Beginnings... an explaination of it all...

Way back since before I can remember I have had a fascination with the country of Afghanistan. So much so, that whilst in the UK my Amazon book order was 'investigated' and opened on it's way to me as I had several books on the Afghan war, one of which titled 'Afghan Guerrilla warfare and tactics' seemed to generate interest in me. I am interested in the country, it's customs and it's history - nothing more - I am not the next self styled 'Citizen Smith' from Tooting!

With this in mind, I was fortunate to go on a mountaineering trip on the borders of Afghanistan in the year 2000. This blog is an ongoing project to write up my unedited diary of that trip to the Northwest Territories of Pakistan.

I have yet to visit Afghanistan, but the trip to Pakistan has remained with me ever since. I have very vivid memories of the country and it's warm people. No holiday before or after has come close to it, in terms of culture shock, fear, danger and open hearted people...
I have been meaning to write this up for 7 years but have never found the time to design and build a website.

This blog is now that project.

Entries direct and unedited will appear at the top of the post and I will add footnotes at the end to explain any weirdness that I wrote or anything that I have since reflected on since the events some 7 years ago...

As I said - this diary is unedited and raw - my observations are a face value - sometimes uninformed and reactionary, sometimes a reflection of the stress I was feeling.

Up until this point in my life I had never traveled alone, and now, despite the warnings of my Dad I was to travel to what he considered a dangerous country, on a trip that would take me into totally uncharted territory a long way from the nearest town. And from that point, make my way back home solo whilst the rest of the group stayed on in the mountains. It was a daunting prospect and I came very close to backing out, but I did not and I am forever grateful to the guys I shared this trip with (Simon, Jock, Tom, Brian and Graham - only 1 of whom I had met before - my friend Simon), and to the people of Pakistan for their wonderful warm, openness and hospitality.


I am since divorced from the person mentioned here and so the feelings described no longer have meaning to me - it was a long time ago.
Read it, hopefully enjoy it for what it is, and if you are inspired, please leave a comment.
This is for myself and my kids - should I ever be lucky enough to have any...

Pete

2nd August 2000 - Shopping!

Well, no expedition to the Northwest Territories of Pakistan on the Afghan border would be complete without first having tramped the streets of London in search of equipment that may, or may not be required...

"Took 3 hours and several visits to all 3 shops in Covent Garden. A mostly successful trip with the exception of gaiters! Bought bargain pair of Yeti Attack for 30 quid - too small! had to take old ones.
Also, not a big selection of waterproof trews.
Got good advice in Ellis Brigham and cool shades!"

Footnotes:
I bought a very nice Lowe Alpine jacket that was big enough to wear my down jacket underneath expecting Himalayan cold to bite to the bone. Pakistan was nothing like that - most of the time I was in just my Helly Hansen top sweating away as we slogged across open moraine of climbed relentless slopes. I since gave the jacket to my Dad and he is over the moon with it :-)

5th August 2000 - Leyton to Islamabad

Tube ticket - the start of the journey

The day of departure...

"After last minute panic packing and repacking to ditch some gear (I was slightly drunk when I packed Friday night!) I still had a very heavy rucksack and travel bag, and had luggage! It was very hard work getting to Leyton station and I thought I was going to be injured by the load on my right shoulder at this point.
Left letter for Helen.
Went via Oxford Circus as tube was not too busy. Got to Heathrow - no idea which terminal!
No info points/people so I guessed at Terminal 2.
Eventually asked someone (not an official) and found it was 'probably' terminal 3!
108 degrees turn around.
Met Brian at the PIA desk.
Had 2 last beers then checked in.
Cool chap put us on top deck of 747 - old business class - excellent seats and leg room.
Video services were not working and we had got talking to a Pakistani chap called Jeffery. He asked a stewardess who was handing out blankets why it was not working.

Stewardess 'System is not working'

Jeffery 'Humph... are blankets working?!'

Made us laugh anyway...

Now just over half way. Little chance of sleep.
Time 1:20 am Pakistan time...


Footnotes:
Having planned the trip with Simon for a few weeks I decided the bast way to pack for the trip would be the night before I flew out after a few beers... not a great plan, but that is what happened...
Note to self - always check your terminal before you get to the airport - as you can see, I was not a seasoned traveller at this point in time...

6th August 2000 - Off the plane!

Islamabad airport around 5am


Like walking next to a red hot engine, warm humid heat 0 at 4:30am!
Waited ages for bags then left into a sea of Pakistani faces. Really glad I am not on my own! Got a cab - horn is used more than brake pedal - Rawalpindi looks like a real dump - a concrete jungle of decay. Got to 'hotel' - amazingly bad - smelly - loud fan in roof - horrendous carpet.
Toilet, shower, yuk! what the hell am I doing here? worried about the solo return journey now - think I will go to the best hotel I can find!
Cost wise - twin room 4.50 GBP per night - you cannot camp out for so little back home
This is apparently good according to Brian - I am worried about bad then!
Eating will be a worry - what will the hygiene be like? is this a big expensive mistake???


'Papillons cell'

Footnotes:
This was the biggest culture shock of my life - my negative reactions were due to arriving unprepared straight out of London. My worries and fears did not spoil the trip as I was to think and it was not long before I had 'gone native' and was sat on the concrete floor of the combined loo/shower room doing my laundry in a big plastic bucket that I had previously thought of as 'Papillons Cell'

6th August 2000 - 1st day (5:30pm)

'Pindi - where horse drawn carts share the road with cyclists and cars - note the taxi at far left - much time was to be spent in these in Gilgit.

'Interesting' town - all Pakistanis wear the Shalwar Qamis - I was going to buy one for traveling until I saw them - not my style! Saw my first mozzie and ran for the deet - not seen one since, room still smells of petrol or something - not nice! Looked at maps whilst drinking coke under the hotel shared seating area - smell of drains made me feel queezy. Re-confirmed flight which is good - booked van to Gilgit too.
Still worried about journey back - guess it will plague my trip!
17 hour drive to Gilgit - oh the joy! - an endurance test this!
My phone works! will call Helen later and hide the full horror!
Slowly starting to adjust to squalor - the toilet reminds me of Papillons cell but apparently we are lucky to have a normal bog and paper - public toilet at airport was a 'squatter' and a tap! washed my hands after that I can tell you!
Ate a really nice fresh mango - feeling much better - who knows what tonights food will do to me? Dreading having to travel with the shits!
Just phoned Helen - really lifted me up - miss her badly - looking forward to having had the adventure and getting home - should be wild!

Footnotes:
Paranoia about malaria in Pakistan had me taking anti malaria pills a few weeks before the trip and during some of the trip. I hardly saw a mozzie at all - even in the foothills by the water. No one else in the trip had taken malaria pills - I was the 'most prepared' (paranoid) with regards to that aspect.
Culture shock is clearly still evident - looking at the picture now the place looks fantastic - not the place of my ill formed first impressions

7th August 2000 - The KKH

The KKH - one minute tarmac - the next - washed out mud and stones

Slept not a wink - worrying about how I will get back from the base camp alone - glad to be leaving Rawalpindi though! Went through many emotions last night - elation,worry, euphoria, fear and dread.
Van arrived - Toyota Space Wagon, still - looks good.
First taste of full on Pakistani driving - front seat terror! One skid nearly into the back of a van within 10 minutes - going to be a white knuckle ride!
Pollution is unbelievable - diesel clouds so thick you cannot see through them belch out of trucks and buses - much breath holding!


These overloaded trucks can be seen on the KKH - our driver liked nothing more than to wait until a blind bend before he overtook them...

We eventually get onto the KKH after many hours travel.
Driving involves the accelerator and the horn. Only as a last resort are brakes and horn applied in unison!
Many near misses are a way of life.
Stopped for tea and 'fries' (sweet potato deep fried in crispy batter) in a small grotty village. The other 3 are trying to freak me out I think!
We attracted quite a crowd of locals around us as we ate. many flies in tow.
A really old knarled chap came begging so Tom offered him some roti, the tea shop owner tried to get him to go (the beggar - not Tom) but he was not for moving - he would not take the roti as he already had some.
We decided to leave but had to be chased as we had forgotten to pay!


Tasty deep fried goodies at a 'tea stop'

Eventual stop at Chilas - driver was doing 100kph on narrow winding roads that could suddenly turn to a pile of rubble where it was washed over by mud and stones. Round blind bends - horn in use. He seemed to speed up when he did not want to stop for tea.
Had first authentic Pakistani food - Dahl - very good, Okra - very good, Rice - nice but a big chunk of meat in the middle - did not dare chance the mince meat or the goat.
Minor discussion over the final bill saw a refund via Toms insistence.
We stopped at a small village and saw our first arms shop - AK47s for sale! Over the road was a man making them by hand.


A skilled gunsmith used very basic tools to create replica versions of the most widely used killing machines of this century - the AK47

Driving through the darkness was very scary, 100kph to 5kph via a four wheel skid when the road turned rough!
Stirling Moss - our driver was determined to pass anything on the road ahead of him. With the lights of Gilgit in the distance when he nearly lost it as a Toyota pickup cut us up whilst we were on the outside of the bend. - I was gripping the seat with my arse!

Footnotes:
The other guys had traveled the KKH before and so this was their excuse for offering me the front seat - "you'll have a great view" they said. I thought them most generous at the time but was soon to find out why I was offered this prestigious location... After our first 4 wheel drift almost into the back of a van I noted the number plate read RIP - this is the Rawalpindi registration - but it was none to comforting at the time.
'Stirling' drove for 14 hours without too many rests - the very near miss over Gilgit was too close for comfort - the white bollards by the side of the road would not so much stop you from going over the edge into the Indus river a few hundred feet below, rather they would flip you onto the roof as you passed by them. I remember looking back with a pale complexion to see what they thought about or near miss only to see them all fast asleep in the back... ignorance is bliss...
The cost for an AK47 was a mere 40 GBP - they were very keen to sell us one and we did muse over it for about 10 seconds or so - tempting to take one up into the middle of nowhere and shoot it - but carrying it would have brought trouble I'm sure, and getting it home as a 'souvenir' would have been tough...
The gunshop was in Besham - about half way to Gilgit. We had planned to overnight here but the driver wanted to press on. He was non too keen to stop in the village we had tea in for some reason - he was not comfortable there - maybe he knew something we did not...
was still a good number of hours from I had still not plucked up the courage to eat meat yet - I was not alone in this and I followed the lead of other more seasoned travelers as to when it was/was not safe to eat meat. ChilasGilgit and the thought of getting the craps on the KKH was none to appealing to anyone...
Begging was frowned upon it seemed by the locals - they did not like to see us getting hassled by beggars and they would usually shew them away. It was as though they were ashamed of them begging from us for some reason.


Google Earth shot of Chilas, Northwest Territories, Pakistan. We arrived in the dark so I never knew there was an airport there, or all of those cultivated fields.