Checkpoint at Kunjerab
Pass:
After you have taken a lot of pictures on top of Kunjerab Pass
and had a good look at the view you are on your way down the pass. Immediately
the nice pavement from the Chinese side ends and you now have to drive
on the left side of the road.
About 500 meters down the road you drive up to a gate. There will be
a very bored guard there who is probably freezing to death. He does
not check any papers but will just let you through, but what he really
wants to do is invite you for tea so he can talk to someone. Up to you....
National Park Office:
Once you have made it down the pass the first stop is the entrance
to the Kunjerab National Park at a little place called Dih. Here you
have to register and pay the entrance fee to the National Park which
is 4 US dollars.They only accept dollars.
Checkpoint:
At the next stop, which turned out to be the Checkpoint at the
border, they asked us if we had come from China or if we had just made
a day trip up to the pass. Since we came from China we were directed
to the Immigration office, which was the first building down the road
to the left.
Immigration:
They had already closed for the day! We were kind of late, since
we had had to fix a broken clutch cable en route.
Finally we managed to find somebody who opened a small office filled
to the brim with a lot of books.
The information from our passports got copied down into the current
book, the passports got stamped and that was it.
Customs office:
Further down the road, in the middle of Sost on the right hand
side is the Customs office. You have to stop there to get your carnet
stamped. But it has to be an effort on your part. Nobody checks you
could just drive by it. Also it is hard to find, since there is no sign,
so ask around. Don't just skip it, because otherwise you will have problems
when you try to leave Pakistan.
A really nice old man at the Customs office offered us chai and then
asked me to copy the information of the carnet into his big book.
Then he stamped the passport and again had me fill out the relevant
information into the passport.
Then they had to go look for the men in charge who had the authority
to actually stamp the carnets. Eventually a guy in uniform shows up
and does just that. With a lot of good wishes we were then sent on our
way.
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