Destruction of the Kalasha

We visited the Kalasha valleys. This is a unique pocket of non-Muslim people in the heart of a strictly Muslim part of the world. The women wear the most beautiful traditional dress, including intricate headdresses; decorated with sea shells and beads (where they get seashells from when they're that far away from the sea is beyond me). They're very friendly people & we stayed in a family home. We were there for the spring festival. It was disappointing to be honest, but it wasn't the Kalasha people's fault. It was all the tourists! There was a group of middle-aged tour group Brits all running around in the middle of the ceremonial dances, sticking their cameras in the locals faces. The Kalasha by this point had had enough of being snapped & kept turning away, but the tourists were relentless. There was also a westerner there with a big video camera & boom Mic., barging around, knocking Kalasha out of his way & filming all that was going on. He was so rude with his camera too & refused to stop filming when he was asked. At the end of the ceremony I told him what I thought of him, he was so arrogant & genuinely believed that he was helping the Kalasha people (the opposite of what the Kalasha people were telling me). Anyway, that's all by the by. There were also plenty of rich Pakistani tourists who were pains. I was wearing traditional Kalasha dress (as insisted upon by the family), so all these Pakistani men wanted pictures of me, but it's just not on in a Muslim country for men to be taking pictures of women that they don't know. But don't get me started on the men in this country!!!!!!!!

Kalasha Trek

The Kalasha valleys were still beautiful though (I just felt very awkward being a tourist there & will never return although, I did get some fantastic photos the day before the festival started, when the kids were begging me to take pictures of them!). We did a lovely trek the day before we left. We walked up a vertical mountain for 4 hours, which was very hard going. We started at 2,300 metres, so the altitude already has a bit of a hold over you. We hadn't eaten anything of any nutritional value for over a week. And I'm just unfit! We had a really sweet Kalasha guide, who couldn't speak any English at all. However, he knew the word 'finish when we eventually reached the top. The view was worth the slog (but it's taken me a week to be able to admit it!). We were surrounded for 360 degrees by huge jaggy mountains, topped with what looked like icing powder. We looked down onto different valleys and could see jeeps crawling along like ants. Unfortunately I was too exhausted to take many photos, but there should be one or two!

Shandoor Pass

Leaving the Kalasha we travelled over the Shandoor Pass (3,800m) to Gilgit. The journey took 2 days in a jeep & was stunning. We slept at 3,300m at night in a room with mud walls & only tarpaulin in the windows (suffice to say that it was absolutely Baltic). We crossed the Shandoor Pass , with its polo ground, snow covered lake & yaks and 9 hours later arrived in Gilgit. We have the honour of being the first tourists to cross the Shandoor Pass by jeep this year. We thought we were going to have to hike for between 4-20 hours to get across, but the track was cleared the day before. I don't feel that proud though, just a bit lazy, especially when we met 3 guys from Poland who were in the process of cycling it. They assured us that they weren't cyclists though, but enthusiastic mountaineers and the bikes were just used so they could get to their desired mountains!!! It was such a beautiful journey that I would have turned around & done it all again, if it wasn't for my bum being more than a bit sore (if you've seen Michael Palin, try to remember the road he was travelling on, then think that he was there in the summer, and imagine the track being in worse condition & throw in some snow).

Guns 'n Gilgit

Gilgit was a pretty boring place to be honest; we just spent a night there. There's a huge army presence. We had to stop at about 8 army check points before we got into town. It was in the news not so long ago because a big cachet of weapons was found there. All around town you see army men driving around in open topped jeeps, with big machine guns strapped to the top (there's probably a better gun word, but I'm not so up on my terminology). I saw at least one army man for every 10 other people we saw, all carrying huge guns. But none of the tension is directed at tourists, the troubles are just because there are 3 types of Muslims in town.

Hunza

So now we're in the Hunza district (Karimabad to be exact). The mountains have surprised me & managed to get bigger. Some are over 7,000 metres here & I'm assured that once the cloud clears I'll be able to actually see them!

We'll probably stay here for about a good few days. There are hundreds of possible treks, although our feet are suffering from major blisters from our last trek. But we can't be amongst all these giants & not trek at all. Not sure where we'll head next, but I guess it will be north, north, north and then we'll be crossing into china (which is only 200km away from here!).

Wedding Photographer

I've attached 2 pictures. The scanning isn't the best here, so I've not been able to separate the pictures. They were all taken at the wedding. The unhappy looking lady in red, sitting on a bed, is the bride (I don't think I'd be too chuffed either if I had to leave my family, move house and get married to someone I didn't know all on the one day!). The developing of the photos is pretty poor here t he only reason that I got these ones done was for the bride & groom.