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Team Pakistan shines at APICTA 2016 in Taipei.

11 mins read

TeamPakistan at APICTA 2016

As the sun sets slowly behind the clouds in Taipei, Usama Noman, the founder of Botsify, an APICTA 2016 alum smiles and says softly, ‘Sometimes it is important to win; sometimes it is better to fail and learn a great deal more about yourself.’ usama-noman-botsify-founder-apicta

6th December 2016.  Taipei, Taiwan.

Our bags are packed. Team Pakistan is ready to head back home. Today was a much needed rest day where the only deadline was the hotel checkout at noon. After five brutal days where morning dry runs for pitches started at 8 am and ran all the way till 4 am the next morning, we could all do with a bit of sleep. A large part of the delegation is still in zombie mode, some are walking around dazed, others are relieved and a handful are fighting fires back home triggered by their extended absence from work. All are famished because no one had the time to eat a proper meal between training, pitching, judging and mentoring during the last three days.

The Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards are celebrating their 16th year, this December. The hosting budget for the event routinely runs over half a million dollars. This year at the Taipei Trade convention center the awards night is host to 231 teams, 61 judges, 40 Ex-co members, 1,500 delegates and 200 volunteers.

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Each year the event runs for four days. Day one is dedicated to registration, logistics, briefings and the welcome reception. Day two and three are dedicated to judging with a sidebar of activity for nominees and delegates including receptions and business match making sessions.  On day four award results are confirmed and validated in the morning by the panel of head judges and Exco members followed by a grand Awards night and gala dinner.

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The ICT Alliance Awards originally started as a collaborative initiative to reduce the digital divide by bringing the developed and the developing world together. An ICT awards competition made sense because it gave the opportunity for communities and companies to come together and to learn from each other.  Over the last 16 year the awards have done an admirable job on both fronts. As Ex-co members and judges we made friends and met partners across the APAC region. As nominee and participants we had the chance to interact and collaborate with companies that we would not otherwise get a chance to meet and work with. Pakistani teams have had the opportunity to explore partnerships with like minded companies in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.  Because the awards move from one economy to another, every year delegates get the chance to explore a new market while being hosted by that economy’s technology association.

Today the awards celebrate technology and its impact on individual lives. A participating team needs to document the contribution they have made, the innovation in their technology stack and how they stands out from their peers.  If they do a good enough job they win the national nomination. All national winners and runners up then compete at the regional level for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards in that category.

For instance Sheops, the merit award winner in the e-inclusion and community category makes it possible for stay at home moms to build a business selling products around their specialization. From cakes to artwork, from designs to shoes, Sheops curated sellers get immediate access to a community of 42,000 buyers across the world who trust the Sheops brand. 

Participating teams are judged based on a criteria documented in a 50 page manual. The criteria includes innovation (what’s new and different), uniqueness (how do you stand apart), market potential and business model (the financial sustainability of your approach), quality, standards (recognition, connectivity and design) and presentation skills.

It is a tough grid to get right.  It is one thing to convince a national jury of your talent, completely another to convince and impress 5 foreign judges by the promise of your work.  To make things worse the competition is actually quite tough. Think about it for a second. You are competing against national champions from 17 – 22 economies. If even half of them are as good as you, it is going to be a difficult call for judges to pick a winner. To a large extent the scores reflect that. In a decade of judging the difference between the winner and the runner up has been as small as 0.03. The winner at 8.55 versus the runner up at 8.52.  Once every few years we also see dead heat – both winners and runners up at 8.23 versus 8.23.

A single misstep, a mistake, a missed point can cost you the prize. Every single word, its delivery, its meaning and its relevance to the criteria counts. Which is the reason why winners spend months practicing their pitch, building credibility and developing their stories.

Practice is not the only requirement. Winners are expected to score above a minimum threshold. Other than the school category which comes with its own special guidelines, runners up and merit awards need to be within 95% of the winning score.  There have been instances in the past where a category had no winners or no runners up because they didn’t measure up to the required benchmark.  The final decision rests with the panel of 5 judges responsible for grading that category.

2016 was the toughest APICTA in the history of the competition. The strongest contingents were from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand with more than 20 teams representing each of these technological power houses. The judges reflect this sentiment as they review entries and results on the final day, just before the Awards event is scheduled to begin. While Chinese Taipei is a recent addition to the APICTA family, their team has quickly climbed the ranking tables over the last two years.

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Team Pakistan lands in Taipei on the evening of 1st December.

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APICTA 2016 – Team Pakistan Winners and Merit award winners with their mentors and coaches.

41 member strong this is the largest delegation, PASHA, the technology industry association has ever sponsored to APICTA. By the time they get to their assigned hotel rooms, delegates have been on the road for nineteen hours. There is only time for a quick bite before the hotel restaurant kitchen closes.  For the youngest and newest teams, preparation started six weeks ago.  It hasn’t stopped; they have been working on their pitch deck throughout the flight.  They will do one more run in front of their mentors before they will go to sleep tonight.

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Pitching perfect – Three teams caught in action during their practice pitching sessions in front of the mentoring panel.

The next three days are difficult.  Day break is at 5:45 am, breakfast is at 8:00; the first practice pitching slot is at 8:30. The teams are spread out between four Pakistani judges who are also working as team mentors and coaches for the delegation. Some teams have already been put through the grinder and are in good shape while others are just starting out.  A semi-official pitching guide had been shared the week after the national awards concluded and has been used to get teams to a certain level of preparation. The final tweaks and adjustment are now being made.

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The 3K running trail by the river, close to the venue, The Grand Hotel, provides welcome early morning relief to judges, delegates and team members alike.

On average on the day before judging a pitching team goes through three to four iterations with a mentor. Some practice and review sessions run all the way till early hours of the next morning. It’s been a long road but we are in the final stretch. We just have to survive the next 48 hours.

The APICTA competition judging is spread over two days. There are four student categories this year. School projects are divided between grades 4 – 9 (Cat B) and grades 10 – 12 (Cat A).  Tertiary student are divided into technology focused and consumer focused.  There are also fifteen professional categories. The 231 entries this year are distributed across these 19 categories. For the student and startup categories judging runs over two days. Most categories start early and finish by late evening.  Each category is being judged by a panel of upto five judges selected on the basis of their relevance and experience in the field, their history at APICTA and their peer assessment as judges over the last ten years.

The APICTA awards are an important source of validation for our teams. APICTA judges picked by the industry association are generally active members of the technology community and come from mixed background in business, innovation, technology development, government and academia.  This year for instance the ten judges that I worked with in my two panels in E-learning and Media and Entertainment included three PhD’s , two venture capital investors, the head of a regional tourism development board, a serial entrepreneur, an Executive Director from SITF and the General Manager for one of the largest mobile handset chip manufacturer in Taiwan.

Imagine pitching to this group anywhere else in the world.  These judges are not going to take anything at face value. They are going to question assumptions, challenge perception and occasionally push you to examine context you hadn’t thought about. You are not selling to a customer, you are trying to convince a group of seasoned, experienced, neutral professionals that your work is important enough to stand out on its own; that it has made a real contribution to the world and had earned the right to be recognized.

MandiExpress, the fresh produce at your door step venture founded by Jehanzeb Chaudhry and Daniyal Ahmed did just that. By sourcing directly from farms and farmers, MandiExpress managed to do the impossible. Mandi now gets higher quality farm fresh produce to its buyer kitchens at lower prices, faster; It also ensure that farmers get a better price and buyers don’t have to worry about tracking their expenses or their accounting from nine different suppliers.

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“Every serious startup in Pakistan must come to APICTA”

The sentiment is repeated again and again by participants in the Pakistan delegation as we ask them for their feedback post the event.

It is a trans-formative experience. It’s not just about getting your product or pitch deck right. It’s about understanding where you stand with respect to the region and sometimes with respect to the world. Think about it for a second. Where do the most competitive Asia Pacific (APAC) companies start off. Hong Kong, China, Australia, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia.  Now think about a comfortable hospitable setting where you get a chance to compete against them. Get a chance to be gauged against them by a panel of neutral, independent judges. Where you have no baggage, or advantage, just your pitch deck.  This is why we come here and compete. To understand how strong or weak we are, how credible and believable our stories are.

For Sameer, the CEO of SocialChamp, the social sharing platform built for social media specialists, buzz builders and influencers, APICTA was a real wakeup call. Sameer put his heart and soul in preparing for the event. His was one of the three entries from Pakistan in the category of Tools, Applications and Infrastructure. Leading up to the awards Sameer took every comment he received from his mentors and coaches and incorporated it in his presentation and pitch. While his presentation went very well, despite the traction the platform had received, the competition in the category was tougher than expected. While Sameer didn’t win, his pitch deck for his Y-Combinator and 500 startup application round is now ready. He feels that the APICTA prep has completely re-energized his original story.  He even got a new local evangelist and a brand new case study documenting the power of his platform out of the preparation process. 

Come only if you are committed and willing to work hard. Your mentors and your judges will push you to your breaking point. Not just at the event but two month before when preparation for the event kicks off.  And in the three days leading to your pith you won’t eat or sleep for 48 hours. There will be moments when you will wonder what you are doing in the middle of a city going crazy where no one speaks your language.

But that instant when your name is called in front of thousands of industry professionals, that cheer of wild joy that courses through your team and your fellow delegates, that walk down to the stage with the spotlight following you every single step, that one moment makes it all worthwhile.

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Team Pakistan on stage with the flag towards the end of the awards ceremony.

For award winner Wonder Tree, the APICTA win marks the beginning of a new journey that started three years ago with Usman’s elder brother Hamza. Using technology to lower the cost of occupational therapy for special needs children, Waqas, Ahmed and Usman have been driven to succeed – not for themselves but for the children they have been working to bring into the mainstream world all these years. 

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In eleven years of competing at APICTA the night of 5th December 2016 stands out.

From receiving just a special recognition award in Macau in 2006, TeamPakistan has come a long way in a decade.  The payoff from ten years of planning and selfless contribution by PASHA mentors, judges, partners and sponsors; on making sure that Pakistan puts its right foot forward when it comes to the technology space in the Far East.

It has been a difficult ride, more so because not everyone gets the importance of APICTA. The trans-formative impact of the competition on our nominees and delegates; our delegate’s impact on the economies they compete with. The impression we create and leave behind when the name of our nation is called out 9 times with the national flag unfurled on stage in front of a large multinational audience.

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Team Wonder Tree – Winners in the e-inclusion and community category – using technology to help bring disadvantaged segments into mainstream society

Difficult to believe that all of this work, this participation, this progress is privately funded. Unsupported by government grants or help the PASHA initiative to represent Pakistan at the APICTA platform is now in its eleventh year. Other than the unwavering support of Punjab IT Board over multiple years, no other federal or provincial body has stepped up to support the initiative or the many winners of gold and merit awards from the competition.

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Team Pakistan – 12 years at the APICTA Awards

This year again TeamPakistan shone on awards night. We won three gold and six silver awards. Two of the three golds came from the NUST campus in Rawalpindi. The third gold went to WonderTree in the inclusion category for their effort to bring therapy using technology into the living room of special needs children.

Two of the six merits went to the school project and tertiary student project category. These four school, tertiary and research and development category awards are the sweetest payoff from the PASHA effort to increase participation from our student and academic community but is also a testament to how much we have learnt about pitching and presenting our product at the competition.

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Team NUST with their win in R&D category with Dr. Shoaib

The other four merits were won by MandiExpress in Retail and Supply Chain, by Sheops in inclusion, by Trillium Information Security Systems in Security and by UBL Fund managers and their investment and fund management platform imPro in Financial Applications.

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“I am going to go home, then rest for a few days and then start working on Dhaka”, says Talha.

He is the other co-founder at Botsify. The Botsify team that specializes in making chat bot deployment easier for customers is going home empty handed this year. In one way that is not true since the merit award in the school project category won by Amin Farid from Cedar college is built on the Botsify platform. Without their product, their assistance and support there wouldn’t be a school project. It is a testament to the ecosystem built by the NEST.io community that there were three bot based platform projects representing Pakistan at APICTA this year. All three are NEST.io alumni. All three benefited from the work being done by each other; they shared the same inspiration, the same motivation. Two came home without an award but the third win is really a win for the entire group.

“I am not upset or depressed or heart broken but I feel the pain of my colleagues and friends – the frustration of doing your best and still not winning.  TeamPakistan did very well, the best we have done in thirteen years of competing at APICTA and that helps. But I also know how good some members of our delegation were, the amount of effort they put in presenting at APICTA and they still didn’t win. I wonder how strong you need to be to be a winner at APICTA. I don’t know the answer to that question but I do know that I am going to be a winner next year, no two ways about it”. Talha Yasin, Botsify.

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TeamPakistan performance in Taiwan didn’t happen overnight. It took us ten years to get to a point where we could select 28 entries, train, mentor and guide them, raise funding for their participation and give them the support they needed at the four day event. Given our limited resources we did the best that we could do; it wasn’t perfect and there were many rough spots and patches. But we have come a long way in those ten years.

The support and commitment shared by TeamPakistan from our nominees, our judges, our mentors, our sponsors, our volunteers, our coordinators, our well wishers and the PASHA/NEST.io team is really what made all of this possible.

Remember, it takes a decade and a village to raise a single champion. We raised 9 this year.

TeamPakistan WINNERS and Merit Awards at APICTA 2016

Inclusion & Community

Winner

WonderTree
WonderTree App
Muhammad Waqas, Muhammad Usman, Ahmed Hasan
http://wondertree.co

Merit

Sheops Private Limited
Sheops
Nadia Patel Gangjee
http://www.sheops.com/

Tertiary Student Category

Winner

NUST College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Rawalpindi
Clinical Decision Support System for Diagnosis of Movement Disorders
Muhammad Asad Raza
http://www.nust.edu.pk/INSTITUTIONS/Colleges/CEME/Pages/default.aspx

Research & Development
Winner
NUST College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
Analysis of Optical Conference Tomography  image for CDSS
http://www.nust.edu.pk/INSTITUTIONS/Colleges/CEME/Pages/default.aspx

Merit

NUST – School of Engineering, Electrical & Computer Sciences
Sionser
Hassan Iqbal
http://www.seecs.nust.edu.pk/

Financial Applications

Merit

UBL Fund Managers

imPro

Syed Ahmar Hasan Jafri

http://www.ublfunds.com.pk/

Security Applications

Merit

Trillium Information Security Systems (Pvt) Ltd

Threat Intelligence Platform (TI Platform )
Muhammad Ali Hur
http://www.trillium-pakistan.com/tiss.php

School Project

Merit

Cedar College
Chatbots, conversation engineering and Mr. Higgins
Amin Farid

Retail & Supply Chain Management

Merit

Mandi Express
Jahanzeb Chaudri
http://mandiexpress.pk/

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Destination Khaplu

5 mins read

After a day’s rest we are all set to head to Khaplu – the other Serena property in the region at a slightly higher elevation of 8,500 feet. Post breakfast we laze around a bit, check out and then pack ourselves in the complimentary van and jeep provided by Serena and begin our journey to Khaplu. The Khaplu route from Shigar retraces back to Skardu for a bit and then heads towards Khaplu at a fork in the road that marks the choice of passage to the two Serena properties.

The three and a half hour journey goes by quickly. The roads are empty of traffic because we are now literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by large expanses of emptiness. It’s not desolate or bleak, infact the other way round but it is empty. We take a short break by an unnamed riverbank to stretch our legs, dip our feet into the cold water and collect a few mementos.  Grey slit laden water streaming slowly to merge around Raikot with River Indus.  We land at Khaplu late afternoon.

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Destination Khaplu – Distant peaks and cloud formations

Like Shigar, Khaplu residences also have two flavors.  The two new block have larger rooms and come with a private garden. They are open, comfortable and a little warm but opening a few pairs of windows fixes that. The older fort based rooms give you the authentic historical experience but require some athletic ability to climb stairs and negotiate corners.  While the fort was built in mid nineteenth century, it was restored by the Aga Khan foundation and opened up as a tourist destination, museum and hotel in 2012-13. Our group has been allocated an entire block so we are all together in one building spread across three floors.

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Khaplu Palace – A mid 19th century structure restored for 21st century living

While Shigar Fort is bang in the center of activity, Khaplu palace is a little more isolated. You have neighbors but you won’t notice them till you step out for your morning walk. Both properties have a steady stream of visitors and tourists coming in throughout the day since they represent the highlight of a tourist visit to the Skardu Baltistan region.

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Balti architecture at 8500 ft.

If you want to escape from that stream, the private gardens with the guest residences in both properties provide that isolation.  At Khaplu there is also stream but you have to walk a bit uphill to get to it. The stream comes through a system of manmade water works using natural materials and guides that feeds the surrounding village. It creates standing pools of chilled clean water and streamlets that you can easily and safely wash your face and dip your feet in. The running water is both refreshing and soothing, irrespective of your decision to dip extremities in it.

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The magical stream that runs by the Palace – Step outside, hang left, go uphill to the bridge

The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and comes with covered indoor space as well as open air dining options.  It’s drizzling lightly as we arrive and the weather has suddenly turned cooler. We finally have an excuse to break out all the heavy gear we have been carrying for the past few days.

Our first order after check in is to plan a generous lunch with fresh rainbow trout, locally grown and caught in Khaplu serving as the centerpiece. Serena’s kitchens in both the Fort and the Palace are a breath of fresh air. The chefs are exceedingly friendly and open to recommending dishes based on your personal preferences as well as trying out new recipes.  Before heading out last year for our Gilgit and Hunza trip I had asked a Chitrali friend for advice. His only suggestion was to eat at the hotel kitchens and stay away from local dhabas and road side stands. According to him city folks are not used to mountain water and once you go down with an upset stomach in this part of the world, you are likely to stay down.

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Balti wood work – still alive and well.

This time the two garden suites have further upped the stakes. Both rooms open up under multiple apricot trees that are laden with fresh, ready to eat, ripe fruit. More than the kids, it’s the grandparents who go wild with the apricots. It takes them back to their childhood days where cities and towns still had orchards where you could simply pick and eat from the trees. Every morning for the next three days they have a steady supply of freshly picked apricots, cherries and mulberries in their rooms.

We came here to spend time with family, trek and hike. It doesn’t take long after the extended lunch session and a short power nap for the first group to venture out for sightseeing.  While we are living in a museum what really interests us is the opportunity to trek.  Step out of the main hotel entrance and hang a left. You will see a paved metaled road heading uphill. That is the one you want. You will pass residence on the left, farms on the right. At the first curve, take a moment to peak between the broken fence on the valley below and the hills in the distance. Sunrise or sunset mixed with cloud cover makes for some interesting sights.  Walk two hundred meters and you will come to the next big curve. There is a bridge over streaming white water that connects your side of the road to the village across. Continue heading uphill on that road and you will find multiple opportunities for short as well as long treks.

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Refreshing clean chilled water – free range style.

Over the next three days we go farther and farther up but keep on missing the main path. On our last trek on the last day, just before we are about to head back to Shigar I finally figure out the path I was supposed to take. But it is too late to go exploring. But we are lucky. We have discovered our fair share of wading pools, raging waters, trails off the beaten track and breathtaking views. The isolation and peace that the neighborhood around Khaplu Palace brings with it, unlike Shigar, is refreshing and we try and make the most of it.

In addition to the palace itself there are activities for a day trip that you can plan. You can do a day long combination of trout fishing and hike at a local trout farm where you can catch fish from a pond and have it served to you there and then. While they are marinating and cooking your catch, you can go for a short hike up a hill to work up your appetite. There is the local khanqah and mosque that is being restored and expanded as part of the village and community self-funding program.  The mosque stands on pillar of giant walnut trees and the restoration project is the one of the biggest thing the community is involved in.  There is also a mountain trek at the back of the palace that will take you to the vantage point that provides a 360 view of the entire community. Ask any of the staff at the hotel or the restaurant and they will find a guide for you who can take you on that trek.  If you are lucky and find clear skies don’t miss opportunities for star gazing. 8,500 feet elevation, clear skies, limited light pollution makes for starry nights you would never experience in your city life.  If you have come prepared K-2 basecamp is just 6 days away from Khaplu.

If you are out of ideas, just sit down at the reception and talk to the shift managers or the manager in charge of Khaplu palace for ideas. They are most helpful.

Destination Shigar

6 mins read

Destination Shigar

Just a quick heads up. I have been shooting landscapes for a few years now. Thanks to my friend Jehan, I got hooked on to DSLRs a few years ago. As you may have gathered, I also travel a bit and have been to some interesting corners of the world. Here is the part that I wanted to say before you read on. 

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A set of majestic peaks hang over the city of Skardu in the evening.

I have never shot landscapes like these. I know I have seen some amazing places but this stuff just took my breath away. Continues to take me breath away even today as I worked with these images for this post, four months after the trip. And yet they don’t do justice to the images I have in my mind, that we saw as a together as a group. 

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A postcard image that riverbeds every where aspire to be.

If you have the travel or nature photography or treking and hiking bug, do yourself a favor. This summer pack your bags and head to Skardu the first opportunity you get. It is a truly magical land where the magic is the slow release kind. You don’t notice it creeping up on you and then suddenly you are gone. 

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The road to Shigar. Looks great from a distance but leads to a major tailbone workout.

Destination Shigar – Day Break

Our day started at 4 am. It had been a long trek the day before. We had left home at 2 pm, flown from Karachi to Islamabad at 4 pm, landed at 6, reached the hotel by 8 and only had time for a quick dinner before crashing in our rooms for a short sleepover before our phone alarms started beeping again.

Our PIA flight to Skardu departed Islamabad at 8 am. We checked out from the hotel at 5:45 am and waited for our ride to the airport. Our carefully scheduled prior booked planned van from the night before had been hijacked by another group also rushing to the airport, in a case of mistaken identity.

The transit to Islamabad airport in the morning suffers from a unique phenomenon called the route. It refers to a VIP movement and there are quite a few of those since Rawalpindi is the seat of GHQ and Islamabad is the seat of the government.  When a route is called the road to the airport is blocked to facilitate transit of said VIP’s. Which means you may leave your hotel at 6:30 am but if you get caught in the “route” trap you may still miss your flight.  Routes are likely to be called early morning or late evenings.

We were lucky this morning since the missing van appeared to be the only bad break for the day. Weather was clear in Pindi and the forecast for both Gilgit and Skardu was clear for the day.  Still there was an air of anticipation at the airport because flights to both Gilgit and Skardu frequently get cancelled or rescheduled because of changes in weather conditions. With the introduction of the new airbus service to Skardu, things have improved dramatically but there are still bad days and cancelled schedules. Till you board and are on the runway you don’t know if you are actually going to get to take off or not. The first good sign in the morning is that they have started check in, the second is the loading of the luggage in the aircraft, the third and final one is the boarding call.

7:45 am the boarding call came and we were all set to go. A few minutes after 8 we were heading towards the runaway, waiting for our turn to release the breaks and speed on towards Skardu.

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It is a short flight, more so on the new airbus A320. Fifteen minutes before landing you run into the majestic peaks of Gilgit Baltistan – K2 as well as Nanga Parbat. Book a seat by the windows if you can and have your camera ready and focused for instant photography because the sights are truly majestic. You won’t get a chance to click them on the way out because the path is different and camera are only allowed after the aircraft has reached a certain altitude.

Skardu airport sits in the middle of a valley surrounded by smaller peaks and mountains. Which is the reason why cloud cover and bad weather leads to flight cancellations.

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As we disembark from the aircraft the runaway is unexpectedly warm. We are at an elevation of 8500 ft but it’s the middle of July. Skardu interestingly enough is one of highest elevation desert on our planet. Which is what makes it even even more magical. Within the span of a few miles you run into dried river bed, overflowing river banks, flowing sand dunes, wheat fields and apricot orchards, barren mountains and an explosion of greenery where the barren landscape meets the river.

The region only gets two weeks of summer and we have decided to land in the midst of those two weeks. It takes an hour for the baggage trolley to arrive from the aircraft and we finally step out of the arrival lounge.

Serena had been kind enough to send a van and two jeeps to pick us up from the airport. The ride to Shigar Fort is roughly 45 minutes. We had landed on a good day and are out early enough so there isn’t too much traffic on the roads heading out of the city.

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An old wooden bridge stands with pride in pose for passing photographers and lenses.

If you have been to Gilgit and Hunza, you would understand what I am going to say next. As soon as you cross the Raikot Bridge, leave Kohistan and cross the first tunnel that marks the entry towards Gilgit, the magic starts. You are surrounded on all side by majestic sights, of grey slated river planes  colored rust yellow and green by wheat and potato fields, backed by a canvas of snow covered peaks.

The Skardu side of the province of Baltistan is not like Gilgit. Here the magic take a while to set in. If you are expecting Gilgit you keep on waiting for the peaks to appear so that you can shoot them. And then you suddenly realize that the magic has been with you all along. For us that moment happened at the half way mark to Shigar when we finally woke up to the landscape around us.

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Shigar Fort

Shigar Fort is a 400 hundred year old royal palace and fort on a rock that was restored by the Aga Khan Foundation and turned into a residential hotel, a museum and tourism destination site in the region.  Over the last few three years it has become an important source of revenue for the small town that houses the royal palace and fort.

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400 hundred year old stone walls?

As soon as you land at Shigar Fort you are greeted by the stream that is running right next to the Palace. There is a dining area roofed in by grape vines that in July have just started to sprout fruit. The dining area opens into what used to be the palace court yard and now serves as a large open ground with sitting chairs and loungers for both hotel guests and day visitors.

Our group immediately breaks into multiple exploratory parties. The setting is intriguing, the history appealing. Sipping our glasses of freshly strained apricot juice we take our seats by the stream and settle in for check in to be completed for our large group.

It is only when we get to the rooms allocated to us in the old Fort that we realize how unique the entire structure is. 400 hundred year old design and architecture made livable for our generation with twentieth century amenities.  The rooms are gorgeous.  Since we have three sets of grandparents with us, we have split up into two groups. Grandparents in the new block, also known as the garden suites; parents and kids in the old fort which is difficult and awkward to climb for the elderly. The historical suites have their own magic. The largest two are the old raja and rani rooms and over the next 24 hours we get a taste of the royal life.

While the rooms in the old Fort have their own splendor, the garden suites open into the Royal garden. Entry into the royal garden is limited to house guests only so you won’t see tourist traffic spill into this quiet corner of the hotel.   It’s a large courtyard with a small pool and gazebo in its midst sprinkled with cherry, apricot, pear, apple and mulberry trees. Over the next few days as we check in and out of Shigar on our way to Khaplu and then the airport, the Royal garden becomes the place where grandparents and children hold court together.

The first order of the day is to check in, unpack, order lunch and head out for our first day trip to the Shangrilla resort and Upper Katchura lake. We are only in Shigar for a day on our way to Khaplu and the group wants to make the most of that day.  It is going to be a long two hour drive since we will have to head back to Skardu and then move onwards first to Shangrilla and then Upper Katchura. While the roads are metaled and the jeeps arranged by Serena comfortable, the ride back and forth to Shigar extracts quite a toll from the tail bone.

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But the drive and the sights on the backdrop of the setting sun are unbelievable. One minute you are with civilization, the next teleported to a mystical medieval land where rajas plot and conspire with each other, where armies weave their way through snow covered mountain passes, where stone forts and palaces hold sway over kingdoms of fruit orchards and river beds stand witness to battle lines and cavalry charges.

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A wheat field closeup

Where despite the passage of time wild wheat still grows in full bloom.

The drive also yields half a dozen boxes of cherries, a few packs of sweet dried mulberries and almonds in paper thin shells (Kaghzi badams) ready for peeling and consumption. But the dozen National Geographic worthy shots with my camera are the real payoff for the day.

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Riverbeds, riverbeds everywhere.

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Skardu calling. The Shigar Khaplu break.

4 mins read

Skardu calling. The Shigar Khaplu break.

After 2015’s amazing summer escape to Gilgit, this year we wanted to aim for something equally adventurous. Intrepid traveler and globe trotter Afia Salam suggested we take a look at Shigar and Khaplu and put us in touch with her equally fearless friend Sarwat Majeed. Sarwat is the General Manager for Serena and runs the two Serena properties at Shigar and Khaplu.  She is the go to person if you are planning to be in the region and need assistance with planning and arranging your stays at the two restored historical forts – Shigar and Khaplu palace.

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On the way to Shigar, from Skardu. Mystical magical landscapes.

While last year was an experiment involving just a single set of grandparents, this year we were planning on breaking new ground by taking three sets of grandparents with their extended families, with half a dozen grand children included. The decision to look at Shigar and Khaplu was driven by PIA’s decision to introduce an A310 service to Skardu. The new airbus not just had more seats but also flew more frequently and more reliably than the ATR service to Skardu from Islamabad.

The road trip to Gilgit is two days of travel time with a stopover at Besham. Gilgit Skardu is another day on top of that. That is three days of travel one way for 16 weary travelers.  If we took that path we would spend most of our post Ramazan summer break coped up in a van, or even worse two vans.  The decision was made to commit to Shigar and Khaplu as long as we could make the logistics work.

In March 2016, I finally picked up the phone and called Sarwat at the Shigar Serena and learnt a very valuable and important lesson. Both Khaplu and Shigar are boutique restored heritage properties. Which essentially means three things:

  1. While they can accommodate small groups easily, a large group would basically take over an entire wing of the two property.
  2. Given what they represent and the experience the Aga Khan foundation has done and the many tweaks made by the current team, both properties are very much in demand.
  3. If you want to plan a summer break at Shigar or Khaplu in July you need to book way in advance in March, latest by end March. You could risk just showing up on the door but that in most cases would only get you to sample the lovely fares put out by Mohammad Ali, the Shigar chef. Getting the room at short notice in peak season is next to impossible.

Sarwat was very gracious and helpful. There was not enough space to accommodate 16 people but we could book what was available and figure it out as we got close to our dates. She also became my guide on navigating the PIA flight schedule from Islamabad and the ability to read the weather reports to see if a flight would fly on time or get cancelled.  While our plan was confirmed, we weren’t sure, how many of us would actually have a room of our own and how many would have to bunk with each other.  Since it was just one large extended close knit family, as long as Shigar and Khaplu didn’t mind, we didn’t have any issues.

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A fresh stream runs by Khaplu Palace.

The weather forecast was looking good. Skardu has two weeks of summer in July. We were scheduled to fly in and out within those two weeks. There was a reasonable chance that no cloud cover or storm system would get in our way and lead to flight cancellations.  That was the best case.

Sarwat was upfront.  She said, listen you are coming for a break with a large group. Just make sure that you are all comfortable with moving things around by a day or so at short notice. It’s a lovely place to spend time with family. Come and stay in vacation mode, don’t stress out. We have been here for a while, we will figure out if things ever go south.  Be comfortable and be flexible and most importantly be cool. Leave the rest to us.

The final itinerary looked like this. We would all catch the PIA flight from Karachi to Islamabad the night before. We would grab rooms at a local nearby hotel and sleep in early. Next morning at 8 am was our scheduled flight to Skardu. We would be picked up at the airport by Serena and driven to Shigar, roughly an hour away. We will take a day break in Shigar and then head to Khaplu the next morning. Three days in Khaplu, which was three and a half hours away and then back to Shigar for a day before catching our flights to Islamabad the next morning.

While hotel and flights were booked and locked down by early April, the actual trip was still three months away. Looking up weather reports for Skardu became a routine. The whole point of escaping from Karachi was to escape from the heat so we weren’t sure how we felt about 24 degree weather in Skardu.

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Ask and you shall receive. Rivers, flood plains, mountains, streams and grass lands. All in one location.

The plus side was that no rain and hence cloud cover was expected in July. We had all heard good things about the two properties from everyone who had been there and they had been consistent in appreciating Sarwat and her team.

The bigger challenge however was deciding between Deosai, Shangrilla, Upper Katchura and Khaplu. Everyone in our group had heard of the gorgeous Shangrilla and they wanted to see it.

But here was the issue. You go up from Skardu towards Shigar and Khaplu. To do Deosai and Shangrilla you have to come all the way back to Skardu. You could do one not both and certainly not in one day. The Shangrilla voters won the election and we kept Deosai for the return leg of the trip.   The revised game plan was that as soon as we landed, we will check in, freshen up and head toward Shangrilla and the lake at Upper Katchura in two jeeps. Serena would arrange to have the jeeps ready and on standby with packed lunch boxes that we could eat on the drive. The adventurous lot could hop in, while the less adventurous ones could take the day off, recover and get ready for the next day’s drive. We thought all the oldies will most likely stay back and rest and the grand children will take the jeeps for a romp.

On the way back from Khaplu, depending on how we felt, we could check out the Deosai plains. That is if we still had the strength to explore and spend another 8 hours locked inside a jeep.  But that decision was still three months away.

Continued at Destination Shigar

Hunza valley summer escape

5 mins readThe road trip to Hunza via Gilgit, Chilas, Besham and Islamabad continues to its final leg. While the first two episodes documenting the road trip to Gilgit were completed and published in 2015, the Hunza episode remained outstanding. This year we were very fortunate that we managed to cover Skardu with a much larger group. As I sat down to document the summer of 2016, I had to do justice to our Hunza experience.

Gilgit Baltistan is a unique region. Whether you look at ethnicity, culture, heritage, architecture, natural resources, hospitality or beauty, it stands apart from the rest of the planet. Hunza and Khaplu are the two crown jewels of Gilgit Baltistan and if you have the capacity and the ability to visit, you should see both of them once in your life.  Neither words nor pictures can describe what you will find and witness and till you do you will have no idea of what you have been missing.  

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Hunza valley – late evening sunset brings out the contrast between the inclines and the greenery.

Once you reach Gilgit, the tail bone wrecking, weary, dusty part of your road trip is done.  By June 2015, the CPEC corridor road had already reached the Raikot Bridge linking Chilas and Gilgit.  Work was under way at numerous rough patches on the old Karakorum Highway (KKH) all the way upto Chilas and with weather and landslides permitting, the ride would be a much more smoother in 2016 and 2017.

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Gilgit Baltistan – the region where three mountain ranges meet

Which meant that the rough roads you had experienced upto Chilas, were a distant memory.  The transition between the two highways, the old KKH and the new CPEC is marked by silence as the drone of tires crushing rough gravel is replaced by the quiet hum of the Silk Road.  The river valley below is splattered with splashes of greens across grey slate – settlements on floodplains and old riverbeds; a patchwork of quilts running wild with bright greens of freshly sowed potatoes and golden shades of ripe wheat.

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On the road to Gilgit – living side by side with the river

Compared to the effort required to reach Chilas, the Gilgit Hunza ride is a barely noticeable 90 minutes on a dual track asphalt highway built to Chinese specifications.  The drive is a joy and both the driver and the Grand Cabin we have been using for transportation swoon as soon as they get their wheels on it.

An ideal schedule should allow you to arrive in Gilgit and rest for a day before heading out to Hunza. While you cross the view point Rakaposhi on your way to Hunza, the Gilgit Serena sunrise and sunset with the back drop of the snow covered summits is an experience that should not be missed.

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Rakaposhi view point – On the way to Hunza from Gilgit.

The most common destination in Hunza is a small village / town called Karimabad, home to bed and breakfasts with breath taking views. Compared to the Serena in Gilgit, Hunza properties are a step down but they more than make up for it by their hospitality, their food and the scenic wonders you wake up to every morning.

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Rakaposhi at sunset

The one day break is also recommended to acclimatize yourself to higher elevation. While Gilgit proper is just under 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), Karimabad takes you over 8,200 feet (2,500 meters). If you are a heavy smoker, over weight or have had issues with breathing, either with your heart or lung capacity or asthma, you may susceptible to altitude sickness and vertigo at that elevation. If the sickness hits you it takes about a day or two to recover and catch your breath.  Standard prescription is to chill, rest, sleep and consume as many liquids as you can without throwing up.

If you are travelling with the elderly or not game for intense physical activity, treks or uphill climb, Hunza may represent a bigger challenge. We still managed to travel with one set of grand parents who were quite taken with our final destination.

We had picked the Serena Baltit Inn in Hunza for our three day break. A cozy Serena property that looks down on the Hunza valley with decent rooms, great food and most importantly warm water. From the courtyard of the Inn you can see the two restored historical forts, the hotel orchard, a family of magpies and the valley itself.

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The black billed magpie – A multi colored bird unique to the region.

You will see stepped fields all across Gilgit and Hunza but they present a completely different perspective up close.

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Agricultural fields on the valley floor

Grab a cup of hot coffee or chocolate, your board of scrabble or your favorite author and let your eyes imprint the view.  Hunza is a U shaped valley with bronzed and rusted mountain slopes that have been domesticated by the local population. You see a mix of colors – inclines and drops with multicolored thatched roofs, towering trees and freshly sowed fields.

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Baltit Fort – Hunza valley – The crown jewel

The valley has three historical forts. Two have been restored by the Aga Khan cultural foundation in collaboration with the Norwegian embassy  in Pakistan.  Both are strategically located but the Baltit fort sits like a ruling crown on one end of the valley.

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Hunza valley – Baltit fort – backdrop

I still remember my first impression when we drove into Karimabad twenty five years ago with our college tour.  We were a group of 40 odd rowdy teenagers who had been on the road for two weeks by the time we made it to Hunza.

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Hunza valley – contrast, contrast every where.

We were all left speech less as we came across the valley the first time. Despite the passage of two and a half decades and the many changes brought about by those years, the valley is just as breathtaking and isolated today as it was in the early 90’s.

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Hunza valley

Things to do in Hunza.

Given Hunza’s central location, you do organize day trips and drives to Atabad lake, Khunjarab pass and Sost if you are interested in long drives and touching the China Border. If you would like a flavor of local history and pick some background on the old sultanate head to the Altit and Baltit forts. They both represent an experience you are unlikely to come across anywhere else. While the Altit fort is somewhat accessible for all ages, the Baltit fort is a challenge for grand parents.

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Nagar valley is great for cherry hunting trip, river side picnics, and treks, trails and hikes. If you have come prepared do look at the multi day hike to Rakaposhi base camp. But it’s perfectly all right to just chicken out for a few days, lay low under your warm quilts, enjoy a hot beverage, polish off those scrabble skills and just enjoy the views. You would want to take them away with you in your mind by the time you are ready to leave.

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Dubai weekend photo shoot

< 1 min read

Dubai Weekend photo shoot

This trip finally found some downtime at midnight and early morning. Used it to capture the Dubai sunrise and sunset from the higher floors of Ghurair center.  Shot with the trusted Canon 70D with the new 55 – 250 IS USM lens. Enjoy.

Dubai – The Creek at midnight

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Sunburst over the airport


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 Dubai sunrise

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Lined up for landing

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Dubai Skyline

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