2 June 2009
The day before we planned to leave for the North, our friends Lucie and Fabrice showed up at the Islamabad campsite! They applied for their Iranian visas, and we left together for Gilgit.
We had a good time in the North. The Karakoram highway is very impressive! There is construction everywhere, dust storms to face, and overturned trucks every once in a while. It made the road very thrilling. We relaxed up north. Lucie and Fabrice taught us to play “La belotte” and “La coinche”, it was so much fun!
The mountains in the North are incredible. It is so impressive how much of them you see! You can see 3 or 4 km of mountain for the valleys to the peak! The mountains are so steep that soil can’t develop on them, so they are bare of vegetation. This makes for a geologists’ dream, as the mountain ranges are kilometres and kilometres of impressive outcrop! There are lots of snow capped hills as well. Absolutely stunning. No pictures can make justice of the sights you see in the North.
We were escorted for a little while, as we passed about 30 km from the SWAT valley. We learned that refugees were not aloud in the neighbouring territory and were told to go down to Islamabad. So although we were quite close to SWAT, we didn’t witness any hints of war other than escorts and guards.
People in Pakistan are very welcoming and take hospitality to a whole new level. We’re constantly offered tea, food, and never have trouble finding a place to camp. It’s a huge contrast from India where you feel constantly cheated as a foreigner. We’re very grateful.
The highlight of the week was a polo match we attended in Gilgit. It was a final match between two army regiments of the region. The horsemanship was phenomenal! We learned that in England, you typically change horses every 10 minutes when you play polo. Here, the horses played for a full hour, in a final match (in normal matches, you play until one team scores 9) There was a short half time where everyone, horse and rider, looked exhausted. It was so impressive to watch a polo match, I wish I had a big hat.
We met a nice man working for the UN who invited us to his field station for a bbq. We ended up have a big dinner with 12 people and had a fun time! Afterwards, we headed to the after party of the winning polo team. It was about 50 men sitting on the ground in a circle listening to a band. The band was three flutes and 2 drummers. To us, all the songs sounded the same, but to the locals they were worlds apart. They would get up and dance these simple little dances. It was so weird to be 1 of 3 women there... Yonika, a nice Dutch girl we met, Johan and I went up to dance. It was an experience! Jonny was the first out of all of us to get up and dance. He’s got some moves!
After an amazing time in the North, we came back to Islamabad, hoping to get our Iranian visas. We called yesterday, after 15 days of waiting, and were told to call in 3 days. Darn. Islamabad is a fun place, so we’re not too sad to be “stuck” here. There are many other overlanders from France, Germany, and Denmark waiting for their visas. It’s a little party at the campsite.
Now I’m at Toyota, in the waiting room. Jonny is playing with the mechanics, but I was told to stay in the waiting room. They offer me tea every 10 minutes, I just had a samosa and I’m reaping their free wifi...I can’t complain, but it’s the lack of freedom that bothers me! If I were a man, I would LOVE this country, but it’s a bit frustrating to travel here as a woman...
We’re happy, healthy and having fun.
Marie-Claude
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