The far pavilions and the far-fetched plans

ive got 5 tickets booked for skardu, no money, no reservations, and a holiday plan so half-baked its criable. ok criable isnt even a (legitimate) word, but when youve been up all night making travel plans that wont get you 3 kilometers out of lahore, somethyng's wrong. here's how it started: my sister has been screaming for 7 years now... for a trip to murree. except the last we went to murree was 12 years ago, and really, ever since, there has been no wish what-so-ever to go back. bness shall tell you why! yeah anyways, so the five of us sat down to chalk out a plan that would take us to murree and back in little tym and even less money. here's how we started: Plan1: july 23: leave lahore at 6pm, stay the nite in islamabad, go on to murree the next morning, move on to bhurban, spend two nites there (visit patriyata, nathiya gali) and be back in lahore by july 26. only i objected, cuz a) bhurban is a shitty place to go to, and if it's all about chilling out at an obscenely expensive (and the only) 4.5 star hotel in pakistan, we can rent a room right here in lahore. and b) ive been there, and its much ado about nothing. Plan2: so the intelligent ones amongst us realised the futility of THAT plan, and decided we should instead, on July 23: leave lahore at 6pm, stay the nite in islamabad, and drive on to Naaran. that's all really pretty, but thys IS the peak tourist season, and despite the fact that "a friend" owns the top hotel in the valley, reservations is slightly... impossible. i have no problems with sleeping on a glacier (i have a sleeping bag), but i thynk there's only so much adventure others can take. besides, transportation would have been a problem. my car is too small, my brother's is a vintage and we dont take it out of the city, and the friend who we are supposed to be going with insists his automatic wont survive the mountains. plan3: there was only one thyng left to do. you have the ground facts: we leave lahore on July 23 at 6pm, come hell or high waters (or landslides, since the monsoons have set in), and we drive to the capital city. where do you go from there? since confucius said "all roads lead to china," we figured it was best to take his advice. (im not sure if he really said that... but someone did, and he seems smart enuff... therefore all men are aristotle) so anyways after a night of deliberations and underage jirga, we decided gilgit was more feasable. considering how after flying there first class and booking (upon discovering) a (non ac) HEATED room (with tempratures going as high as -5 degrees celcius), we would have exactly enuff cash left to starve. and then the fact that flights to gilgit/skardu are subject to weather. we may get there when we plan to, may not be able to get back as soon as we want to. in that case, we shall have the options of either eating, or sleeping under a roof. im trying to convince these people fasting is fun. specially in snow covered peaks where tempartures drop obscenely at night, and the sun doesnt rise until 8am (my kinda place). im supposed to be picking up the tickets from the travel agent in two hours. but *yawn*. i dont *yawn* thynk itll be worth it. after visiting the entire country from right there in my lounge, EVERYONE has gone to bed and wont be up until late in the evening. way past after we are supposed to be in isloo. then there is the packing. and oh yeah, the money. oh! im sorry... did someone say "reservations?" what. reservations. chances of my being in the land of the prezzie by nightfall are slim. slimmer if i go to sleep now. *yawn* and im tres sleepy. but the planning part was fun. and dreaming was funner. but what topped the list was the knowledge that the PIA people shall be waiting for us at the Isloo airport. 0930 hours July 24, 2004. muhahawha! as for murree... oh blast! who cares.