Margalla Hills - Hiking

Society Travel & Tourism
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So any Islamabadis here! My favourite was trail #3, the challenging one!

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Re: Margalla Hills - Hiking

First, please inform us if something bad happened up there? lol

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Re: Margalla Hills - Hiking

No way :smack:! I used to go pretty much every weekend, nothing bad happened. Alot of diplomats and foriegners went too. I became friends with this Hugarian guy who once brought me and my buddies Hungarian Goulash!

The only thing you have to watch out for, during the onset of winters are the monkeys, but as yet no ones reported a problem with them.

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Re: Margalla Hills - Hiking

hmmmm......what about that army captain who was murdered and his wife was blamed for it, was it margala or somewhere else, if you remember?

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That was a domestic issue though (wife didnt like him or something), and didn't happen at Margalla, but Shakarparian. Its the one from the 80s right? Btw, that young Captain was my friends brother, and also the son of a student of my dad, Brig. (r) Shaukat Qadir who is now considered an expert on many issues. You must have seen many of his articles on PA.

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Re: Margalla Hills - Hiking

those look like gorgeous trails to hike on..they're so beautiful!

so spock, how long did it take you to hike the entire trail?

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Re: Margalla Hills - Hiking

^ Thanks smilie, the view is indeed beautiful. These hills constitute the footsteps of the mighty Himalayas!

Depends on which one it is and where it goes. The paved ones take longer, but the real challenge is the unpaved ones, and getting to Damine-e-Koh, a very scenic point that gives a breathtaking view of the twin cities would take about an hour to two at most. You can vary your time, challenge, destinations by choosing different trails ofcourse.

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Yup, i've been to Damin-e-Koh..but drove all the way up there :p
So are there guided hiking tours as well? I don't remember ever seeing anything like that when I was there a few years back.

That'd be an awesome thing to do if I ever visit Pakistan again...

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i love hiking!

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aww this brings back so many good memories, us cousins used to get together in the summer and hike up, the unpaved one upto daman-e-koh, don't think they had the paved ones back in the late 90's, did they spock? we used to start from the trail right beind E-7, it was pretty safe but you know towards the end we started noticing the presence of these weird madrassa students in the area (there was a madrassha closeby) all foreign looking, afghani maybe, and they used to give very weird looks. other than that, very safe and definitely fun !!

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^ Wg, good times right? :)

Yep, the paved ones were built in the late 90s I think. Ive been up the one that starts from E-7 many many times. Did you ever go all the way upto Pir Sohava?

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mostly to pir sohava yes! for that amazing bbq! it was funny, eating all that food kinda defeated the purpose of hiking :smiley: but i think it got digested pretty quickly on the way back. there were times though when we actually used to call home for someone to get us, because we had eaten too much and couldn’t think of walking back :hehe:

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^ lol Wg, us Islamabadis are adventurous arent we? My dad actually told me he hiked/walked along with his college buddies all the way to Murree once! At first I didnt believe him but he showed me pictures.

That bbq place is still there, but theres a big restaurant that opened up beside its, called the Monal.

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once many years ago my khalas, ammi and us kids hiked on to the top, we were dead tired, I dont know why we hiked but the way back on the road was much easier and then it started to rain!

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Trail 3 was the best! I can never forget the beauty of Margallas...

There was a time when I went on trail 3 everyday... So refreshing...

I remember an interesting walk organized by Margalla Hills National Park, and we walked all the way to Khanpur dam.

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Lansing, I'm pretty sure our paths must have crossed at trail 3!

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so what are the other things you can do in islamabad ???? i am from islamabad but its been ages now since i went bck :(

oh and do u know how far is karachi from lahore by road???
and wat is the airfare from lahore to karachi ??/

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What kind of things? Sight seeing, recreational, architectural, shopping, artistic, educational?

[quote]

oh and do u know how far is karachi from lahore by road???
[/quote]

Pretty far, dont think about driving, its long and tiring.

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and wat is the airfare from lahore to karachi ??/
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Around Rs. 7,000 to 10,000.

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Yeah probably late 80's or early 90's.....

btw nice pics....did you take them with your camera?

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sight seeing, recreational, shopping...... just to have fun