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
Why Insh'Alla..?
- Pete
- Los Angeles, California, United States
- The phrase translates into English as "God willing" or "If it is God's will". I heard this a lot on this trip, and I said it a lot too. I brought the phase home with me and used it for a while in the UK. Sadly time drained the phrase out of my system and the meaning and spirituality of the phase was lost. But I did feel it for a while, and it was a good connection with an almost fatalistic approach to life. We need to have too much control in modern 'civilisation', it's nice sometimes to be able to be free of that and just let things happen 'as God wills it'...
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