---
type: Video
title: "We Had 19 Police Escorts - Hunza Road Trip🇵🇰 (Part 2)"
description: The second half of the drive to Hunza — 21 checkpoints and 19 armed escorts, explained at the end by a Chinese-built hydropower dam, and a fifteen-hour day ending in an unheatable hotel room.
tags: [pakistan, hunza-valley, road-trip, security, police-escort, china, food, hotels]
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqErq9nNY7w
video_id: zqErq9nNY7w
upload_date: 2022-01-04
duration: 962
---

# We Had 19 Police Escorts - Hunza Road Trip🇵🇰 (Part 2)

The rest of the drive to the [Hunza Valley](/places/hunza-valley.md) with
[Mac](/people/mac.md) and their guide [Akram](/people/akram.md), and the video
that answers the question Part 1 left open.

**The escorts are about the dam.** The road runs past a Chinese-built
hydropower station under construction — a bridge on the route carries a *long
live Pak-China friendship* sign — and Harry is told there was an incident
involving a Chinese worker at the plant. Since then foreigners on this stretch
are escorted as a matter of course, which is also why so many escorts are
available: at one point he thinks the patrol has taken them for Chinese. The
count by the end is **21 checkpoints and 19 escorts**, and the twelve-hour
estimate becomes fifteen hours.

His verdict is worth recording as he gives it: unsettling at the time purely
because it was unexplained, and once explained, precautionary rather than
alarming. *They were very nice and treated us very well — I've got nothing bad
to say about that at all.*

*Obs: this page is based on auto-generated subtitles; figures the transcript
leaves ambiguous are marked unverified. The tour operator whose booking links
appear in the description is not named; the guide is, because Harry publishes his
Instagram and recommends him directly.*

## Key moments

- [01:01] **The dam.** A Chinese-built hydropower station under construction in
  the valley, and the friendship sign on the bridge.
- [01:31] Another escort, heavily armed. Harry's read: they are taking safety
  seriously, which is kind rather than worrying.
- [02:02] **The tenth escort of the day** — and his guess at why there are so
  many to spare, which is that the Chinese workforce needs them.
- [02:33] Looking at the road ahead: **not for the faint-hearted**, and one of
  the more dangerous he has been on.
- [03:03] Why it takes so long: as the crow flies it is nothing, but the road
  winds the entire way. **There are flights from Islamabad, but very few.**
- [03:34] Several hundred goats and sheep holding up the traffic, entirely used
  to cars.
- [04:04] A village built into the rock face with no visible road to it.
- [05:06] **Why the escorts hand over**: no single patrol can do a run this
  long, so each takes a few kilometres and swaps at the next checkpoint.
- [05:06] He would like to fly the drone and doesn't ask, assuming that with the
  police there the answer would be no — the reverse of the previous day.
- [06:06] Eighteen escorts in and the light going; hours still to run.
- [07:06] The estimate collapses: *nearly done* becomes **another three and a
  half to four hours**.
- [08:08] A stop where **the food is Chinese, because the border is near** —
  mutton dumplings and a chicken rice dish, and green tea.
- [09:48] His verdict on it: a real mix of the two cuisines — thin wet dumpling
  pastry, mildly spicy mutton inside, rice with raisins and nuts.
- [10:18] **1,000 rupees for four people, about $5–6**, guides included.
- [11:21] **Fifteen hours in the end.** They arrive in the dark.
- [11:54] The room: a picture window curtained over the mountains, an outdoor
  seating area for morning chai, and Rakaposhi visible from it at first light.
- [13:00] **Mountain tea** brought up by staff — offered for the digestion and
  for the cold.
- [13:30] The two catches: **the wi-fi is very slow**, and **the heaters can't
  be run** because the hotel is on generator power. He wears a hat indoors and
  says the obvious thing — this is how the locals live, so you get on with it —
  while acknowledging he may now be unable to upload.
- [14:31] **The final count: 21 police checkpoints, 19 escorts**, and the
  explanation about the incident at the hydro plant. He is careful to say he
  doesn't know exactly what happened *(from video – unverified)*.

## Extracted pages

- [Karakoram Highway](/places/karakoram-highway.md)
- [Hunza Valley](/places/hunza-valley.md)
- [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Akram](/people/akram.md)