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Diary - 2008 July (Pakistan)

2008-07-26 to 2008-08-02

Gilgit

Back in Gilgit it was the first time on my trip to really come down, do nothing but reading a book and enjoy the save food.
With meeting Claudia, Celyn, David (the poker as) and the English Professor couple nights drifted into a poker race: Chinese poker - playing it in teams made us even more crazy by discussing the best strategies - it was great fun! Thx David for the introduction!

2008-07-25

Saving a mans life

When I was in Hoper, they ask me, if I do have some disinfection spray. But when the man, who was supposed to need it showed me his infringement I new from books that this man is just heading to an amputation or death in case he gets no treatment. He had a whole in his hand of the size of a penny, but through it you could see that beyond everything was full of sanies and the whole arm was swollen and totally infected. When I asked them, if he was already in hospital they told me yes, but they couldn't do anything. Well, due to the pharmacy studies of my ex-girlfriend I had enough medicine with me to heal the whole valley, so I let him clean his wound, gave him a new bondage and gave him an antibiotic - hey it was the first time in my life to play a real doctor! Three days later, the arm was much better and the smile back on the mans face.

I am absolutely sure, this man would have died - because of not being able to pay 25 Eurocent for an antibiotic - or just because of not knowing it! Crazy! It makes me aware of in what wonderful world we live in Europe!

2008-07-23 to 2008-07-27

Rush Phari - Knee Problem :-(

Laura and I split up - she joins her friends going to Skadur - which is supposed to be very beautiful, but as I am running out of time, I prefer to go in the mountains to Hoper and do at least one trek.
After passing the 8-hour-trek in Iran I am very positive about my constitution and hire a guide/porter for five days to hike up Rush Phari Peak, which is 5096m high!
Well, after buying all the food and organize all the rest, the two of us start the next day. I am very happy about my air and about my shoes (they are about 15 years old by now) and the nice views and seeing my first big glacier (they are up to 56km long here in the Karakorum) and everything, when at the end of day 1 I feel my left knee! Hey, what the f... is that!?!? It was always my right knee which produced problems! Well, it's exactly the same problem and I know, that I cannot go further - I couldn’t go down anymore. It's very early this day, so I have still time to think about it.
But in the evening time I have to tell my porter, that I cannot go up further - it's too dangerous not to be able to come down again! And this was my best decision! Because the way down - about 6 hours walk - the problem gets bigger and bigger! Sometimes pain makes me stop and my porter decides to take more and more stuff which I was carrying. Which was a good idea, because with my backpack I couldn't have done it.
Well, we had very good views on the way back, but the knee thing frustrated me so much, that my mood was just going down!
I needa go to a yogi in India and enhance my stretching abilities a lot - I still think, that's the right way. Anyway, the mountains here are awesome, super fantastic, perfect! The first time I can imagine coming back to Pakistan again!

I stay in Hoper for the night, but then it's time to recharge the batteries in Medina-Gilgit! :-)

2008-07-20 to 2008-07-22

Karakorum Highway (KKH)

The plan in the north was not fishing Landys but to go to the mountains and up the KKH to China border. So Laura and me drove up to Karimabad, doing some sightseeing after weeks of being sad of it when visiting the Baltit Fort, and doing the very nice 2-Bridge-Walk. On this walk you twice cross the Hunza river on two suspension bridges which just means that there are some ropes and some blankets which make up the whole bridge - quite thrilling when you cross the first time! Cool!
Next day we drive up the whole KKH to the China border, meeting friends of Laura on the street - Pakistan is small - and getting invited to the PTDC Hotel in Karimabad in the evening.
Khunjerab pass (the border between China and Pakistan) is at about 4600m - so it is super cold! I hardly can move my fingers after a while, speaking gets harder, because the lips are that cold! But the atmosphere is really very, very good!! After receiving all the bad news about China with there Tibet problem and all the visa struggles because of the Olympic games it's good to see Chinas people yourself! And they are super nice and funny! And the relation to the Pakistan border staff is so good! Despite the cold we stay for at least one hour, taking 50 odd pictures, chatting, having tea, etc. - it's very heart-warming to see these people treating each other so good! With a very good feeling Laura and me are driving down the KKH back to Karimabad.

We meet Laura’s friends at the Hotel, where we have drugs and food and celebrate until 2 in the night - the Pakistanis are getting to drunken to keep on and - of course - there is again a gay one closing up to much.

2008-07-14 to 2008-07-20

Gilgit

After the lake action we drove down to Gilgit to Medina guest house: An oasis to relax, calm down and recreate!
Maybe that's the right tactic for Pakistan - load up energy in a nice place, meet the 'real' Pakistan until battery is empty - restart! :-)
Medina definitely is such a place: Very nice people (western like: greeting friendly, not spitting around the whole time, not snooping around in your belongings, not getting on your nerves the whole time), a place just to feel good!

2008-07-09 to 2008-07-14

Thomas drawns his Landy

As mentioned, we just wanted to go fishing and were dreaming of a trout barbecue. But when we drove around Phander lake, the street beyond Thomas and Sylvie’s street suddenly collapsed and they rolled down the riverbank and landed in the lake! Lucky they were when the lake was not very deep on this place and the landy just was half under water and they both could escape before I encountered the scene.

It was the time when the Pakistanis could show their good side. In helping other people they are the best of the world! After 10 minutes there were about 15 people around helping us to pick all the luggage out of the water and then to fish the landy out of the water - trouts were pretty save at this point of time! It took us about three hours to turn the landy back on the right (wheels down), build a ramp from the lake to the street (the Pakistanis did here the best job, I have seen here so far) and get the landy onto the street again!

Considering what could have been happened, Thomas and Sylvie were very happy! We tried to get the engine running again for three days, but we have to give up, because the electronically control unit was broken. As we were far away from a proper street we had to hire a tractor to pull landy back on asphalt. But as we had to go up a steep ramp, I had to help out, pulling the tracker, which pulled the other landy - poor me, I don't have a picture of that: My landy pulling a tracker and a landy up a ramp! Last action was to call a truck to take the landy to Islamabad to the garage I was in before.

2008-07-09 to 2008-07-14

Shandur Polo Festival

The festival was a good impression! But also to let me stick to my thesis, that Pakistan is one of the dirtiest places on earth! (I think I am a little bit negative - but hey, if you stop eating, because everything is so dirty, that you get sick from just watching it, it's normal!) The games were cool! It took us some time to figure out, that after each goal the direction each team plays to changes! So in footy after each goal, the goal keeper would have to go to the other side and defend the other goal. But as in Polo there is no goal keeper and everybody is sitting on a horse, that's a little bit easier! We didn't see much of tactics or standards, but this could have been our fault, as well. As it was very cold and everything was so dirty my actions at Shandur Festival were very limited: I slept a lot, read a lot (both in my sleeping bag in my car, just ate cookies and nuts - food was too ugly - ), and watched the games.

I was lucky that Thomas and Sylvie from Switzerland and Laura from England were around - some people to share impressions Pakistanis never have.

The third day we drove down to PTDC Phander Lake - just for fishing the next day, but the days should develop different!

2008-07-09 to 2008-07-14

People are so disgusting!

I have to tell the episode of how ugly the people are. Well, it's just a cultural difference, because I think they think off us in the same way, but anyway: Pakistanis never give their nose a blow - instead they tear it out of their nose and lung and I don't no where from by taking the breath through the nose and throat - sounding a bit like a pig - and then, after doing this for about four seconds, spitting it out. And when you now imagine that this will maybe happen on the street from time to time, then you're wrong. This happens about every 30 seconds everywhere - and with everywhere I mean also in a living room or in a kitchen. Which means, the spit on the floor wherever they are - right next to their bed or next to the place in the restaurant, where you are supposed to sit and eat!

Well, reason why I tell you this right now is the following: When this teacher helped me out of my stupid detour I was so happy, that I accepted a hitchhiker again to join me driving up in direction of Shandur. But this man was just instantly coughing and doing his nose cleaning voice that I really got sick - I nearly puked into my own car. I - or he - was lucky not spitting into my car, but every five seconds he spit out of my car - I hated him! I mentioned, that for them maybe we are as ugly as they are for us. Since Turkey I haven't ever seen a man using a handkerchief! And when I was sitting in a Restaurant in Turkey once and used one at least one man was turning around watching me and a girl started laughing so much, that I got the impression, this is really not very polite in these countries. So maybe we are as strange for them, as they are for me. Anyway, the man got out of my car when I drove my teacher to another village and when I came back the way to Shandur and saw him - the ugly - again on the street hitchhiking, I refused to take him with me! Hi was just too ugly!

2008-07-06 to 2008-07-09

The way to Shandur - heartattack inclusive

Before challenging the way to Shandur I stay one day in Chitral not paying for Dinner and Parking! :-) Some rich Pakistanis invited me for joining their meal and we had a good discussion about the political system in Pakistan - there are some educated and critical men in this country! What a good feeling!

After breakfast I start the most dangerous drive of my whole journey: The way up to Shandur pass. The street - well, in Europe this wouldn't be called a street - does narrow, bumpy, not exist, blocked by landslides and waterfalls, steep, rocky - and don't forget: I am not alone on this road! What brings me into danger was actually my mistake - I didn't see the right way (well, I heard afterwards, that no tourist did it - when you have a big street and a very small one goes off to the right and heads into a small village, than you don't think you have to leave the big street.)

and found myself on a street which still shquashing my heart when thinking about it. It got so narrow, that not even a donkey would have had place to pass and on the left side I toucht several times the rock-sand-mixture of what the mountains exist in these areas, because there was no place and on the right side, where it was going down up to 40m I slipped down twice, so that I had to accelerate like a Formula 1 bolide to get my rear axis back on the street again - I saw myself falling down into the valley already! Dieing in Pakistan - what a shitty place for that!

I told myself that no one can force me to drive this street again - but thinking about this told me that I guest already that I might have taken the wrong turn! After driving through a village, where the street was that narrow, that I had to go back and forth go around corners and all the children where running behind me there was about 99 percent of hope gone, that I am on my right way. And when I finally found a man to ask, if I am still on the right way to Shandur he had to tell me the answer about ten times - because I didn't want to hear, that I have to drive back! The 1 percent hope which I still had made me drive into another village to ask again - just to realize, that the children there seem not to have seen a white man before! I was fucked! The last percent was gone! I got lucky when I was invited to have lunch by a man who was an English teacher before - so could communicate at least a bit - which helped me a lot to cope with my fear driving back the road! I had to force myself to eat - just thinking of needing the strength to drive and maybe get out of my smashed car, when I fall down the road...

The teacher told me then he will drive with me, because the road is that dangerous! But the most dangerous bits he always wanted to get out of the car and went before me! That was not very brave, but I understood! :-) I would have done the same! :-)

Driving into the other direction I was hit by a small landslide - so the street on this was not passable - we had to shovel the sand-rock mixture away to pass, but I slid down nonetheless again with my rear axis and was lucky to get up again by a 4-wheel-wonder. My heart just dropt! Luckily not my car!

2008-07-01 to 2008-07-05

Kalash

After an exhausting drive I arrive in Kalash. And it is, like I was told - finally heaven in Pakistan! Temperature is good, Landscape is nice, so are the people, food is ok, people are not snooping around my car - holiday! I could have stayed here for two weeks, but I am already in stress again - Shandur Polo Festival is about to start! so after three wonderful days I gotta leave Paradise and hit the stupid roads again!


	Start: 2008-04-10					Oli on his way from Munich to Hong Kong				End: 2010-05-12