by Vas Mylko, Roman Bilusiak
Double release this time: Curious Pakistan and Curious Sri Lanka. After reaching the pace of 1 country in 7 days, we decided to try to release 3 countries in 10 days. Looks like we can do 2 countries in 10 days. So, Curious India will shipped be a bit later.
Curious Pakistan
Initially, Pakistan was not a priority. But a few events-signals changed the priority to high. First, we decided to release all English speaking countries as soon as possible. English is widely used in Pakistan, called Pakistani English. Second, we assumed that admin order and raw travel data will be pretty similar across India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan. Third, one of the serious travelers suggested doing Pakistan, as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We googled the scenery and our jaws dropped — Pakistan rocks!
Karakoram Highway
“The Karakoram Highway (often abbreviated to KKH and sometimes transliterated as Karakorum) is the highest paved international road in the world... It is one of the very few routes that cross the Himalayas and the most westerly of them. Historically, this was a caravan trail, one branch of the ancient Silk Road. The name is derived from the Mongolian for Black Range.” Wikivoyage. Here is an interactive version of the Karakoram Highway trip.
Makran Coastal Highway
Wildlife and unique rock formations will amuse you, especially in Hingol National Park. Go find Martian scenery, many beaches, mud volcanos, even a sphinx along the road. This interactive trip was inspired by a student’s travel story A dream Pakistan road trip: Karachi to Gwadar for DAWN.
Natgeo “Soup”
To test how to create a trip from a bunch of assorted points we parsed them from Pakistan’s Most Wild and Beautiful Places by National Geographic. We extracted points and POIs mentioned in the article and threw them onto Curiosio to let the artificial smartness figure out what is possible and how.
Curiosio Originals
One trip we bred ourselves. Obviously, it is distinguishable by some quirky points and places.
Curious Sri Lanka
“The Fountains of Paradise is a 1979 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Set in the 22nd century, it describes the construction of a space elevator. This “orbital tower” is a giant structure rising from the ground and linking with a satellite in geostationary orbit at the height of approximately 36,000 kilometers (approx. 22,300 miles). Such a structure would be used to raise payloads to orbit without the expense of using rockets. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel.” Wikipedia.
“The story is set in the fictional equatorial island country of Taprobane, which Clarke has described as “about ninety percent congruent with the island of Sri Lanka”, south of its real-world location. The ruins of the palace at Yakkagala as described in the book very closely match the real-life ruins at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The mountain on which the space elevator is built is called Sri Kanda in the book, and bears a strong resemblance to the real mountain Sri Pada.” Wikipedia.
Road Trip Through Sri Lanka
“Sri Lanka is a compact country but has ancient cities, hillside tea plantations, wildlife sanctuaries, and of course, glorious beaches.” The Travel Magazine.
Mountains
Mountains, tea plantations, wildlife, national parks. The Culture Trip.
Beaches
“The Beaches road trip could easily be the longest of all. It all depends on how much time you want to spend at each beach. For this particular road trip, it actually might be best to rent a car since the southern roads are easier to navigate and that way you have free reign over how long you stay where — especially if you are chasing swells or looking for waves.” The Culture Trip.
The North
“The road trip to the north is a road less traveled but also the most varied.” The Culture Trip.
Thank you for reading down here. Stay tuned and follow your curiosity.
