Islamabad, Peshawar and the Khyber Pass

From the last email I sent, you hopefully got the impression that we were enjoying ourselves and loving this country. Well nothing's changed on that front. Pakistan is, without a doubt, the best country I've ever travelled in. The people are so friendly, the scenery is mind blowing and there's a sense of adventure and doing something a bit different, which you just don't get in other Asian countries (usually because of the quantity of tourists there).

Islamabad

After Lahore we headed up to Islamabad (the capital) to sort out our Chinese visa. We had to collect our Chinese visas which took a good few hours, and then we went for a walk. We got a bit lost & as the sun was starting to set and there was no road in sight, we ended up having to trek through wild cannabis plants, which were bigger than us (don't worry, it wasn't a plantation or anything, they just grow wild here, like weeds). When we made it back to the road after wading through a river we took a taxi to a ten pin bowling alley and spent a few hours in neon, fluorescent lighting, throwing bowls at pins which fell over when they felt like it, quoting "The Big Lebowski". We had a slap up meal at an Italian restaurant. Paul ate so much that he was ill the next day; I guess he was compensating for the fact that it's a dry country (so he couldn't have a beer!).

Peshawar Market

Then we went over to Peshawar . It's the capital of the North West Frontier Province, and is about 20 miles or so away from the Afghan border. It's a fantastic place, with incredible markets. You can get anything from dentures, to smuggled TVs, to local hats, to guns, to dried fruits you name it. The people in the market were lovely too. You couldn't walk more than 100 metres without being invited for kava (delicious green tea flavoured with cardamom). And the shop keepers weren't just being enterprising businessmen, they weren't after sales at all (unless, they thought we were in the market for a widescreen telly!) They were just continuing the Islamic custom of hospitality towards all guests. We shocked two afghani shopkeepers by telling them that Paul does ha lf the housework & cooking at home & that I work! They couldn't get their heads around it.

Carry on up the Khyber

Peshawar is also the jumping off point for travelling up the Khyber Pass. We hired a car, a guide (who wore a bright green blazer with a bright green feather pen in the pocket) and an armed guard was thrown in for free, as it's tribal areas, so foreigners need men with guns to protect them (apparently). The Khyber Pass trip was cool. The scenery wasn't the best that we've seen in Pakistan , but it was more for the history that we did it. And for that all important thing of being able to say "I've been on the Khyber Pass". It was also pretty cool to stand on a hill & look down into Afghanistan . Hopefully next time we'll be able to continue over the border (we've heard some great things about it). Halfway along the Khyber Pass we saw an overturned petrol tanker on the road, spilling petrol everywhere. People were going nuts with all kinds of containers, filling anything from ceramic water pots, to Pepsi bottles with the leaking petrol. I wanted to get out and take some pictures it was an incredible sight until Paul pointed out that if anyone struck a match then we'd be up in smoke...