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Published: September 29th 2006
Second bridge
"If the first one gave you the shit, this one is gonna give you a baby" -AaronSaturday September 9th
Last day in China. Bus was leaving at 10AM Beijing Time but before we went I took a morning walk to Tashkurgan Fort which was alright but nothing to write home about. We had to skip breakfast because the bus was supposedly already at the customs so we hurried to walk there only to realize we were the first one from the bus in there. We waited for a while, talking with an american guy named Dave that Aaron met in a dorm somewhere that was also heading to Pakistan. Eventually the communist Pakistani (I'll call him comrade because I forgot his name) from yesterday and his trading partner came and we talked for a while. It was interesting when we met that morning, he shook our hands and told us "Nice to see you again" with a smile. A little thing that would never happen with a chinese.
There was a bus going to Gilgit in front of us at the customs so we knew we'd have to wait for quite a while at the border post. Comrade told us that there was more people than usual because they were going to Hajj (the Mecca)
Passu mountains
These mountains aren't snowclad. But goddamn they're impressive. I'd have to say it's the most aesthetically beautiful mountain I've ever laid my eye on. to do their pilgrimage. He seemed to disaprove it: "These people think that you can go to the Mecca and erase all your sin, but they do not care about being good to each other and justice". When asked about why people who go to the Mecca need so much luggage (some of the pilgrims had several boxes), he told us with a grin that the Mecca was not only a pilgrimage site but it was also a big market: "Big money to be made".
Shortly after this we passed through chinese immigration. Here I'll try to list the number of time my passport was checked.
1. The day before, just before we left Kashgar our passports' details were taken down.
2. A guy looked at our passport as we entered the building.
3. A guy looked at our passport and took a picture of us (or was it a pupil scan? we're not sure)
4. While waiting in list to get our passport stamped, a chinese guard looked at my passport
5. Again while waiting in the list, a chinese officier of higher rank looked at my passport, asking questions about some details
6. A lady at
Kamaris
Little farming village up from Gulmit. the counter checked it, took down carefully all my info, rewrote all the border form I had filled earlier and then gave the passport to another lady
7. That other lady put other info in her computer, looked at me with a skeptical look and then stamped my passport.
8. To get out of the building on the other side I had to show my passport to a chinese security guard. This guard for some reason didn't believe that I was the person on the passport's picture. I have a beard and longer hair but I'm not that different. The 7 people before him had no problem with my picture.
9. The guard called his superior who looked at me with a suspicious air for long enough to feel his bureaucratic power before releasing me, probably because he didn't want any complication. That would interfere with the game of Solitaire he was playing on his office's computer.
After about an hour we were through the immigration and customs with our passport stamped but that was not the end of it, everyone on the bus had to pass through the bureaucratic fun before we could leave. It took about 3
hours in total, during whcih time I had a last lovely chinese breakfast: instant noodles. I also met a chinese backpacker who was hopping on our bus and was hoping to go to Afghanistan.
Our bus left with a chinese soldier which sat next to Aaron, depriving him of the comfort of 2 seats. After a few hours we arrived at Pirali the last chinese checkpoint where the soldier left and another came to count the number of people on the bus (I guess he didn't trust his fellow soldier enough to ask him if anyone joined or left the bus since he had been with us the whole time). After that, we kept going up and up toward the Khunjerab pass, separating China and Pakistan. In some places the snowline was maybe only one hundred meters away from the road.
On the top of the pass the grass was yellow already and it was full of golden marmot, scurrying around for food. We didn't stop at all at the border which we crossed unceremoniously. We could tell we were in Pakistan now as the bus switched to the left. The scenery just kept getting better and better
Tashkurgan fort
Taken shortly after sunrise. Didn't have enough time to go in the fort. but unforunately this wasn't a tourist bus so we didn't stop for pics. I managed to get a few decent ones from the bus at least.
About an hour and a half from the border we hit the Dih checkpoint where we had to pay 4US$ for "conservation fee". The LP said that we could pay ONLY in US$ but that is pure hogwash. We paid and got a receipt from a smiling and polite clerk. An hour later we hit Sost, the border town. We stopped at immigration building where a lone official stamped our passport after we filled out a simple form. After that we went to another building where we got our baggages off the bus. And that was it. No dozens of paranoid officier looking at your passport like on the chinese side. Just a stamp and a small checkup. Lovely.
Comrade told us where to get our money exchanged: a guy with a little wooden shack. He gave us a decent rate so I changed all my yuans since it would be harder to do so after the border town. We tried to find a minibus to get out of Sost to Gulmit,
Mountain on the chinese side
Kun Lun range I think. These are baby mountains though compared to whats coming. Taken a few hours before Khunjerab while we were stopping to cool off the radiator. as Sost is by no strech of the imagination a nice town. Aaron, Jason and I ended up taking a minibus with comrade and his friend. Dave, who has recently converted from catholicism to islam, decided to leave his decision to Allah when we asked him if he wanted to join. He ended up walking somewhere without saying goodbye. While we were deciding how to leave, a german man started talking with us saying he had come from Berlin overland but I lost him as I was discussing with minibus driver. It sucks because I wanted to get first-hand account of the Pakistan/Iran border crossing.
The change from China was quite evident. Western clothes was a rarity in Sost while the trucker moustache seemed to be the thing to be seen with. Shalwar kelmaz, the long and baggy tunic and trouser combination, was everywhere of all different color and level of cleanliness. The biggest change, however, hit me only after about 15 minutes in Pakistan. There was not a woman in the street. Nothing. It was just men, some of them holding hand in a public display of affection, although I've been told that it doesn't mean anything more
than friendship (not that there'd be anything wrong with that). Ahh well, I was missing the miniskirt in Xinjiang but at least there were still women there. 1 month without women will be hard. Another change was the truck: in Pakistan the big transport truck are heavily decorated. They look truly beautiful and I must admit Pakistan was the last country in the world I would've thought would paint their truck so artistically. Several people stopped to ask our name and shake our hands. Most of them asked if we needed help. One or two asked if we wanted a hotel but they didn't insist. Just people trying to be nice and hospitable. That was the biggest change at the border.
The minibus was awfully cheap, 60Rs (1US$) for an hour and a half of transport on a ultra-crowded minibus at 4 people per row. The scenery was undoubtely beautiful but I didn't see much of it since I was in the middle of the minibus. Once we arrived we said goodbye to comrade and his friend who had been very friendly to us. They gave us their email/phone and told us to contact them once we'd go to
On the chinese side again
Just before the Pass, taken from the bus while running hence the lower quality. Karimabad, their home.
After a little bit of running around, we ended up in Hotel Continental in a "triple" (Aaron slept on a matress on the floor) room for 150Rs each. A bit expansive by Pakistani standard but the shower was hot and the toilet clean. Gulmit was proving itself to be more open than Sost, women wore colorful veils and looked at you in the eye, albeit not for long. I quickly realized that the north of Pakistan is Ismaili muslim, a sect of islam that is much more open and "modernized" than the Shiites and Sunnis. Sost was a border town so the people who live there do not come from the north, hence why there was no women there.
By the time we settled down in our room and were ready to go out to have dinner it was 6PM. We went down on the main street and opted for one of our 2 choices: Haleem fast-food. We opted for something we didn't understand and Aaron tried make it be known that he was a vegetarian and hoped they understood. Contrary to what you'd expect from a restaurant with "fast-food" in its name, it took
Khunjerab Pass
Beautiful.
Taken from the bus again so not high quality, the road was pretty bumpy. us more than an hour to be served but the food was delicious. It wasn't unpleasant wait as we took the table outside and sat around looking at the scenery, relaxing after the last 2 days of bumpy transport.
Jason and I had 5 lentils-dhal with some chicken in it and chapatis, a sort of flat bread served with pretty much everything in Pakistan with which you eat the dhal (no spoon/fork provided). Aaron got some potato curry but only after he was brought the chicken dhal and returned it because he was vegetarian. The owner was very sorry about the mistake and didn't overcharge us when Jason and I took extra. Good food, good service and cheap, just a bit long wait.
It was dark by that time and we were a bit tired. We decided to head back to our room to sleep. Aaron had a change of mind however and decided to go call his mom to tell her he wasn't dead or kidnapped by terrorist. We fell asleep shortly after we reached the room however when I awoke at around 11PM, Aaron was still not back.
Sunday September 10th
First thing I checked
when we woke up was whether was there and he was. He had quite an adventure last night, spending about 3 hours trying to call home but unable to get a line. At the end he was sick of it and walked back but on the way back some trucker took him as a hitchhiker. They ended up inviting him for chai when they got to Gulmit so he chilled with a bunch of local for about an hour before coming back.
The plan for the day was to walk to Passu, passing by small villages, a glacier and 2 suspension bridges. They were written as 2 separate day walks in the LP but we figured we could do both in a day if we started early. The plan was then to hitchhike back to Gulmit and sleep there. We were out at around 7:30, bought some water and went our way. We first walked up toward Kamaris, a village about 100-200m above Gulmit. Everyone we met along the way said good morning, all with a smile and most adult tried to shake our hand. Women were less forthcoming but still not hiding. The village was picturesque and the
Around Gulmit
Taken from Kamaris village surrounding mountains amazing.
We kept walking on the track to Gulkhin village after which we had to ask for locals for direction to the glacier. The truckers who had invited Aaron yesterday had told us not to worry about the glacier crossing (which the Lp describes as "tricky") because there was plenty of villagers crossing it so we'd just have to follow them. The glacier didn't end up being the highway they made it out to be so we had to guess the way. The crossing was quite fun even if a bit tricky at time. It wasn't a clean white glacier but more like dirty "glacier shit" (rocks and stuff).
At the other side of the glacier we had to climb a big cliff (the glacier is in some sort of morraine). On the top we had great fun making big rocks fall down the cliff to smash down on the glacier. Something its nice to be a kid. After the glacier we walked to Hussaini, on the highway. We tried to find some water as I was out of water and really thirsty but there was no shops in that tiny hamlet. We decided to keep
Aaron and I
With Hussaini in the valley and truly beautiful mountain in the background. going anyway. In Hussaini is the start of the 2-suspension bridges walk to Passu. On the way to the first suspension bridge we met 2 chinese workers, who were taking measurement for an expansion of the KKH. Jason, who taught english for a year in China, told us the word for foreigner in chinese: waiguoren. It was unnecessary as we had heard it several time but we immediately got what he meant. As soon as we crossed the worker we said "Nihao waiguoren" (or Hello foreigner), basically what we had been told everyday since we entered China. It felt good.
We soon reached the first suspension bridge. It was really long, had very little wooden planks and there was a bridge next to it that had fell apart. The crossing was very fun, albeit a bit stressful. It took about 5 minutes, during which all your concentration is focused on where to put your foot next. We made it all without problems (although I don't think Jason enjoyed it). We next walked up to another small village which was even lovelier than the others. We walked up to a glacier stream where we drank water. I was so thirsty
Gulkhin
Cow in the house. by that point I would've drank from a stale pond.
After a bit of looking around, we finally found the second bridge. Aaron, in his very irish way, described the crossing the best: "If the first one gave you the shit, this one's gonna give ya a baby". It was scarier because the railing was very low in the middle, forcing you to walk bend over almost. Also the current was stronger in the river so you knew if you missed a plank you were in for quite a swim. We walked back to the KKH, but I chosed the wrong path and we found out midway it had been destroy by a landslide and was now overrun with large rocks. We walked on the rocks for a while but eventually had to go back down to the real path. Shortly thereafter we were back on the highway and we walked on it until Passu Inn where we ordered some food, after 8 hours of walking.
Jason and I had chicken curry with chapatis while Aaron had something vegetarian. LP says that Pakistan will not be remembered for its food but I was enjoying it. There were quite
Gulkhin 2
These mountains aren\'t snowclad. But goddamn they\'re impressive. I\'d have to say it\'s the most aesthetically beautiful mountain I\'ve ever laid my eye on. a few tourist in the restaurant that evening, about 9 if I remember. I wasn't expecting Pakistan to be that "touristy". We went to the street and attempted to hitchhike. We finally got a car to stop after maybe 15 minutes, while Jason was in a cornershop arguing over the price of water. The 2 Pakistani in the car were very friendly but didn't speak much english. They didn't ask for any money when we arrived which was good. We just took a shower and went to sleep.
Pakistan was turning up to be just like what everyone who has been there will tell you: very nice people and stunning scenery.
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Denise
non-member comment
Beau pont!
C'est pas vrai que tu as passé sur ce pont là!!!! Une chance que c'est fini et surtout que j'étais pas là.Mais les photos sont super bonnes, c'est comme si on y était.Je suis fière de toi.