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Published: December 7th 2004
Hmmm, I'm now in a relatively cold and peaceful mountain town in Northern Pakistan... in the NWFP where the sensationalist aid workers told me I'd be murdered and I could buy a kilo of heroin in the bazaar at a bargain. But again, unsurprisingly, it's pretty tame. All of this danger hype is just justification for continued US military build up, I think. The military is like an organism, and like any other organism, it doesn't want to die, or shrink, now that it's not as needed as it was in the cold war, so it sends out propaganda about Pakistan and Islamic fundamentalists. In any case, I met a Japanese person travelling here, and someone told me about 75% of the tourists who still come to Pakistan are Japanese.
I did read one slightly disturbing thing in a Pakistani newspaper article about shipping. Foreign investment cut in half after 9/11, and the article was saying that people shouldn't worry about Pakistani ships docking in their ports, because 'Pakistani sailors don't indulge in terrorism.' I don't know if it's just me being paranoid, but I really have to question the use of the word indulge. It makes me think that terrorism is like a delicious pastry and all the Pakistani sailors are dieting...
That's not the case here though, every single person I've talked to has been passionately anti-terrorist and pro-American, though most are anti-Bush administration. Everyone here hates terrorism because of what it has done to Pakistan's economy. People are even worse off than they used to be, with the collapse of the tourism industry and the reluctance of foreign investors to get involved here. A lot of airlines even suspended flights here, and embassies cut back... so there was a significant economic backlash here after 9/11. I can safely say that there are thousands of Pakistanis, at least in the tourist industry, praying that there won't be any bombings. So there's not really a lot of popular support for any extremist groups here, even in the countryside.
I was at Taxila, the site of a bunch of ruins and archaeological stuff, and I was cruising around looking at all the ruins... at this point I've looked at a lot of ruins from a lot of different civilisations, so these weren't too exceptional, interesting, but not amazing. One set of ruins which had once been a giant Greek city was really lackluster, and it looked more like an orange field than anything else, and I started wandering around. About a kilometre out, some many came up and started asking me some questions in Urdu, which I don't speak at all, and then gestured for me to follow him. It looked alright, so I decided to, and I followed him another kilometre or so into this pleasant orange field, to a tent like structure next to a tree that had cooking utensils, pots, pans, ladles, etc. hanging all over it. I sat down, and eventually an old man came and started speaking with me in English, and offered me tea, and not surprisingly, fresh oranges, which I accepted. We discussed the usual, where are you from, what are you doing, so on, and then all the farmers there listening shook my hand vigorously and said goodbye, as I had kept my rickshaw driver waiting about an hour, and I walked leisurely back towards the 'ruins' while plucking tangerines off the tree and eatting them on the way. At one point, my rickshaw driver, covered in sweat and out of breath, came running up to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, saying something along the lines of "ARE YOU CRAZY?? This field is full of bandits, you're lucky to be alive, glubba mudda(gibbering)" I kept telling him to relax, and he wouldn't shut up until I threatened to fire him if he didn't. Just another example of scaremongering. Pakistan really annoys me in a way, because unlike Afghanistan, they know about tourists and how to exploit them, even though there are not as many these days. So it's rare when someone DOESN'T try to rip me off when I'm making some transaction or another. The flipside is that it's much cheaper to travel here- a 2400 km train ride from the far north to Karachi in a first class sleeper, costs about US$22. A hundred kilometre bus ride is less than 20 cents. I have no trouble keeping my budget hovering around five dollars a day... internet is also cheap, about 30-50 cents per hour.
So what have I actually done? I wandered around tasteless and unimaginative Islamabad(I hope no Pakistani people read this) which is a very new city, and the government has banned things like rickshaws in order to make it appear like a gleaming American or European city... though in reality it's much cleaner than an American city, which makes it to me, boring. Of course, if you just drive for ten minutes out of the city you can visit the slums, if you can call them that, where thousands of people live in these ratty looking, patched together tents, using the rivers and abandoned buildings as latrines/garbage dumps. It was walking in these areas that I found the people to be much more friendly and fun to hang around with than the mansion dwelling English speakers of Islamabad. Rich people here often speak English, or a mishmash of English and Urdu. I took a first class bus from Peshawar, and I met a guy about my age who was studying medicine in Pakistan, but going to practice in America. When we got to the bus station, he called up his driver and gave me and another boy a ride. The other kid was fifteen, and turned out to be incredibly obnoxious. He went on and on talking about how great various American things are and what a piece of shit Pakistan is. He'd even cultivated an almost perfect American accent, and he even went so far as to taunt and mock people with Pakistani accents, which sound roughly like Abu from the Simpson's Quik-e-mart accent. He also interrupted the other guy and I while we are talking, abruptly changing the subject to Islam and started criticising his own religion, which really irritated me. Then when I was about to be dropped off, he asked me for my email address, and then asked me "So what do you think about my personality?" I'd never really been faced with a question like this, and I stammered for a second and started to answer "Uh, well, I think-" but he interrupted me and said "I know- I'm a total loser, right?" Whoa. I just said that maybe he was a little high strung and needed to relax, and said my goodbyes and left, happy to be out of there.
It seems to me that Pakistan is an oft stereotyped country, but it's really far from the truth. The town I'm in now, for example, reminds me more of the Alps than of Pakistan. It's a mountain town called Abbotabad, and since it was built by the English, a lot of the architecture is English, but more surprisingly, a lot of it is built like Swiss chateaus, and the town is surrounded by hills covered in some desiduous but mostly pine and other evergreens. There are also a few well maintained churches, as well as mosques, left over from the English occupation.
Unfortunately I can't post any photos yet, because I still haven't been able to find the device that connects my new camera to the computer, and I think I may have to have it shipped to me. I might be able to find it in Rawalpindi, and that's where I'm going next. I have to go back to Islamabad to pick up my Indian visa tomorrow... yes, I'm going to India probably in a week, which will be nice because it'll be warm, and there will be beaches, and I can have a beer if I want. Alcohol is about a hundred times more available in Afghanistan than it is in Pakistan.
Overall, Pakistan is an interesting place, but quite boring and tame, though the locals are very friendly, and as always it's interesting to learn more about Islam. I'm anxious to get to India and see the ocean for the first time in more than three months. I should be able to post photos sometime in the next two weeks, but I lost the photos of Kabul and Jalalabad when my camera was stolen. The rest I have backed up on CD. Hmm, I think I'm going to go take a stroll in the bandit infested hills now. Best wishes to all readers,
Love,
Alex
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anonymous
non-member comment
I like what you wrote...
It's funny. I was doing this weird research on google, of the bad things that people have to say about Pakistan and I found this small biography of your travel. I am from Islamabad and yeah! I know, its boring there. It was an honest overview of your travel. I believe people should know that. I would like to know about your travel experience to India. Thanks! - Hasan Rashid