why i regret going to Shandur Polo Festival?

What is the most interesting thing you’ve done as a Local Guide?

shandur is located in Northern Pakistan.

it has the Highest polo Ground in the World and its tourist place!

last year i started traveling different places to Northern Areas in my Country, Shandur was one of them.

i went to chitral and visited so many villages Like Garam Chashma, Mogh Village, Gofti VIllage, Specially Kalash Valley in which prince William visited last year on October 2019.

the travel was full of joy until i deiced going to shandur .

its 172 Km from chitral to shandur. due to having a paved Road we reach there after 9 hours of Drive and we were full of Dust at the time.

and the most interesting thing was we didn’t have pure water to drink, No network to call our families and friends, no solution to be connected with friends there.No internet, No public bathrooms out of Protocol Camps.No restaurants & Hotels, No Healthy Food. it was an Extremely Hard experience in my life.

after spending 3 Days i realized that shandur is a place of enjoyment for rich people only. those who are coming through Govt. Protocols not for Local people like Us.

after reviewing it on Google map i found many people experienced the Same as i did.

and the Most interesting thing i did as a guide is that i always reviewed places Honestly according to situations i had.

even one of my friends who was with me made a video on YouTube that Don’t go to shandur before being ready!

specially for those who are over 50 years of Age. because shandur is on almost 3700 Meter high and these people will face lake of Oxygen and it will be Hard for them to breath at Night time. i believe Local Guides must review according to their own experiences about anything any place Etc even to his own country…

that might help others to be informed what environment they will have on their visit

i didn’t feel it as a festival.

i learned much about Chitral and Gilgit People they were so friendly and Kind.

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@Raza143 As a polo lover, I feel it is very sad that such an interesting event is not better organized.
I’m sorry you had such a bad time and I congratulate you for sharing your honest and sincere review so that no one has to go through your same situation. I hope the organizers will take your comments into account, and next time, make the right services available to the whole public and not just to a small group of privileged people.
Greetings from Argentina! :hugs: :argentina:

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Hi @Raza143 ,

If you’re applying to Connect Live 2020 make sure to share a link to a new Connect post responding to this year’s application prompt. You can find everything you need to know about writing a post for Connect Live 2020 here.

P.S. I will relabel your post to Local Stories, because the criteria for the Connect Live 2020 applications is to post your content there.

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