Nguyet Digi (30 years old, Khanh Hoa) is currently a digital content creator. She and 8 friends who share the same passion for travel and experience spent 13 days exploring Pakistan - a country that appeared on some media channels with the phrase "full of bombs falling, bullets exploding across a gray sky".
The luggage she brought on this trip was the result of careful preparation over the past 6 months. In addition to clothes, food, and money, Nguyet believes that you should not bring "review luggage" when going to a country. "Relax your mind and feel everything in your own way. Don't judge a land you have never been to because of a comment or a review," Nguyet Digi shared with Travellive reporter.
It never hurts to be prepared!
Nguyet and her friends were able to find cheap air tickets (about 20 million VND for a round-trip ticket) by booking 6 months in advance. If you are also planning to travel to faraway places, plan your itinerary and book your air tickets early to save money. On this trip, she and her friends bought a land tour to Pakistan. "If I have the chance to come back here, I will still choose to buy a land tour with a group of friends to optimize costs. Moreover, I will be less 'lonely' when I always have friends to accompany me on a long journey in such a remote place," Nguyet shared.
Nguyet Digi, friends and locals taking pictures.
Landtour in this trip includes transportation, breakfast and hotel costs. So you only need to prepare additional costs for lunch, dinner, sightseeing costs and some souvenirs) ranging from 200-300 USD). If you intend to travel independently, you must have an invitation letter from someone living in Pakistan to apply for a visa. You will also have to pay more when traveling independently.
If you go to Pakistan in the spring, you should remember to prepare enough long-sleeved clothes, windbreakers, choose waterproof shoes (to avoid getting wet when going into snowy places), gloves, socks. In addition, to have beautiful pictures, you should prepare some more colorful clothes to stand out in the general gray-white landscape of snowy mountains here.
Colorful costumes "stand out" against the mountains and sky of Pakistan.
Nguyet especially reminds all readers who are preparing to travel, especially those who have long trips, to save personal information and travel information in written form. "You will not imagine what problems will happen, such as wifi errors, lost information, broken phones... Print that information on paper in case of emergency," she emphasized.
ONE TRIP, MANY EXPERIENCES IN PAKISTAN
After this trip, Pakistani cuisine left Nguyet with many memories. The dishes on the journey were simple with white rice, fried rice, green salad, ginger chicken, and beef stew. In particular, "garam masala", a spice of Indian origin, is also the main flavor that appears in most dishes in Pakistan. "In Pakistan, local people also use masala in many dishes, even drinks, but it is not as strong as in India," Nguyet shared.
If you eat at restaurants, you should ask your local tour guide to contact you in advance so you can have food as soon as you arrive. "In Pakistan, people work very leisurely, so sometimes we have to wait for hours for food." According to Nguyet, you should also prepare fast food such as instant noodles, dried food, jam, seaweed or instant soup to temporarily satisfy hunger or replenish energy during the journey.
"When traveling, most of us have the mentality of experiencing local cuisine. But that will only last 3-4 days. People like me, with 70% fish sauce in their body, will start to miss Vietnamese food and flavors," she joked. As someone who loves to cook, Nguyet prepared more Vietnamese "spice luggage" such as fish sauce, soy sauce, and seasoning powder to cook authentic Vietnamese meals for the whole group on the trip.
At each destination, she will ask a local guide in that area to "accompany" her to the market, buy food to cook. "When I first arrived at the market, I was surprised because 100% of the people here were men, I was the only woman. Seeing my confused and scared eyes, some men approached to talk and help me bargain. I breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that the people here were so gentle and lovable," Nguyet recounted.
Nguyet Digi took a photo with the chef at the hotel while preparing food.
After buying food, she brought it home and asked the chef to cook it right in the hotel's kitchen area. It sounds strange, but this girl can "sneak" into the kitchen area of 4-5 star hotels to cook. "They are very open and willing to let tourists like me cook food right in the hotel's kitchen area. Of course, I also paid a small fee to thank the enthusiastic chefs."
Here, she got to "show off" her skills in front of the hotel chefs, sharing Vietnamese cuisine with her Pakistani friends. Later, when the Vietnamese spices were running low, she came up with the idea of finding equivalent ingredients in Pakistan to use as substitutes. She also shared with the hotel chefs how to prepare Vietnamese dishes in the Pakistani style.
The hospitable Pakistani people served biscuits and milk tea when the group visited.
On the journey to explore the local area with Uncle Mohammed - a workaholic, a lover of his homeland, he did not hesitate to invite new acquaintances to his house. A pot of tea, a biscuit with a shy and gentle smile brought strangers closer together. Sitting down to eat cake, enjoy tea, listen to the stories of the lives of the people here, we saw that their lives were simple, plain but strangely warm.
Looking out at the world out there - looking back into the world within
During her journey to explore Pakistan, she and her group of friends chose to travel in the form of a "road trip" with a local driver. By choosing this type of travel, they captured the beautiful scenery while climbing on dangerous roads. "The local drivers here are 'silk drivers'. While I felt like I was falling freely down the cliff, the drivers were very proud of their skillful driving skills," Nguyet laughed.
The long roads under the snowy mountains.
White Hopper Glacier.
The pace of experiencing the activities on this journey of the group of friends was not too dense. Most of the time, her group sat in the car, traveling hundreds of kilometers across the mountains and hills, occasionally stopping at a majestic scene to capture the moment. In addition, she also ziplined or trekked short distances with her group of friends. When trekking to the top of Queen of Victoria Mountain, a majestic scene appeared before her eyes. Looking far away, she relaxedly watched the old houses built a long time ago hidden under the canopy of peach blossoms - apricot blossoms - plum blossoms blooming pink and white across the sky.
The entire Hunza valley seen from Queen of Victoria Mountain.
Coming in the spring, they were immersed in the pure color scheme of many kinds of flowers. Almost every house in the village had a large garden filled with flowers. The people here "opened their doors freely" for strangers to come and admire their flower gardens. Wandering through the gardens, looking up, they saw a sky full of flowers. The pure white and pink colors of spring brought a feeling of gentleness and peace that was hard to describe.
Apricot blossoms cover the entire sky in Hunza.
"In a remote place, with unstable internet, we put down our phones, moved closer together, and listened to stories that had never been shared. If it weren't for this trip, many stories would have remained in my heart forever. I thought I understood my friends very well. I observed them from more angles, saw the lovely things hidden in their every action and gesture. I also saw the broken pieces hidden deep in the hearts of my loved ones...", Nguyet shared.
While crossing the streets, she saw many men sitting idly watching time pass by in front of their houses, wondering why they were not working but "doing nothing". After asking the driver, she learned that the people here depend on nature and their land. They live leisurely, work leisurely, and do not seek too many material values - as a "lifestyle" for a long time. For businesses, the shops will open at 10 am and close after 6 pm - that is 3 pm.
Men sit leisurely on their porches in Pakistan.
Quietly observing the lives of people here, Nguyet thought: "Actually, we don't have that many desires." Sometimes living slowly is also considered a concept of happiness.
