The Men of Hunza
20 March 2017
In August 1861, the explorer Godwin-Austen was camped on the Panmah Glacier when he met four travellers coming down the icy slopes of the glacier above. They were Balti men returning home from Yarkand to meet friends and relatives. Godwin-Austen noted that they were very well-clothed and equipped and guessed that living in Yarkand had done them well in economic terms.
Though the explorer already knew of the depredations of the men of Hunza, he got first-hand information on the subject from his Balti visitors: the robbers from whom no one was safe were all over the place. The road across the glaciated Great Asiatic Divide to Raskam and beyond was within their reach. As well as that, they also prowled along the great trunk road from Leh that we today sometimes know as the Karakoram Route over the pass of the same name.
Read more »Labels: Explorers, Gilgit–Baltistan, Northern Pakistan, Shimshal, Travelers
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Thalle La - the pass I couldn’t make
15 May 2015
Both Tilman and Shipton were however supermen. They carried on mountain climbing and adventuring until the very ends of their lives. I am a far lesser mortal and after having quietly celebrated my sixtieth in February, I was still looking forward to a few more years of hill walking. However, the sobering memory of my 2009 trek to Mintaka when blistered feet caused me to ride a donkey took the spunk out of me.
Read more »Labels: About, Explorers, Travelers
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Bread and Beyond
09 April 2014
Together we haunted the Sandspit beach during the nights and early mornings to watch the turtles coming ashore to lay and sometimes to rescue emerging turtle hatchings from marauding feral dogs. We swam the delightful tarn of Bund Murad Khan, near Hub Dam and discovered a dozen little ponds of crystal water where we could dive to nearly six metres depth and watch the fish shimmering past us.
On his first visit to my flat he noticed I had a spare room and he said he could only just afford the company’s guest house and offered me a sum to take him in as a guest. By then we were pretty good friends so I took him in all right, but without the offered rent. Günther was not just an engineering student; he was a great cook and baker. From him I learned the craft of German baking and cooking.
Labels: About, Explorers, Travelers
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Inspired by True Greatness
25 November 2013
Most of us, when we set out on a course that is somewhat removed from the usual and mundane way of life, are motivated by some very strong external stimulus. I was very fortunate to find just the right incentive – almost by accident. After struggling through seven years of a very colourful but hardly glorifying military career, I joined a multi-national firm in Karachi. Here I was supposed to be an administrative officer looking after the smooth functioning of the office, but, as I used to say, I was no more than a glorified clerk.
My escape from the drudgery of a stultifying, unrewarding life was weekend flights to the wilderness just north of Karachi. It started in February 1979 with the first outing to Khadeji Falls, some 30 km out on Super Highway. Though the fall could have been pretty in a rather modest sort of way, the crowd of Lalu Khet picnickers, the noise, the garbage strewn all around and the loud music from cheap ghetto-blasters was a total put off.
Read more »Labels: About, Classics, Explorers, Travelers
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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A forgotten page from History
07 September 2013
Even when hundreds of visitors would have passed through its doors or lounged on the patio around it sipping their drinks, few would have noticed the plaque on the west wall commemorating the sojourn in this room of the ‘famous traveller William Moorcroft’ in May 1820. Even fewer would have known who this person was. But for those who have any interest in the history of the Great Game, that epic struggle between Russia and England for the possession of Central Asia, Moorcroft’s name shines bright.
Read more »Labels: History, Lahore, Prisoner on a Bus: Travels Through Pakistan, Punjab, Shalamar Garden, Travelers
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Speak the same language
03 July 2013
In my last few months in the army I was posted at Peshawar and that helped my Pushto considerably. The language I had picked up previously from the Pathans in my unit. But when I left the service and went to live in Karachi, I gradually lost the language. Now, I can just barely understand the Pushto of the Yusufzai plain. Of course, no one, not even those who speak it themselves, can understand the Pushto of Bannu! It does not even sound like Pushto. Heaven knows where this language came from even though it is said to be Pushto.
Read more »Labels: Pakistan, Travel, Travelers
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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