India and Pakistan 2005: Looking for OBL on the KKH

Hello. I'm now in the Karakoram range and on my way to China. To be honest I didn't do much lately: in Mumbai I didn't work as an extra, instead I had a lot of pictures printed, that costed a lot of time. I only went to one hill station, but the sky was so humid: I realized only after a few days there was a mountain on the other side of the valley. Weather in Mumbai was also very humid and hot, I took on average 3 times a day a shower.

Taking relief from the heat at a hill station near Mumbai

Chowpatti beach, the place to spent a free day in Mumbai,
you can't swim in the water though, well you can, but it's
not recommended.

Beggar at work

From the humidity of Mumbai I went straight to the baking heat of Delhi (44 celcius) aplied for my Pakistan visa and left for Amritsar, spent a few days at the Golden Temple and went on to the border. After Lahore and Rawalpindi I went to Peshawar. In Peshawar the people are mostly Pashtun: very hospitable people with some weird codes of honour involving bloody revenges over matters as lightly as just looking at a girl or talking to her. One Pashtun saying is: "Revenge is a dish best served cold", sounds a bit like Klingon to me.

The lighter and brighter side of Islam:
A sufi dancing himselve in a trance in Lahore

In Peshawar I befriended a shopkeeper from Afghanistan. (there are many Afghani refugees in this area) He was a young guy, speaking good English and modern looking. After a veiled women came in the shop, ofcourse with her husband, I asked him if his wife also wore a veil, his reply shocked me: "My wife never leaves the house" he said.
Same in Gilgit: I walk in the streets and no matter where I look: no women to be seen. Only a lot of bearded men (including myself) and many police and army posts because of secterian voilence between suni's and shii's. (a few days before I came 1 policeman got killed)

Not only the outside of the trucks are decorated excessively

It wasn't always like this: until 30 years ago people could drink and women where dancing on parties. Then fundamentalist "missionaries" spread over Pakistan and changed the whole country. So instead of going towards a more open and liberal society (which is a natural process) the people jumped back a few centuries. And after september 11 the people even got more conservative. If it wasn't for the present regime (regimes change quite often here) Pakistan would problably be a theocracy (or theocrazy?) like Iran. (Islam and democracy don't mix that well) So it's a bit like Turkey where the army keeps state and religion seperate.

Beautiful Hunza valley

But enough about Islam and politics. Although I didn't do much I did meet some quite remarkable persons, let me highlight a few.

Apart from the pseudo hindu's who when you ask them where they're from say: "I'm from the world" you also meet some really wierd and interesting people like Phil Mikal, a American kid who came to India with $20. Later on I heard it was part of a reality show.

There was also another guy in the dormatory of the salvation army in Mumbai, he was from North India and was there because he wanted to have a nose job done. (his nose seemed quite okay with me) Apparantly his dad didn't aprove with this operation which resulted in long, loud and whining telephone calls sometimes early in the morning which woke everybody up, except me. That is however not that strange, the most wierd thing about this guy was that he was whanking off in a dormatory full with guys. there are a few things that are absolutly not done and this is surely one of them. The sight of it still brings me nightmares.

Amazing mountain scenery on the Karakoram Highway near Passau

But the first price for most remarkable person I met must go to Gary Falkner. Gary travels around with a sword (actually he had 2 swords but one fell of the mountain). Gary is in Pakistan not as a tourist, oh no, Gary is on a mission, a mission from god. God told him, and I quote, "Pack your bags, you're leaving" because "once in two thousand years God magnifies himself through somebody" and god told Gary "to kick some butt" and catch Osama Bin Laden. Gary studies the bible a few hours a day. During one of this reading sessions he found the following sentence: "I will give him wings like an eagle and he will saw down upon you and cast you down." Since his last name is Falkner it's quite clear to Gary: he's the chosen one. So next year he will be back with a hangglider. I just hope he will go to that nice room with the soft stuffed walls before he kills himself (by flying into a mountain or when he thinks he sees Osama by cutting his hangglider in two while getting his sword out) or some innocent shepard. By the way shepards aren't that innocent: on a trek we met some young shepards and they offered us goatmilk. But every time they offered us that, something disapeared. Maybe there is a unwritten mountain law which says that if you give goatmilk you can take something unasked?

Boy on the street of Peshawar

In a few days I will be in China and then The Roof of the World, if I don't get stopped by the Chinese police.

Bye

Kurt