From Gilgit

(by Hynek)

Yes we made it to Gilgit. From Lahore to Islamabad we took the Motorway which is a grandiose road project: 3 ways on each side and the police drives a/c cars and have loads of lasor cannons to catch speeding cars! But you get from Lahore to Islamabad in ca 3-4 hours. We stayed at a friends house, Cathrine, where we enjoyed one last luxurious night in comfi beds and a/c rooms.

Next day we left for the Karakoram highway winding its way next to the increadible Indus. The river is all brown bringing down the sediments from three different mountain ranges: the Hindu Kush, the Himalaya, and the Karakoram range. On the way you pass a lot of the famous Pakistani trucks with their unbelievable decorations. The drivers take great pride in their trucks and are more than happy to be fotographed: everything goes: some truckdrivers even tear out theoriginal doors to replace them with carved wooden dorrs!!! Inside the cabine you find loads of plastic flowers. When the truck moves it makes a nice sound from the mettal work that is hanging down on the side of the trucks.

The people are all nice but you notice that we have entered the hinterland of pakistan where no women are seen in the streets (men do the shopping) and the literacy rate is ca. 10 percent according to an NGO worker who we met. - It reminded me of hinterland switzerland: you notice a certain in-breeding. Once we stopped for lunch at a dabba under some trees where a lot of local travellers were taking a break: men only. The situation seemed a little tense: all of them watching us curiously but at the same time spreading a certain tension against foreigners. But it is difficult to generalise because a few moments after we sat down and ordered chapati, dahl and subji, a man approached us and offered us a whole sweet melon. I think it is just that no-one is used to tourists too much and since 2001 the tourist quota went down a lot.

Gilgit was a center point for many trecking tours. Nowadays little tourists come here. YOu start seeing asian/chinese faces of shopkeepers. Emma met one shopkeeper from whom she bought a alarm clock that wakes you up with the muezzine call for the prayer. The guy's father came from Turkey, his mother from Afghanistan and his wife from Kashmir... the trade roads still exist.

We will continue now to the Khunjerab pass, passing through the Hunza valley. I don't think there will be much internet, though the connection here in Gilgit is rather exceptional!!!

Hynek

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