At 5.30am in the morning, I finally got off the bus at Lower Topa near Murree. During the five-and-a-half-hour journey, I had barely slept and got off the bus extremely exhausted. As soon as I stepped off the bus in a thin t-shirt, the cold morning wind greeted me, and I shivered lightly cursing myself for not bringing anything warm to wear.
My friend was to pick me up from the bus stop and while waiting for him to arrive, I stood at the side of the empty road and witnessed perhaps one of the most beautiful and silent sunrises. The sun had slowly started rising from behind the mountain in front of me, with a grey layer of clouds above it. The sun rays peeked through the clouds, just like light makes its way into a dark room through the hinges and cracks of a door. The sight was a treat for my sleepy eyes and I was absolutely mesmerised with the sight.
Fifteen minutes later, my friend arrived to pick me and up and soon we began traversing the roads towards his house located in the heart of the hills. Needless to say, the location was right out of a fairytale: dreamy, serene, green and above all silent. The road leading to the house was surrounded with conifer trees, welcoming us into their green slumber.
In midst of the beautiful scenery, we enjoyed a warm breakfast with tea and Nutella, taking in the beautiful, green surroundings, while catching up with each other and touching upon topics ranging from politics to food. The morning was bright, the sky blue and a light breeze teased our hair and skin. Breakfast was followed by a short trip to the city, where my friend had some work to do.
Upon our return, I decided to take a short nap to make up for the hours of lost sleep. The nap was extremely refreshing and left me full of energy. We then headed to the jungle to enjoy more of the picturesque surroundings, providing me with the perfect place to experiment with my camera.
Upon our return back home, we had lunch after which my friend and I headed for a drive around the area. The roads were probably one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen with trees on both sides. Strings latest release Urr Jaoon provided the perfect backdrop to our drive and we couldn’t have been more at ease.
Like the sunrise, the sunset was also breathtaking as the sky burst into an array of beautiful, vibrant colours.
We then planned to hit the Pipeline Trek the next day before retiring for the day. However, the next morning we woke up to the sound of non-stop thunder and rain, which dampened all our plans, leaving us with little to do except watch the raindrops fall from the sky. The mercury also dropped and we remained huddled at home.
With the plans of our trek down the drain, I decided to embark on my journey back home. As we left his house for the bus stop, we were met with a totally different sight: it was snowing!
As someone who has never seen snow falling, or even snow in their entire life, I was in a trance as I watched it fall delicately from the sky. Snowfall in April in Bhurban was also something unusual and within minutes everything around me was covered in a blanket of snow.
Since the snow tends to make the roads slippery and our car skid several times, my friend decided to drop me at Jheeka Gali from where I took a local van reeking of diesel to Rawalpindi. At this point, the light snowfall had turned into a blizzard with strong winds. However, I could not enjoy it because the diesel smell was making me nauseous and uncomfortable.
However, before I reached Murree, the weather in a surprising yet annoying turn of events changed abruptly the sun was again shining. From there the sun followed me all the way to Lahore, making me miss the snow, breeze and soothing weather back in Bhurban.
