of tourists killed at a site close to the base camp of the West Face of Nanga Parbat are being shifted to Gilgit, in an Army helicopter.

Updated at 3:05 PST

Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan has convened a meeting of the regional cabinet at 3pm today to discuss the security situation.

According to some sources two Pakistani guides have been killed in the incident, taking the number of deceased to 11.

Updated at 1:43 PST

Tehrik-e-Taliabn Pakistan’s Ehsanullah Ehsan has reportedly claimed in a phone call made to the BBC and Reuters that a sub-group named “Junood-e-Hafsa” has carried out the attacks.

Updated at 01:30 PST

One Chinese tourist has, reportedly, been safely evacuated from the area.

Pakistani Interior Minister has said that the Federal Information Minister, Parvez Rasheed, will visit China along with the dead body of the Chinese tourist.

Islamabad, June 22: Ten tourists, including 5 Ukranians, 3 Chinese, one Russian and a Pakistani national, have been killed by unknown gunmen near the basecamp of the Diamer Face of Nanga Parbat, in Diamer District of Gilgit-Baltistan region.

“Generally the expeditions take this route, if they are trying to climb the Diamer Face (also known as West Face”, a local guide told Pamir Times. He said that expeditions reach to this area through the Bunar Nallah (stream).

The tourists were, reportedly, trying to climb the Diamer Face of Nanga Parbat.

Nanga Parbat is also known as the Killer Mountain, due to the fact that a very large number of climbers have lost their lives in avalanches and other natural incidents, while attempting to scale the 8 thousander.

It is for the very first time in the region’s history that mountaineers and tourists have been killed in such a heinous and brutal manner.

The region’s deputy Inspector General of Police, Ali Sher, has told the media that the entire region has been cordoned off and search for the assailants is underway with the help of choppers. He vowed to bring the culprits to justice.

Local tour operators have declared the tragedy to be a national tragedy and the last nail in the coffin of the region’s already ailing tourism industry.

The brazen terrorist attack has exposed yet again the regional government’s inability to protect the lives of innocent people. Last year around a hundred people were killed in different terrorist attacks and acts of sectarian violence in Kohistan, Diamer, Gilgit and the Babusar pass. 

For more information please visit the official page of PAMIR TIMES. www.pamirtimes.net  

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Upcoming Adventures!

TOURS
Hunza Summer Trip (20 June, 05 July, 20 July, 07 August)
Hunza & Skardu culture and sightseeing tour (01 July, 18 July, 20 August, 01 Sept, 10 Sept)
Fairy Meadows tour (25 May, 05 July, 10 July, 15 July, 25 July, 03 August, 10 August, 12 August, 15 August, 25 August, 05 Sept, 15 Sept)
Hunza Autumn Tour (10 Oct, 23 Oct, 15 Nov)

JEEP SAFARI
Deosai Jeep Safari (18 August)
Gilgit-Baltistan & Chitral Jeep Safari, 05 Sept

TREKKING ADVENTURES!
K2 Base Camp & Gondogoro la pass trek (15 July)
Nanga Parbat Base camp trek (15& 30 July)
Patundass/Shishper Base camp trek (20 July)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Fixed Departure for Fairy Meadows Tour 2013

1st group for Fairy Meadows will leave on 1st May 2013 from Islamabad. Contact us if you're interested to join.

Email: info@hunzaexplorers.com, hunzaexplorers@gmail.com



Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The people of the Hunza valley drink alkaline and ionized water that naturally occurs

Hunza Valley is located at 7,999' in northern Pakistan and is the home of the longest lived people on the planet. The high mountain valley is surrounded by the Himalayan mountains with the mountain in the photo to the left rising to 25,551'. Northern Pakistan is blessed with the greatest mass of high mountains on earth where the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir's, and Hindukush all meet! As much as the valley is famous for its beauty, the people of Hunza are noted for their friendliness and hospitality. The local language is Brushuski but most people understand Urdu and English. The literacy rate of the Hunza valley is believed to be above 90%, virtually every child of the new generation studies up to at least high school. Many pursue higher studies from prestigious colleges and Universities of Pakistan and abroad.

The Hunza People are uniquely healthy and free of disease. Many studies have been done and it is believed that their simple healthy diet of carefully grown organic food and the glacial, living water is their secret to health and long life. Hunza drink directly from glacial streams in the high Himalayas. It is fresh, invigorating, life enhancing, free radical scavenging and delicious. The Hunza have the longest lifespan in the world and this has been traced as related to the water that they drink and their natural diet. Hunza water is an example of perfect natural water. Hunza has people who routinely live to 120-140 years, in good health with virtually no cancer, degenerative disease, dental caries or bone decay. Hunza people remain robust and strong and are also able to bear children even in old age. Research has proven conclusively that the major common denominator of the healthy long-living people is their local water.

Dr. Henri Coanda, the Romanian father of fluid dynamics and a Nobel Prize winner at 78 yrs old, spent six decades studying the Hunza water trying to determine what it was in this water that caused such beneficial effects for the body. He discovered that it had a different viscosity and surface tension. Dr. Patrick Flanagan and others continued the research. They found Hunza water had a high alkaline pH and an extraordinary amount of active hydrogen (hydrogen with an extra electron), with a negative Redox Potential and a high colloidal mineral content. The water is living and provides health benefits that other types of drinking water cannot. Similar natural water properties and longevity are found in other remote unpolluted places such as the Shin-Chan areas of China, the Caucasus in Azerbaijan, and in the Andes Mountains.

What kind of exotic, ill-tasting grub do these Hunza people eat, you are wondering. Strange as it may sound, virtually everything the Hunzakut eat is delectable to the western palate, and is readily available in the United States - at least if your shopping horizons do not begin and end at the supermarket.
Not only is the Hunza diet not exotic, but there's really nothing terribly mysterious about its health-promoting qualities, Everything we know about food and health, gathered both from clinical studies and the observation of scientists who have traveled throughout the world observing dietary practices and their relationship to health, tells us that it is to be expected that the Hunza diet will go a long way towards improving the total health of anyone, anywhere. The Hunza story is only on of the more dramatic examples of the miraculous health produced by a diet of fresh, natural unprocessed and unadulterated food.

Maybe you're wondering: are the Hunzas really all that healthy? That was the question on the mind of cardiologists Dr. Paul D. White and Dr. Edward G. Toomey, who made the difficult trip up the mountain paths to Hunza, toting along with them a portable, battery-operated electrocardiograph. In the American Heart Journal for December, 1964, the doctors say they used the equipment to study 25 Hunza men, who were, "on fairly good evidence, between 90 and 110 years old." Blood pressure and cholesterol levels were also tested. He reported that not one of these men showed a single sign of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
An optometrist, Dr. Allen E. Banik, also made the journey to Hunza to see for himself if the people were as healthy as they were reputed to be, and published his report in Hunza Land (Whitehorn Publishing Co., 1960). "It wasn't long before I discovered that everything that I had read about perpetual life and health in this tiny country is true," Dr. Banik declared. "I examined the eyes of some of Hunza's oldest citizens and found them to be perfect."

Beyond more freedom from disease, many observers have been startled by the positive side of Hunza health. Dr. Banik, for example, relates that "many Hunza people are so strong that in the winter they exercise by breaking holes in the ice-covered streams and take a swim down under the ice." Other intrepid visitors who have been there report their amazement at seeing men 80, 90, and 100 years old repairing the always-crumbling rocky roads, and lifting large stones and boulders to repair the retaining walls around their terrace gardens. The oldsters think nothing of playing a competitive game of volleyball in the hot sun against men 50 years their junior, and even take part in wild games of polo that are so violent they would make an ice hockey fan shudder.

Apricots Are Hunza Gold
Of all their organically-grown food, perhaps their favorite, and one of their dietary mainstays, is the apricot. Apricot orchards are seen everywhere in Hunza, and a family's economic stability is measured by the number of trees they have under cultivation.  They eat their apricots fresh in season, and dry a great deal more in the sun for eating throughout the long cold winter. They puree the dried apricots and mix them with snow to make ice cream. Like their apricot jam, this ice cream needs no sugar because the apricots are so sweet naturally. But that is only the beginning. The Hunza cut the pits from the fruits, crack them, and remove the almond-like nuts. The women hand grind these kernels with stone mortars, then squeeze the meal between a hand stone and a flat rock to express the oil. The oil is used in cooking, for fuel, as a salad dressing on fresh garden greens, and even as a facial lotion ( Renee Taylor says Hunza women have beautiful complexions).

Besides apricots, the Hunzakut also grow and enjoy apples, pears, peaches, mulberries, black and red cherries, and grapes. From these fruits, the Hunzakut get all the vitamin C they need, as well as the other nutritional richness of fresh fruit, including energy from the fruit sugars. From the grapes, they also make a light red wine that helps make their simple fare into more of a real "meal". Observe the apricots drying in the sun in the photo to the left.

Hunza Chapatti Bread typically is made fresh each day from stone ground grains, primarily, wheat, barley, buckwheat and millet. These delicious flat unleavened breads are an important part of a nutritious diet of grains, fruits, dried fruits, and veggies. They drink substantial amounts of "Glacial Milk" which is milky colored water fresh melted from base of glaciers, rich in rock flour and minerals.

Another great Hunza health secret concerns the considerable amount of time each day devoted to physical exercise. Most exercise is done outdoors in order to take advantage of the pure mountain air, which in itself has a beneficial effect on health. Although a large part of their day is spent outdoors, working the fields, the Hunzakut do a lot more than that. For one thing, they take regular walks and a 15 or 20 kilometer hike is considered quite normal. Of course they don’t walk that distance every day, but doing so does not require any special effort.

You should also keep in mind that hiking along mountain trails is a lot more demanding than walking over flat terrain.Of course we’re not suggesting that you move to the mountains and become a farmer to stay fit and add years to your life! You don’t have to change your way of life completely in order to stay healthy and live longer. But one thing the Hunza life-style does prove is that exercise is very important for health and longevity.

Walking for an hour each day, something most people can manage, is excellent for both your body and your mind. In fact, walking is the simplest, least costly and most accessible form of exercise there is. And contrary to what you may think, it also provides you with a complete workout. So get in step with the Hunzakut and start walking!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Documentary – Journey to Khunjerab

A documentary made by Malang Films. It is a story of a motorcycle journey from Islamabad to Gilgit-Baltistan, passing through Khanpur, Swabi, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Kohistan, Naran, Kaghan and Babusar.
This 50 minutes documentary is full of natural emotoins and reflections, real incidents, thrill, adventure and many surprises.
We are sure that you will like the journey like we did :-)
Join Malang Films on Facebook and stay in touch.

To The Khunjerab - A Journey Through Northern Pakistan from MalangFilms on Vimeo.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Fixed Departure for Fairy Meadows and Hunza valley 2013



 Join our fixed departure tour to Fairy Meadows and Hunza valley tour
Tour duration: 12 Days
Tour start from: Islamabad
Tour end in: Islamabad

Departure date from Islamabad: 16 June 2013
Trip will end in Islamabad on: 27 June 2013

Price per person: $875 (USD)

For more information please send an email to: info@hunzaexplorers.com  or call 0092 -321-4364658

Enchanting Autumn in Hunza Valley: A Symphony of Colors

  As the curtain falls on the fiery summer days, Hunza Valley undergoes a breathtaking transformation, donning its most splendid attire. Aut...