Blogs from Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Asia

Korean Skills Come in Handy Riding in a shared car along the Himalaya Mountains of northern Pakistan I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined I would have the opportunity to put my Korean language skills to the test. Think again! After traveling for about eight hours that day our vehicle was haulted by security officers due to tunnel construction along the new roadway. We were then told that the tunnel was closed for the day as it was now past 4:30PM and they had to follow orders from the engineers working for Daewoo- a Korean construction company. As a result, we would have to go back to where we started from as we were in the middle of nowhere with no place to go. However, after much debate in Pashto one of the men ... read more

This place cannot be for real. It is not just another world, rather another galaxy. My initial fifteen minutes in Balanguru are of paralysis and disbelief. Balanguru is what it must be like to be knocked unconscious by an alien tractor beam and then relocated to their home solar system. Distance, introversion, and geographical inaccessibility have shielded the Kalash people from mainstream Pakistan for centuries. An agrarian and independent civilization, they have rejected Islam and maintain their long-standing practice of ancient paganism. Their customs are on display without the slightest hint of showmanship. Ameen and Simon unload the jeep at the guesthouse while I aimlessly roam downhill in the direction of the small bazaar. Simon is unaffected by the transition into this alternative world. I do not know if it is indifference or an inner trait ... read more

I'm sitting in front of a fire blazing in a fireplace. Timber rafters, concrete floor, windows and a door that don't quite close, two beds covered with my junk. This is "my" room: the family's guest room. There were 15 people sleeping here before I got here. Now it seems like there's hardly room for another person without crowding. Sitting on a plastic chair next to me is Wali Khan, my landlord, wearing light blue shalwar kameez and a beige "chitrali" wool hat; he won't shave his week-old stubble until the first day of /chowmas/ when the neighbors will come with flowers and tell him to put aside his mourning for his dead relative and celebrate the festival. "I think I'm even older than you" he had said when I first met him. He's trying to ... read more

Wednesday September 20th Today I was leaving Gilgit and the Northern Area for Chitral in the North-West Frontier province, right next to Afghanistan. Chitral is a big valley blocked from the rest of Pakistan 6 months a year. It is in the extreme north-west of Pakistan, just south of the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan (the little handle that sticks out of Afghanistan, a little colonial fantasy) and east of Nuristan (the Land of Light, named so after the muslims killed every single one of the infidel local inhabitants in a jihad slightly more than a hundred years ago). The ride to Chitral was no piece of cake: 11 hours to Mastuj in a normal bus and then 5 hours to Chitral itself in a jeep (the bridges after Mastuf are too small to accomodate the bus). ... read more