پاکستانی  شمالی  علاقوں  کی  سیر

The North of Pakistan is my favorite place in Pakistan. With majestic mountains, villages, great scenery, and kind people, there is a reason why I go here as much as possible.

Starting off from Islamabad through SWAT valley, the roads and scenery is always very interesting, especially when you get into the Chitral area….

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I decided to spend three nights in the Kalash Valley to explore more of this wonderful area. As the people are extremely unique with a culture and religion you will find nowhere else in the world, it is a truly remarkable place. I was able to meet a lot more locals with the help of a guide and get to some new places that I had previously not been to before. The photography of course came out to be amazing like always…

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After three wonderful nights in Kalash and plenty of fresh food, it was time to spend a three night drive through some of the roughest roads I have ever been on. Moving past Chitral town and through the Chitral Valley, with a little stomach bug along the way, this was some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. This route was one that I always wanted to do in Pakistan that took us over Shandur Pass through more small villages I can count, and some extremely bumpy roads. However, that is all a part of the adventure..

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I had already been to the Hunza Valley before, but there is nothing wrong with seeing it once again as the landscape is out of this world as well as going down the Karakorum Highway all the way to Khunjerab Pass which is the border with China.

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Leaving the Hunza area back through Gilgit, it was time to hit a new road which I had never been on before going through some beautiful mountains and valleys and up to Deosai National Park and spending the day going through there and looking at the amazing scenery, finally getting into Skardu to my favorite hotel on the mountain top overlooking the city.

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A good day trip into Shigar which is about an hour from Skardu is always good for photography. This small city is a starting point for a lot of people wanting to do treks in the mountains, however the countryside near the city and the surrounding areas has some great photography..

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Of course its a must to get street photography of the hustle and bustle of Skardu before you catch a flight. In just one street, there is always so much going on…

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This was definitely, my longest trip in the region, but I was able to see so much. The photography makes it all the worthwhile. I hope that before I depart Pakistan when my contract is up, that I will be able to get up here again to just see the sheer beauty that this area has to offer.

The city Ghent which is in the Flemish part of Belgium was a delightful cities with a lot of different streets to walk through. As this was not the tourist season it was pretty much empty with just a few tour groups of people walking around so it made the photography amazing. If you couple that with the soft sunlight and the clouds, it was a photography perfect day. The city is very old as seen by the architecture and canals and a lot of the houses showed just that.

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Arles which is a small city in France known for its beautiful streets and Roman Colosseum was very delightful to walk through and photograph. Even though the light was not that good, I still managed to get some good photos in this beautiful little town…

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Going from Arles our trail took us all the way to Dijon (which we only stayed in as just about everything was shut up), and through the beautiful mountains and countryside of small towns filled with snow and icy roads….

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The journey to villages down the middle of France.

When most people think of France, they think of Paris, Marseilles, Dijon, or Bordeaux. But there is a different side to France once you get off the main highways and into the back roads and that is the village part of France.

Driving from Luxembourg to Andorra a friend and myself took the back roads and boy did they impress. Many of these villages had probably been there for hundreds of years but a lot of them were deserted. Whether it was because of the holiday season and people go to the cities or because there is not a lot work around there remains unknown.

I however took the chance over a few days to photograph some of theses places with very few shops open and even fewer people walking around. Sometimes places like these makes me think that maybe there is still a simple life to be lived somewhere out of the hustle and bustle of the cities…..

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The country with the highest capital city in Europe located in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Andorra is another micro country in Europe that is beautiful in both the day and the night. However getting in their on Christmas Eve and Spending Christmas Day there was good for photography as there were no people around, however very bad for trying the many cuisines it holds as pretty much everything was shut up.

The country is a tax free haven in Europe where people from all over flock. It is located between Spain and France and has Catalan as its official language. The prices of petrol are extremely cheap compared to the rest of Europe and the whole country is pretty much a big duty free store!!!

While most of the capital city Andorra la Vella is filled with wish shops and restaurants, there are some very beautiful old parts of the city once you get out of the center area.

This place was extremely easy to walk around and photograph with no people around. The city was extremely clean and it was sunny pretty much all throughout the day with cool weather. I believe I must have walked about 12 kilometers covering just about everywhere in the city and got some amazing photos. Other than that there is not much to do there with the exception of some hot springs as well as skiing which I did not have much interest in doing.

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A Micro country sandwiched between France, Germany, and Belgium

I really had no expectations for Luxembourg. Driving in from Belgium took a few hours and it was dark a lot of the time as it was the shortest day of the year. However, arriving there I was amazed at how clean everything was. Being around Christmas, the market was in full swing with everything you can imagine to buy to eat.

The streets were pretty busy with holiday goers all around with their families and loved ones. Walking around the city was an adventure as the whole old city was medieval fortifications that are hundreds of years old and the new city had a certain charm to it. Two rivers, the Alzette and the Pétrusse, run through Luxembourg City. Over centuries, the water has made its way here, leaving deep, rocky valleys. It is in these rocky valleys below the city that you can usually get the best photographs.

This country amazed me as it is the only place in the world where public transportation is completely free, even to foreigners. Whether you take the bus, train, or tram, you do not have to pay anything at all which makes it very easy to accidentally jump on the wrong bus or tram and quickly get off to get on the correct one……A country definitely worth visiting…..

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