Salman Rashid

Travel writer, Fellow of Royal Geographical Society

Deosai - where earth meets the sky
30 May 2017

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Deosai - where earth meets the sky [Image from Deosai: Land of the Giant] - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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The Last Post
23 May 2017

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Last Post on The Apricot Road to Yarkand - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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The Apricot Road to Yarkand
18 May 2017

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Excerpt: Journey’s End, Review by Maheen Pracha 

Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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Deosai Sky
09 May 2017

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More images in Deosai: Land of the Giant - available at at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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jhelum: City of the Vitasta
02 May 2017

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jhelum: City of the Vitasta - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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Deosai: Land of the Giant
25 April 2017

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From DEOSAI: THE LAND OF THE GIANT - available at Sang-e-Meel Publications (042-3722-0100), Lahore 

Related excerpts: Land of the Giant, Deosai National Park and Book Review - Deosai Romance

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Jalebi Bend
18 April 2017

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I called the bends in the Kuday Dawan jalebi from the name of a stretch of road in Zanskar (near Kargil in India of which I have seen some images). These bends in the Kuday have no similarity with our Khyber Pass. For one, the scale is much grander in Kuday at 3300 metres as against the 600 metres of our Khyber. Secondly, I have seen fewer places as dreadfully desiccated as the Kun Lun Mountains; the Suleman Mountains would be a virtual oasis in comparison. Also there are villages in the Khyber, boys grazing livestock, traffic driving past etc. The Kuday is utterly, utterly uninhabited.

 From The Apricot Road to Yarkand - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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Deosai People
11 April 2017

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Image from DEOSAI: THE LAND OF THE GIANT - available at Sang-e-Meel Publications (042-3722-0100), Lahore

Related: Deosai Truths - Book Review by F. S. Aijazuddin

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With Love from Deosai
28 March 2017

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Excerpt - Land of the Giant, Review - Deosai Truths [Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore]

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On the Apricot Road to Yarkand
07 March 2017

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Rainbow above our camp near Thungal  [image from The Apricot Road to Yarkand]

Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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The Shaksgam River
31 January 2017

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Shaksgam River valley - the view is to the east in the direction of the Shaksgam headwaters

[Image from The Apricot Road to Yarkand - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore]

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Picture perfect
13 January 2017

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In the beginning, back in the early 1980s, when I went travelling to, say, Jhangara the little village near Sehwan through which so many Victorian travellers had passed whose descriptions I had read, I was hardly disappointed. In fact, places like Bahawalpur, Sadiqabad, Lasbela, Khuzdar, etc had not changed at all in the hundred years before me. I can say the same for Gandava in Balochistan which I visited for the first time in 2002. Other than the motor vehicles in the bazaar, nothing had changed from 1882.

Gwadar and to a lesser degree Turbat in 1987 were picture perfect places. And Punjgur in 1999, oh, what a beautiful little town and what great climate. I must not forget to mention the grapes and dates of this magical garden city.

Then I saw the change coming over. Some of it wrought by the petro-dollars of the 1980s. Old houses were pulled down and replaced with new-fangled ones with bathroom tile facades. It was very sad. And the speed of this change was staggering. Because I saw all this happening, I was in a way expecting the change when I did not find what I had read in early accounts. I have come to expect and accept change and my vision is no longer infused by what I have read.
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Deosai Waters
10 January 2017

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From DEOSAI: THE LAND OF THE GIANT - available at Sang-e-Meel Publications (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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Deosai Expanse
20 December 2016

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Image from Deosai: Land of the Giant - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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Lesser Deosai
06 December 2016

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Related: Deosai: Land of the Giant

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jhelum: City of the Vitasta
22 November 2016

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On the bank of River Jhelum, looking west to the road bridge

Image from jhelum: City of the Vitasta - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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The north face of Chhogho Ri
25 October 2016

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On the left, Chhogho Ri (K-2) the Great Mountain of the Baltis (that is what the name means), Chogar of the Uighur and Kirghiz people of Xinjiang and Chogoli of Chinese. At a little before eleven when I became the first Pakistani to see its north face, the mountain was blue clad. This image was only for the record.

From The Apricot Road to Yarkand - Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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Deosai Life
04 October 2016

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Excerpt: Land of the Giant, Review - Deosai Romance, The Little Long tailed Marmot

Book is available at Sang e Meel (042-3722-0100), Lahore

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The Road to Bari La
20 September 2016

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The road to Bari La. The pass, the highest on the eastern flanks of Deosai, lies between the gray ridge and the snow covered peak. Over the pass, the road leads to Matiyal and on to Kargil on the Indian side. 

Image from Deosai: Land of the Giant 

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The Shaksgam Valley
13 September 2016

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If there was ever a lonely place I had been to, it was the country on the south side of the Aghil Pass. The Shaksgam Valley here is as desolate as it can ever get. Our caravan is approaching the Kindik Tash camp ground.

Image from The Apricot Road to Yarkand 

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My Books

Deosai: Land of the Gaint - New

The Apricot Road to Yarkand


Jhelum: City of the Vitasta

Sea Monsters and the Sun God: Travels in Pakistan

Salt Range and Potohar Plateau

Prisoner on a Bus: Travel Through Pakistan

Between Two Burrs on the Map: Travels in Northern Pakistan

Gujranwala: The Glory That Was

Riders on the Wind

Books at Sang-e-Meel

Books of Days