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

The rest of the drive to the Hunza Valley with Mac and their guide Akram, 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
• Hunza Valley
• Pakistan
• Mac
• Akram