Back from the Afghan border

Ironic - I was thinking on our flights back this morning from Chitral to Peshawar and then to Islamabad that it would be downhill from here on out, since we had managed to stay safe during about a week on the Afghan border.

When we arrived at our guesthouse in Islamabad, however, management was upset because there had been an explosion near the Islamabad airport within hours of our landing and they hadn't heard from us. Then we found out that there had been a bombing in Peshawar as well.

The whole time we were in Peshawar we heard that the militants were closing in on the city. We met with refugees in the Jalozai camp, which is being shut down by the Pakistani government, rendering homeless tens of thousands of Afghan refugees. Somehow that is supposed to improve the security situation on the border.







This guy to the right is a truck driver waiting to take his cousin's family to Kabul. Prices for this trip ranged between 25,000 and 50,000 rupees. Exchange rate at this point is 65 rupees for 1 US dollar.













One truck driver thought I should try a pinch of his snuff, which is reportedly a good deal stronger than pan, which in turn is a good deal stronger than tobacco-based snuff that people chew in the US.
I've never tried it over here, but whatever is in theirs gives quite a kick. It's pretty bitter, as well. These guys thought the idea of me trying it was hilarious. I was ready to keel over anyway, it being 3 p.m. in the middle of the desert with little or no shade and nothing but coffee for breakfast. Their snuff makes you incredibly dizzy, and I'm sure it affected me more than someone who is used to it, so they all gathered round to see if I'd fall over. Happy to say I did not.









We traveled with several armed guards while in the refugee camps. The military police tried to accompany us as well, but it wasn't difficult to convince them to stay back in the shade.













A former mujehideen fighter describes the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.








From Peshawar we went to Chitral, a beautiful, airy mountain village from which we traveled to two of the three Kalash valleys. That mountain in the distance marks the Afghanistan border, 10 miles away, or a 10-hour hike.

In the Kalash valleys

We just arrived in Chitral, at the base of a series of mountain villages where the Kalasha live. The Kalasha have a unique culture and are facing pressures from the surrounding Muslim community to convert. The place is gorgeous - 12,000-foot icecapped mountains in every direction. However there is no Internet service where we are going, and we will be out in the mountains for about the next four days. We also won't have any cell phone service.

Haven't had a chance to blog lately because we spent several days in the Afghan refugee camps right on the Afghan border. Peshawar was our base of operations for that, which was a little nerve-wracking, because the place is crawling with terrorists, according to about any news source I see. But we made it out.

The highlight of the trip to the Jalozai camp was interviewing a 67-year-old mujahideen freedom fighter who helped stop the Soviets in Afghanistan. He trained jihadi fighters in the 70's and 80's an is facing the prospect of being forced back into Afghanistan, which is a pretty forbidding place these days.

Anyhow, I won't be able to blog for a few days.

Detained by the Pakistan Navy (briefly)

On Sunday we took a little time to explore some other parts of Karachi, since we had finished reporting our baby rescue story. Omar Farooq, the fixer we had been using, accompanied us, and, as we found out, it was a good thing he did.

We had our driver take us to the port of Karachi, which, like the rest of the city, is dirty and noisy and packed to the gills with people trying to make a living, often by swindling unlucky tourists. (I should say at this point that the people we have encountered in Pakistan have been almost universally kind and generous; however I did just purchase a pair of 'real,' 'authentic' Armani sunglasses for 500 rupees from a street vendor only to discover you shouldn't pay more than 100 rupees.)

As soon as we exited the car we were surrounded by a horde of boat owners, all clamoring for us to go for a ride because each of their boats somehow was amazingly faster, safer and just plain better than all of the others. Walking up the street toward the docks we had quite an entourage.

Then we got in trouble with the Pakistan Navy. Two officers apparently spotted Jodi Hilton (the photographer who is along for this trip) taking photographs in the general direction of some military installations. For 10 or 15 minutes they interrogated Omar in Urdu while the boat owners gawked. Not understanding what any of the shouting was about, we stood by with our gear and wondered whether Pakistan prison guards would honor our advance health care directives. But Omar talked fast, and eventually they let us go with dire warnings.

Manora Island was not exciting. We dined next to a table full of prettily-dressed transvestites and managed to get far more stares than they did. Then we visited a deserted Hindu shrine on the beach, which was pretty depressing.

The boat ride back in the dark was the scariest part. It was so overloaded that the gunwales often were less than a foot above the surface. Somehow we made it back though.

All of the photos in this post were taken by Jodi Hilton.

Pakistani food

I know this may come as a surprise, but this place has great Pakistani food. Food here is very similar to Indian food.

But the really odd thing is, with all these fantastic (and ridiculously cheap -- five people can go out to eat for about $4) Pakistani places, McDonalds and Pizza Hut are considered luxury destinations. And to get into McDonalds you have to pass security measures that are nearly as tight as in the airports.

Singing orphans

After interviewing several orphans at the Edhi Foundation in Karachi, I was playing around with about a dozen of them, when one of them came up and told me through an interpreter that he wanted to sing me a song.


When he did, that set off the others, and, one-by-one, they started queuing up to perform their own solos. This went on for quite some time, and so Jodi started recording them.

It was pretty amazing. They were from all parts of Pakistan, and each sang songs in his own language (people speak at least 10 different languages in this country).

I'll post an audio clip of one of the songs as soon as I get it.

Orphanages, drag queens and ambulance rides

In recent days I have:















- Been accosted by (unattractive) transvestite Pakistani beggars

- Viewed 60 unclaimed bodies in a morgue




















- Attended the burial of six babies whose bodies washed up on the streets of Karachi

- Heard from a bevy of attorneys about their push to hang Musharraf




















- Spent three days in an orphanage

- Saw the scorch marks where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated














- Ridden through the streets of Karachi in the back of an ambulance

More from Islamabad

We're headed for Karachi in a couple of hours, but here is a small photo album of what we saw in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the Said Pur village (since for some reason this Internet connection likes Facebook better than blogger).

In Karachi we will take a look at a baby-rescue operation and a network of orphanages by day and checking out the city's nightlife umm, by night.

Big trucks, little villages

These Said Pur children played and peeked at us while their parents visited a sick relative.





















The drivers mobbed us at the van stop in Rawalpindi. But this man just seemed mildly curious.
















I'll put more photos up when my Internet connection improves.

And the morning and the morning were the first day

We took a flight Friday morning out of Boston that didn't land for at least a couple of months. No actually, we saw only one sunrise, which broke over the Caspian Sea as we passed north of Iran.

I'd describe the sunset in poetic detail, but the jerk next to me shuttered the window at that point.

We landed to find an extremely friendly driver who shuttled us all around Islamabad, helped us exchange our money, get cell phones, and shop for shalwar kameez, the traditional Pakistani outfit. I am told that traffic in Islamabad is nothing compared to what we'll find in Karachi, but I was still pretty impressed.

Bicyclers rode against traffic, and not always just on the side of the highway. There is a lot of construction going on along Islamabad's main artery, and lots and lots of pedestrians walking with suicidal abandon between the hurtling mopeds, tiny vans and brightly-colored buses (you've got to see these; I hope to get some photos today). Auto drivers don't pay much attention to lanes or street signs and mopeds are even worse. I pointed out a moped that was being ridden by four people at once, but this did not impress our driver, who told me to wait till I saw one with five or six or seven people perched on it.

Many of the soldiers and private security forces sported automatic weapons, but for the most part seemed pretty laid back, lounging in the shade and talking. Our guest house seems pretty secure. We are in a fairly quiet residential area, walled off and set back from the road by a good-sized courtyard. Armed security is pretty visible, and patrols the grounds around the clock.

Having not slept in a couple of days, we were thinking of calling it a night when we ran into some folks from ABC news who took us along to the opening of a private nightclub downtown. It was somewhat disconcerting to see the Italian restaurant that was bombed a few months back just around the corner, but the evening was pretty low-key. But I have to say, going clubbing was not exactly how I had expected to spend my first evening in Pakistan.

Leaving Friday

This blog is for the few of you who have not yet heard enough about my reporting trip to Pakistan. I know there must be one or two left out there. Just kidding; I know I've not talked about much else for six months.

We depart from Boston at 8:20 a.m. Friday, June 13, on British Airways flight BA0238 and arrive at Heathrow at 7:40 p.m. Then we will depart from Heathrow British Airways flight BA0129 at 9:40 p.m. Friday and arrive in Islamabad at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 14.

Anyway, I intend to use this as a way of keeping everyone informed of my whereabouts and safety as I travel the country for almost a month. I'll try to take lots of pictures and give daily updates. But if I don't update, don't assume the worst; several places we'll visit won't have reliable Internet access. I'll try to give a heads up before we head there, but may not have a chance.

Once we get there and get local-numbered cell phones, we plan to register our trip itinerary with the U.S. State Department, which will notify us if a particular area is unsafe for travel, etc., and also try to keep track of our whereabouts and condition.

This will be the first time in Pakistan for both of us. Feel free to leave comments here as we go.