OnTheRoad

You probably thought I was dead in some sort of bomb blast by now :D Thankfully this is not the case, although we caught a ride in a vehicle with six cops the other day, which was probably pushing our luck; they seem to be favoured targets these days.

In order to increase our bomb blast safety we went up into the Naltar Valley (photos available in the newly-tinkered-with photo section; I'll talk more about that shortly). Unlike most of the north, which has unbelievably arid, rocky mountains and greenery, the Naltar Valley is, in its lower reaches at least, lush and green, more similar to what we saw in Kashmir. Our hiking efforts were rather pathetic however; whether it was our ongoing sickness (we were still taking medication as we hiked), the altitude (we got up around 3500m), our backpacks (I think mine weighed in at least 12kg, but that's just guessing) or outright laziness, we didn't make it far on any day of hiking. It was beautiful and relaxing though, but I think I need a few more days of "relaxing" on a soft matress to sort out my neck after too many nights sleeping in a bag in a tent. Am I getting old? Does it get worse than this? Crap. I'm starting to resent teenagers already.

It occurs to me that I've jumped a considerable distance, when I last got myself together for an update I was down in Muree perhaps. Muree is a dump, if you come to Pakistan, don't go there. Most of Pakistan is relatively tourist free, but Muree has been thoroughly ruined by local tourism; high prices, poor quality and none of the traditional Pakistani hospitality that you'd expect.

So we got the hell out of there as quickly as possible, onwards to better and brighter things, we hoped. It seemed to go downhill at first, with an overpriced (Muree pricing) minibus ride to Muzafarabad, capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistani Kashmir), another minibus that kept breaking down and the final discovery that all of the hotels in our destination, Chikkar, had been destroyed or closed down after the 2005 earthquake. Our luck changed, as we were adopted by Khalid, a local who was studing down in Muzafarabad. We were invited back to the family home where we were treated like normal guests in a Pakistani house; something similar to the way royalty are treated elsewhere. The most delicious Kawa (any variety of non-black tea) ever, cinnamon flavoured arrived quickly, with sweet bread, biscuits (cookies to any Americans reading this) and other tasty snack. Thus began an enjoyable two days, with the best food I've had in Pakistan (or anywhere recently) and Khalid showing us around the area during the days. First day we were off over the hills with a friend of his, to go ride on the the new lake. A huge landslide during the earthquake had buried many houses and slowly flooded more villages as small river backed up behind it; a couple of years later, the lake has stabilised and is quite beautiful. Local entrepreneurs hire out their boats for rides and make tea by the lakeshore. On the next day we climbed through beds of ferns and bracken, so similar to home, up to the top of Mangla, the highest point in the vicinity. Through the occasional gaps in the clouds, the views were beautiful, valleys and hills flattened out to an undulating green carpet, dotted everywhere with the bright reflections of rooftops. The ride down was also worth a mention, in one of Pakistan's beautifully overdecorated truck/bus contraptions, seats too small for a European (and I'm not that big), down steep hairpins and other roads too thin for any respectable motorbike. Grand.

The food is worth further mention though, as I think I figured out a great truth of Pakistani cooking. For some time I've been wondering, and I've probably mentioned it here, why it is that the cooking here is so good in the home and, generally, so bad in the restaurants. The cooking of Khalid's sisters was unbelievably good. Once, after a particularly good chicken and capsicum (bell peppers for Americans, just peppers for ignorant) dish, we enquired as to its name. Chicken Jalfraizy. Now, I've had that before, in restaurants. And it isn't good. There. But here, it was unbelievable. (You may not want, or need, to know this, but I'm salivating now...). Back to the truth. All of the "cooks" I've seen in restaurants are male. All of the cooks in the family home (and there isn't another sort of home here) are women. I think that sums it up.

After two nights we dragged ourselves away from Chikkar, over the objections of our hosts, who clearly wished us to stay. And we were tempted; but there is a clash of cultures in a way; they were so nice to us, that we felt slightly guilty! And so, after purchasing a gift of cakes and candy for our wonderful hosts, we headed off on a long, multi-stop, overnight trip to the safety of the north, to Gilgit.

While it ranks number two in my list of shite ways to travel, an overnight bus trip seemed the best strategy for getting us through the more dodgy areas of the KKH (Indus Kohistan and Hazara) as quickly as possible. The linkages were difficult though; the last minibus from Chikkar to Muzaffarabad, the first bus we could find to Mansehra and from there, in the rain and the middle of the night, onto any bus we could find heading to Gilgit. All was accomplished so smoothly it was as if we'd booked it in advance, so come morning light we were cruising beside the Indus river through the massive stone valleys of the north.

Gilgit, you've heard about before, so we can pretty much skip to the start of this post, where we go hiking in the Naltar Valley. From here, we aren't quite sure. More hiking is on the cards, the full deal with porters and guides, but the cost puts me off; somehow I've been spending a lot of money here in Pakistan, maybe $NZ12 per day or something crazy... Hiking will throw that way out. Also, our sickness remains a doubtful quantity; I don't know if I'm sick or not, today I'm good, yesterday not, it could have been the hiking, who knows? Whatever our path, it'll be good, and you'll hear about it when it happens.

Now to other details; I've added a lot of photos that we've taken with Melia's photos, ranging as far back as Agra in India, so you can check them out if you're that way inclined. The best way to do this, I think, is through the travel section, or you can use the new photo section, where you can now view all the photos for a geographic region, or jump straight to the photos for a given location etc.

I'd like to make the lists more attractive, but this isn't really my strongpoint in web work, so if anyone has any suggestions as to how they think it should done, I'm listening - pc@ontheroad.net.nz.