Hunza Valley: An Extraordinary Connection Story | GeoEx
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At Home in Hunza: An Extraordinary Connection

By Don George | April 2, 2021

Two women with twin babies outside a home in Hunza, Pakistan

Last year, on Dec. 10, Wanderlust published my account of my first-ever adventure with Geographic Expeditions, undertaken in 1990 when I was the Travel Editor at the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle. This was a life-changing trip to Pakistan, and last December, reflecting in my study after a year of staying close to home, something had moved me to spontaneously relive that journey, excavating 30-year-old journals and photographs from my garage so that I could travel in mind along the Karakoram Highway to fabled Hunza, a secluded valley high in the Karakoram mountains that was famed for its beauty and for the health and happiness of its residents.

The day after that story was published, on Dec. 11, we received a note from Didar Ali, our in-country colleague in Pakistan. Didar wrote that the story reminded him poignantly of his own early guiding days, and that he had known the wonderful Pakistani guide who had accompanied my trip, Asad Esker. He called Asad “my senior great guide” and informed us that Asad had passed away last year.

While the news about Asad was saddening, this completely unexpected connection was thrilling and fulfilling, and I marveled at how small the world can actually be.

But that was just the beginning!

Two and a half months later, on the morning of Feb. 28, I received a message through Facebook Messenger from a man named Riaz Karim.

This is what he wrote:  

Dear Don,

I came across a post of yours about Hunza valley on a website. I am moved by your experience there with local people. I recently shared a piece of your story with local people. I myself am from Karimabad, Hunza, but am living now in The Netherlands. Those photos you took on your expedition have great sentimental value for us. Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, the man (carpenter Islam Shah) you met has passed away recently a couple of weeks ago.

With kind regards,
Riaz Karim

This was truly astonishing! Here was someone, contacting me through Facebook, who was from Hunza—and who actually knew the carpenter I had met and described in my story! I felt a twinge of regret that the kindly Islam Shah had not lived to exult in seeing this story himself, but my overwhelming feeling was one of wonder at the interweavings of the world. Wow!

After reading this message, I was so glad that Wanderlust’s photo editor, Jenny Velasco, had decided to include photos of some of the people I had met while wandering around Hunza: two ageless elders, two smiling youths, the carpenter who had invited me to visit his family home, and the family I had met inside that home, a grandmother and mother who were holding two twin baby boys.

I was reflecting on just how amazing this serendipity was, when something even more amazing happened.

Less than an hour after that message from Riaz arrived, a note was posted on the Wanderlust blog in the Comments section beneath my Pakistan story. Written by a man named Kamran Shahzad, this note read:

Thank you so much for giving us such moments of your journey.

The boys in the arms of the grandmother and mother are me and my twin brother, whose house you visited in 1990. The man, Uncle Islam Shah, is a carpenter who was working at my house at those times.

A week ago, the carpenter Islam Shah left this world at the age of 85 plus. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

And the lady on the left also left this world in 2013. May her soul rest in eternal peace as well.

If you ever visit again to Hunza, we are warmly welcoming you to be guest again at our home.

Thank you so much for capturing very rare moments of our family. ♥️”

I could hardly believe it! What were the odds?!

A note had just been posted on our blog by a man in Hunza, a remote mountain valley on the other side of the planet from San Francisco, whom I had met and photographed 30 years ago when he was a baby!

As I tried to process this, I realized that this was the result of an improbable series of serendipities.

I had met Kamran only because on a day wandering around the valley in 1990, I had stopped to admire the work a carpenter was doing, fashioning a beautiful door for what I took to be his home, and because this carpenter had very kindly stopped his work and invited me to see the home and meet the family, and then even more kindly gathered the family so that I could take their picture.

That picture had sat in a dusty box in my garage for three decades until I had spontaneously decided to relive that Karakoram adventure three months earlier.

After I had written the story and it was time to design the layout, I had sent dozens of photos to photo editor Jenny Velasco. After looking through all these photos, Jenny had emailed me a one-line question, “Do you happen to have a photo that you took of the family that’s mentioned in your story?”

I sent it, and she published it.

And then, ten weeks later, perhaps because a former resident of Hunza now living in The Netherlands had seen my story on the Internet and had sent it to his family and friends in Hunza, this 30-year-old infant-become-a-man had read my story and then sent a note to me, from one side of the planet to the other, from his home to mine.

Now we were once again linked through space and time. Extraordinary!

I immediately wrote an email to him:

Dear Kamran Shahzad,

Thank you so much for the great comment you left on my story about my trip to Pakistan in 1990, when I visited your home in Hunza!

Hearing from you is so amazing and wonderful! I am so happy, honored, and grateful that my story found its way to you!

This is such wonderful news that I would like to write a follow-up story saying that you saw my story on the Internet, saw the photo of you and your brother, mother and grandmother, and wrote to me! I would like to share this wonderful news with others.

Is this OK with you?

Also, if possible, I would really love to have a photo of you now—and maybe also, if it is possible, of your twin brother and your mother now—that I could publish with my story and with the 1990 photo of you and your family.

Would it be possible for you to send me by email a photo or photos of you and your family, which I could publish with my story? I would really, really love that! Thank you!

I am definitely hoping to get back to Hunza to meet you and revisit your home!

Your family was so very kind and gracious to me when I was there in 1990, and I would really love to return.

I have said a prayer in my heart for your grandmother and for Islam Shah.

I will let you know if I am able to plan a trip to Hunza again!

Sending all very warmest wishes to you and your family,
Don George

A day later, Kamran sent this reply:

Thank you for being so humble and capturing such beautiful moments of our childhood. It would be a great honor for us to meet you again at our home in Hunza. My family sends greetings of love to your family and is so happy to hear about the story you posted on your website.

There is not any problem from my family side to post another story of from 1990 to 2021. It will be great to build a long-distance relationship between families. I would like to hear and see about your family, if possible, to share some pictures with my family as well. I have attached pictures of me and my twin brother and mother to share in your blog.

If you need anything, you can message me anytime. I would love to see you soon in Hunza.

Thank you so much.
Kamran Shahzad

Here are the photos that I took at Kamran’s family home in 1990.

A carpenter works on a door outside of a home in Hunza, Pakistan
Two women with twin babies outside a home in Hunza, Pakistan

And here are the photos that Kamran sent me in 2021.

Twin boys from Hunza, Pakistan 30 years later
Twin sons and mother 30 years later, Hunza, Pakistan

Isn’t the world amazing?

After a tremendously difficult and challenging year, full of so much pain and suffering and discord, the universe delivers a gift like this.

What can you do but drop to your knees in astonishment, and wonder, and gratitude?

As I try to embrace this entire improbable tale, I think: We are surrounded by a million magical threads that connect us with all of the places and people that have moved us through the years. But only rarely do we get to view these threads and to feel their woven bond. I know now that one of these threads connects two humble, heart-filled homes: one on the Pacific ocean coast of northern California and the other in a Karakoram mountain valley in northern Pakistan.

Suddenly the world feels more intimate than before, and all I can think is: I can’t wait to get back to my Hunza home!

Yours in abiding wanderlust,

Don George

* * * * *

Thank you for taking this serendipitous journey with us! Have you ever had an extraordinary connection like this? We’d love to hear your tale! Please post it in the Comments section below. Thank you, as always, for joining us in sharing and celebrating the unexpected riches of the road!

For more information on GeoEx Pakistan tours, call us today at 888-570-7108.

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Kamran Shahzad
Kamran Shahzad
1 year ago

Thank you so much for posting our story at Geographic Expeditions 🖤
I am so glad to see this magnificent story of two families miles away from each other and I am so happy for being the person of your story ☺️
Thank you again Don George 🤗

Javed Ahmad from Yasin Distt Ghizar GB

really amazing. it proves that the world has really turned into a global village. very nice!

Mehdi hassan
Mehdi hassan
2 years ago

Thank you Don George for sharing this warmly experience in hunza with world.It was amazing to see the story of grandmother with twin childs 30 years back.

Nicole
Nicole
2 years ago

A lovely heart warming story, Don. The world can be a small and friendly place sometimes. Thanks to your blog, long lost friends have been found in a place half way around the world. In many ways, a miracle! Thanks for sharing this!

Barbara Khan
2 years ago

Hello Don, I beat you to Pakistan by only 2 years! I arrived in 1987 and married my husband in Lahore. I have not yet made it to the Hunza Valley, but I am hoping to in the next year or two. I am a travel advisor and I want to bring a small group of adventurous advisors over for a tour. Your story was shared to me by Renate Graham. I do love that your blog is Literary Journeys for the Discerning Traveler. I am trying to make a niche of literary journeys. Take a look at my website:… Read more »

Ravindra Vasavada
Ravindra Vasavada
2 years ago

What a heart-warming story, Don. It was amazing to see the family photo with two young baby boys form thirty years back posted along with recent photo of two hansome young men and mother in that photo. I am visiting Hunza Valley in August this year with GeoEx.Wouln’t it be great if we could meet Kamran and his brother then? Thank you for providing such a moving picture of humanity.

Riaz Karim
Riaz Karim
2 years ago

Thank you Don for visiting Hunza for sharing your heart warming experience with local people and for having wonderful feelings about beloved Hunza and it’s people.
I will share your article on my Facebook.

Massrat Hunzai
Massrat Hunzai
2 years ago

Love this! Merci for writing the first article and now again such a wonderfull follow-up.

Ikram
Ikram
2 years ago

Great memories and a great story. Hope you will come back in the future and will be delighted to see you. Asad Eskar was my colleague we both were working in Waljis since early eighties when there were more American groups use to come to Pakistan I had also an apportunity to guide Inner Asia Expedition group to Hunza in early nineties. Wish you all the best Don.

Omar Mukhtar
2 years ago

What a beautiful story Don. I went to Hunza in 1989 for the first time and it’s a love affair since then. Wish more people can see this Shangri-la.

sami Calado
sami Calado
2 years ago

Story will come later. Thank you. Sami

Sandra Long
Sandra Long
2 years ago

I just loved your story, Don, of the inextricable threads of energy which connect us all; thank you! Two years ago, while on a Geo Ex booked trip on the luxury train trip with Golden Eagle from Moscow through Siberia and on to Mongolia, I had a remarkable experience of our connection through space and time with one another. While in a dacha outside Irkutsk, I took the last open seat in our host family’s small dining room after having emerged from the sauna experience (I was the last adventurer). The conversation at the table with the other 5, was… Read more »

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
2 years ago

I love this story so much!

Deedar Ali
2 years ago

Very moving story indeed Don. Hunza and it’s peaceful and kind hearted people interwoven themselves with global human tapestry and decorated our lives. I just wish all the humanity interlinked in the same way. As in holy Quran God reminds us that “ Oh human being do not forget
that God has created you all from a single soul” So basically all humanity are one and interconnected and interdependent.

mary ellen boucher
mary ellen boucher
2 years ago

mary ellen boucher
thank you, Don, for sharing such a beautiful experience
I am traveling to Pakistan in January with GeoEx and
know it’s the people that make each adventure so memorable

Roseanna
Roseanna
2 years ago

Wonderful. Thank you!

Katie Stoyka
Admin
2 years ago

Magical, Don! What a pandemic silver lining that you sifted through that box of photos and journals in your garage.


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