ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: People from across the country thronged Murree to enjoy cold weather and snow after snowfall with their families and friends.
A great crowd was observed at hotels, restaurants and stalls of Pakoras, fries and coffee/tea, where people were enjoying hot food and hot drinks to keep themselves warm.
While taking advantage of the rush of the tourists, hotels and restaurant owners have increased the rent of rooms and food charges.
A tourist Anjum Asad said, “Me and my family are having good time. Children are happy, but absence of public toilets and hotel administrations’ refusal to use theirs, did affect our fun”.
“Murree with all its picnic points is the best place to spend winter holidays but the local administration should provide basic amenities for the visitors instead of giving free hand to owners of restaurants and food outlets to loot the people at their will,” he added.
Almost all the small and big hotels were booked and Mall road was flooded with tourists. The tourists were seen enjoying hot coffee, tea and fried food while walking on The Mall and at shopping centers.
A visitor from Lahore Ali Manan said, “I came here to enjoy snow with my family for a week, but due to high rates we have decided to leave earlier. Rents of a rooms got high as we paid 8000 for a single room for a night.”
Shivering and shaking but enjoying and with enthusiasm, almost everybody was playing with the snow – even throwing it at the passers-by.
“We enjoyed the beautiful sceneries with snow-covered hills and above all the mouth-watering food, making of snow man etc, but lack of space at hotels and rest-rooms did depress us,” Anum Saeed, a student said while talking to the state-run news agency APP.
Though snow has revealed the real beauty of `Queen of Mountains’ however due to massive traffic woes hundreds of cars are stuck in Murree, Nathia Gali and Ayyubia.
