I have to go back to China to get to Kyrgyzstan. And I have to go through Kyrgystan to get to Tajikistan. Tajikistan is what I've been looking forward too most on this trip.
I don't think I'll have internet for awhile.
7.20.2009
7.15.2009
Lahore
I've been in Lahore for about 4 days now. I'm a fan. Chatchawan, here you go:
Most cars are small like this. They look like that really cool old Toyota Carolla.
This man made his monkey do dances for us, and then his goat stepped onto progressively smaller stacked pieces of wood. I gave him $0.60 for the show.
Breckan, Spencer and I on food street.
A very uncrowded shot of food street. All of the buildings are incredibly old and very beautiful, albeit unkempt. Alot of flamboyant colors on the buildings and the trim. This picture doesn't show how insanely crowded streets are in Lahore. I'm amazed that I've only been ran over by speeding cars a few times.
Another uncrowded shot of food street.
Lahore Fort.
Getting shaved ice on food street. The cost, 15 Rupees, was painted on the front of the stand. 'Gola.com' is some U.S. real estate company...
Pakistani soldier at the Wagah Border between Pakistan and India. It's a very dramatic event, complete with Pakistani soldiers flexing their muscles and flashing menacing faces at the Indian soldiers doing the same. It happens every day, with hundreds of spectators in the grandstands, when they close the border for the day. These guards, all at least 6'6", march as fast as one can march to the gate, then throw their legs high into the air before stomping their foot to the ground as loud as possible. The Indians do the same, but with wussier looking guards. Afterwards several Pakistani's approached us to ask if we thought Pakistan won or not. I think they did.
Indian soldiers.
Badshai Mosque, Lahore.
This bicycle is rigged to carry milk. I've never before seen a bicycle carry so much milk.
The streets of Lahore have every imaginable form of transportation. Except I guess rollerblades, I haven't seen any rollerbladers. Motorcyles, motorcycle rickshaws, bicycles, trucks, cars, buses, pedestrians, horse drawn carts, donkey drawn carts, cow drawn carts and there doesnt' seem to be any lanes or rules or anything. It makes Bangkok look like a perfectly organized fast moving parade.
Old City Lahore. These streets were wide enough for one car and one pedestrian, yet motorcyles flew down the streets like they were on an expressway. The city is organized into areas based on what is being sold. One area would sell wooden shoe making molds. There would be about 50 shops side by side and across the street which sell wooden shoe making molds. Then those shops would end and the shoe sole shops would begin, for another 50 shops or so. There are doorknob areas, aluminum extrusion areas, wooden bed areas and even an ice cream area. The shops are rarely large enough to do work in, so the work spills out into the street. When a van pulls up to unload materials into a shop, traffic should back up like crazy, but all vehicles try and squeeze past anyway. Some random guys gave us a ride into the Old City and we got stuck in one of these alley ways. As the driver was backing up a man pulling a donkey cart put a scratch in the car. It didn't phase anybody.
Spencer getting his beard trimmed in the street.
Old City.
Most cars are small like this. They look like that really cool old Toyota Carolla.
This man made his monkey do dances for us, and then his goat stepped onto progressively smaller stacked pieces of wood. I gave him $0.60 for the show.
Breckan, Spencer and I on food street.
A very uncrowded shot of food street. All of the buildings are incredibly old and very beautiful, albeit unkempt. Alot of flamboyant colors on the buildings and the trim. This picture doesn't show how insanely crowded streets are in Lahore. I'm amazed that I've only been ran over by speeding cars a few times.
Another uncrowded shot of food street.
Lahore Fort.
Getting shaved ice on food street. The cost, 15 Rupees, was painted on the front of the stand. 'Gola.com' is some U.S. real estate company...
Pakistani soldier at the Wagah Border between Pakistan and India. It's a very dramatic event, complete with Pakistani soldiers flexing their muscles and flashing menacing faces at the Indian soldiers doing the same. It happens every day, with hundreds of spectators in the grandstands, when they close the border for the day. These guards, all at least 6'6", march as fast as one can march to the gate, then throw their legs high into the air before stomping their foot to the ground as loud as possible. The Indians do the same, but with wussier looking guards. Afterwards several Pakistani's approached us to ask if we thought Pakistan won or not. I think they did.
Indian soldiers.
Badshai Mosque, Lahore.
This bicycle is rigged to carry milk. I've never before seen a bicycle carry so much milk.
The streets of Lahore have every imaginable form of transportation. Except I guess rollerblades, I haven't seen any rollerbladers. Motorcyles, motorcycle rickshaws, bicycles, trucks, cars, buses, pedestrians, horse drawn carts, donkey drawn carts, cow drawn carts and there doesnt' seem to be any lanes or rules or anything. It makes Bangkok look like a perfectly organized fast moving parade.
Old City Lahore. These streets were wide enough for one car and one pedestrian, yet motorcyles flew down the streets like they were on an expressway. The city is organized into areas based on what is being sold. One area would sell wooden shoe making molds. There would be about 50 shops side by side and across the street which sell wooden shoe making molds. Then those shops would end and the shoe sole shops would begin, for another 50 shops or so. There are doorknob areas, aluminum extrusion areas, wooden bed areas and even an ice cream area. The shops are rarely large enough to do work in, so the work spills out into the street. When a van pulls up to unload materials into a shop, traffic should back up like crazy, but all vehicles try and squeeze past anyway. Some random guys gave us a ride into the Old City and we got stuck in one of these alley ways. As the driver was backing up a man pulling a donkey cart put a scratch in the car. It didn't phase anybody.
Spencer getting his beard trimmed in the street.
Old City.
7.10.2009
Islamabad II
It's too hot here. The buses are the worst. I just sat in the back of a mini van for 45 min and nearly passed out from the heat. There are only a couple of small windows and they pack us in incredibly tight (the windows are critical. Hot air only feels cooler when it's moving because it helps the moisture on our skin evaporate more quickly, which is how we cool ourselves. The air near our skin becomes saturated, and then drier air quickly rushes in to fill it's place, and the evaporative process is accelerated, thus making moving warm air feel cooler when it isn't really. That semester of thermo would have been awful....). For some odd reason Pakistani's are particular about which seat they sit in, and it's invariably near the front of the bus, so anyone getting into the back has to crawl all over everybody else. Lots of touching sweaty Pakistani men in pajama's....
Oddly, I haven't heard anything from the Pakistani's about Michael Jackson. Sarah Palin on the other hand is doing a fine job of keeping people interested. What an idiot....
Mother, no, Spencer and Breckan will not be going back to Gilgit with me. Spencer wears lady underpants and isn't tough enough to continue bicycle touring....or he starts law school in August....I don't remember which is the reason, but he and Breckan are heading back to America.
7.09.2009
Islamabad
This place is hotter than hell. And humid. I just pour sweat all day long. I wear pants and a t-shirt, if I were to wear shorts, I would be the only one. Alot of men wear regular pants or jeans, but most wear the traditional shalwar-kamiz. Which are basically pajama's. Imagine that, a society which is completely run by men, and they chose pajama's as the standard attire. Which kind of makes sense, but what doesn't make sense is how they decided the women should dress. Faces, feet and hands are the only things women expose.
It was a 20 something hour bus ride from Gilgit to Islamabad. I left my bike and all my stuff in Gilgit, and I'll pick it up on my way back to China (that is unless the Chinese decide to close off every province that has Uighurs living in it....). The bus was actually somewhat comfortable with decent leg room. Except for the head of the chubby Pakistani next to me constantly rocking onto my shoulder, it wasn't a bad 20 hours....
Tonight will be my third hotel in three nights in Islamabad. I don't like to pay more than $2.50 for a room, so I've been getting some pretty nasty rooms, waking up and trying again at a different place. Tonight I'm spluring and spending $4.00 for my room. The power is hit or miss, so when the power goes out and the fan stops for anything longer than 30 seconds, I nearly pass out from the heat. I sleep on top of my thermarest on top of either the mattresses or on the ground next to the bed (the beds have been really really gross....and I'm ok sleeping in mostly gross beds). I can't sleep on the sheets, because I know how much I've been sweating at night when the fan is on (not to mention when the fan dies...), and the thought of me sleeping in some other dude's sweat is too much....
I'm in Islamabad alone. Kyle broke off with us in China. He wants to go through India and didn't want to be there in July, so he's in Central Asia now. Spencer and Breckan went to a polo festival up near Gilgit and will meet me down here in a few days. I didn't go to the polo festival because I needed to spend some time in Islamabad getting visa's for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I figured I would need about 4 to 6 days to get them both. I had them both in under two hours....Lonely Planet is a pile of suck. That book has very little useful information.....
Yesterday I was walking away from the Tajikistan Embassy, which is in an upscale residential neighborhood, towards a major street so I could get on a bus and go to another embassy. A Pakistani on a motorcycle rode by and saw me walking and melting into the street, so he asked where I was going and offered me a ride. A taxi would have cost about $1.20, but he just did it because he was nice (sure his saddle bags were lined with plastic explosives, but those weren't for me). He took me all the way to the Kyrgyz Embassy. This reminded me of the time I was riding my bike in China, about 4 days into a week long blizzard. The snow had stopped but the wind was still hammering us. Breckan lay on the side of the road mostly dead, while myself, Kyle and Spencer stood on our bikes in the middle of the road, perpendicular to traffic, spaced about 100 yards apart trying to flag down a ride. The two vehicles that passed us that day barely slowed down enough to swerve around us. And the thing is, even before this Pakistani motorcyclist passed me, I knew he would offer me a ride. I wasn't surprised for a second when he stopped and looked back at me to ask where I was going. He probably would have given me a 20 hour ride back to Gilgit had I asked.
There are a lot more women out and about in Islamabad. As in, there are women out and about in Islamabad. Which is nice. Not because they are attractive, because I think I've only seen one or two mildly attractive Pakistani women, but it's just nice that women are a part of society.
I haven't been in a big city since Bangkok, and this one is crazy. Traffic is nuts. The sky is filled with power lines haphazardly attached to anything semi permanent. Donkeys and goats slowly walk alongside roads packed with vehicles. And nobody seems to even notice the heat.
Nicole, I really do like the Seedhouse....and no, I don't even plan on going to India.
It was a 20 something hour bus ride from Gilgit to Islamabad. I left my bike and all my stuff in Gilgit, and I'll pick it up on my way back to China (that is unless the Chinese decide to close off every province that has Uighurs living in it....). The bus was actually somewhat comfortable with decent leg room. Except for the head of the chubby Pakistani next to me constantly rocking onto my shoulder, it wasn't a bad 20 hours....
Tonight will be my third hotel in three nights in Islamabad. I don't like to pay more than $2.50 for a room, so I've been getting some pretty nasty rooms, waking up and trying again at a different place. Tonight I'm spluring and spending $4.00 for my room. The power is hit or miss, so when the power goes out and the fan stops for anything longer than 30 seconds, I nearly pass out from the heat. I sleep on top of my thermarest on top of either the mattresses or on the ground next to the bed (the beds have been really really gross....and I'm ok sleeping in mostly gross beds). I can't sleep on the sheets, because I know how much I've been sweating at night when the fan is on (not to mention when the fan dies...), and the thought of me sleeping in some other dude's sweat is too much....
I'm in Islamabad alone. Kyle broke off with us in China. He wants to go through India and didn't want to be there in July, so he's in Central Asia now. Spencer and Breckan went to a polo festival up near Gilgit and will meet me down here in a few days. I didn't go to the polo festival because I needed to spend some time in Islamabad getting visa's for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I figured I would need about 4 to 6 days to get them both. I had them both in under two hours....Lonely Planet is a pile of suck. That book has very little useful information.....
Yesterday I was walking away from the Tajikistan Embassy, which is in an upscale residential neighborhood, towards a major street so I could get on a bus and go to another embassy. A Pakistani on a motorcycle rode by and saw me walking and melting into the street, so he asked where I was going and offered me a ride. A taxi would have cost about $1.20, but he just did it because he was nice (sure his saddle bags were lined with plastic explosives, but those weren't for me). He took me all the way to the Kyrgyz Embassy. This reminded me of the time I was riding my bike in China, about 4 days into a week long blizzard. The snow had stopped but the wind was still hammering us. Breckan lay on the side of the road mostly dead, while myself, Kyle and Spencer stood on our bikes in the middle of the road, perpendicular to traffic, spaced about 100 yards apart trying to flag down a ride. The two vehicles that passed us that day barely slowed down enough to swerve around us. And the thing is, even before this Pakistani motorcyclist passed me, I knew he would offer me a ride. I wasn't surprised for a second when he stopped and looked back at me to ask where I was going. He probably would have given me a 20 hour ride back to Gilgit had I asked.
There are a lot more women out and about in Islamabad. As in, there are women out and about in Islamabad. Which is nice. Not because they are attractive, because I think I've only seen one or two mildly attractive Pakistani women, but it's just nice that women are a part of society.
I haven't been in a big city since Bangkok, and this one is crazy. Traffic is nuts. The sky is filled with power lines haphazardly attached to anything semi permanent. Donkeys and goats slowly walk alongside roads packed with vehicles. And nobody seems to even notice the heat.
Nicole, I really do like the Seedhouse....and no, I don't even plan on going to India.
7.03.2009
Pictures
Pakistani pictures.
There is no road between a lot of these villages. I was told this man is going to use this log for a door jamb on his house.
All fences are made of stone and several of them have dried sticker bushes laying on top.
View of Nanga Parbat from my tent.
We camped in the grassy area on the back right.
Ahmed (this place required we hire a 'guide' to trek with us), Spencer and Breckan.
In a hut waiting for tea.
Our rooftop dining area.
Nanga Parbat on the left, Raikot Peak on the right. In the foreground is a doctorless hospital donated by that Slovenian climber who was rescues by a helicopter at 6,000 m after something like 9 days without food.
There is no road between a lot of these villages. I was told this man is going to use this log for a door jamb on his house.
All fences are made of stone and several of them have dried sticker bushes laying on top.
View of Nanga Parbat from my tent.
We camped in the grassy area on the back right.
Ahmed (this place required we hire a 'guide' to trek with us), Spencer and Breckan.
In a hut waiting for tea.
Our rooftop dining area.
Nanga Parbat on the left, Raikot Peak on the right. In the foreground is a doctorless hospital donated by that Slovenian climber who was rescues by a helicopter at 6,000 m after something like 9 days without food.
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