the problem with pakistan
we seem to have run into a problem when planning for pakistan. nope it has nothing to do with entry or exit, it has to do with us wanting to visit the awe inspiring mountains of the karakoram range.
as you all may know, the situation in pakistan as of today is as such. and as per the new regulation and peace agreement between the taliban and the pakistani government, the taliban has basically been given the mandate to extend sharia law over the whole north western frontier province (NWFP) region as well as the SWAT districts.
initially, our plan was to take a bus from islamabad up to gilgit, a region which is home to many beautiful mountain ranges and is supposedly the inspiration for shangri la. this plan would mean that we would be taking the karakoram highway up to gilgit, which in itself is part of the old silk route linking pakistan to china and mongolia.
observe, if you will, how and where the karakoram highway traces its path across pakistan:
if you are observant enough, you will realise that the highway passes through certain areas which are now strongholds of the taliban. now that's interesting.
the highway itself is also prone to landslides which can "disrupt traffic for a few days" assuming of course that you aren't already buried under a pile of rubble. this leaves us with the alternate option of taking a flight from islamabad to gilgit itself.
although various forums have confirmed the existence of said flight, it doesn't exist on PIA (pakistan international airlines) websites. that being said, it also has the tendency of being cancelled or overbooked at the last minute so we actually still do not know if its possible to reach gilgit by air. an alternate town of Skardu is reachable by air (they even say the air ride is thrilling. "the planes wings almost appear to scrape the walls of the canyons but of course they never do") and gilgit is then a mere 5 hour drive away.
the cost of this flight (round trip) is 7730 pakistani rupees, which works out to about 154.6SGD. not good for the wallet at all.
so now, the question is : how to get to gilgit at the least cost to our wallet and lives. (25 marks)
we welcome all creative (and sound) answers.
Testing (tim)
this is also a test post cos its been a while since i've blogged or used blogger.
in any case, most people (like my mom) believe that india looks like this:
or this:
but we know (somehow) that india, nepal and pakistan have the potential to stun (but not paralyse), captivate (but not capture) and give us many stories and adventures that we can inflate/exaggerate horribly and tell our children and grandchildren so they will idolize us more. so, that's why we are going there.
as you all already know by now, we are going to be somewhere in the map above during the period of 5th May to 21st June, which is about 50 odd days or so.
due to our diligent lack of planning, we only have the vaguest of ideas where we will be going and what we will be doing. let's hope we don't get too surprised along the way.
here is the rough plan:
-> arrive in chennai
-> avoid getting scammed
-> take a 27.5 hour train ride to calcutta (just to prove that we can suffer like dogs)
-> avoid getting scammed
-> move on to darjeeling on another train
-> move up to sikkim, visit a guru
-> move back down into darjeeling and cross over into nepal, Kathmandu
-> avoid getting shot by maoist rebels
-> move onto pokhara and go on a trekking trip around the annapurna range
-> move down across the border back into varanesi
-> move up to agra, where the taj mahal is, and then on to delhi
-> move up to kashmir/jammu
-> avoid getting bombed by artillery (apparently the indians and the pakistanis wake each other up everyday at the border by bombing each other with arty fire)
-> move down to amritsar
-> move across the border into lahore, pakistan
-> avoid getting bombed
-> avoid getting shot
-> avoid getting kidnapped by terrorists
-> move up to islamabad
-> repeat earlier 3 actions
-> move up to gilgit (?) this is uncertain because of cost and the volatile situation in pakistan. the northern regions are apparently "hotbeds of terrorism" if you believe the american media and more importantly, are getting bombed by predator drones. this is highly inconvenient, as is a missing limb from said bomb.
on the other hand, gilgit is home to a whole range of great mountain peaks like nanga parbat and of course, K2. it would be totally awesome to view them, even if we lack the capability to get up there (for now).
-> move back into amritsar, and down to rajasthran
-> move down to mumbai
-> move down to goa (we may skip goa if cost proves to be too high. who needs more tourists anyway?)
-> move to hampi (climbing heaven for me)
-> move to bangalore , where we will fly back from, hopefully in one piece
as you can see, its shaping up to be one big adventure; helped no doubt by our complete lack of planning. i estimate that we will get taken advantaged of no less than 10 times during the course of the trip.
hopefully, during the course of our travels, we would see more of these kinds of people:
and less of these kinds of people:
in any case, we will continue to keep you guys posted of our future plans and developments as we prepare for the trip