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Travels In The Hindu Kush 6/4/2016 9:19:33 AM
In the early nineties I went to Pakistan a couple of times
and stayed for a couple of months each time .Of course now
such a journey would be extremely dangerous and dogged by
lots of safety risks and possible terrorist attacks or
kidnappings.It is personally very sad that I cannot return
to a place where I once had many adventures and happy
times.One particularly interesting trip was a journey made
from Peshawer to Chitral in the Northern areas .It was done
in a minibus.We had already bought an air ticket to Chitral
but we waited two weeks before we could board the plane
,due to thick cloud over Chitral airport and the fact that
the previous year a PIA internal flight had dissapeared
completly en route to Chitral .Lost without trace .Safety
standards therefore stopped all flights in foggy
conditions.When we finally boarded a flight and arrived in
the clouds over Chitral Airport it was deemed to dangerous
to land so the pilot turned around and we went straight
back to Peshawer.
The mini bus journey was cramped to say the least and we
shared with several tall ,fierce looking Pashtun afghanis.
The bus wound its way up and down hills and mountains
;creeping up narrow mountain passes ,often clingnging to
grim death in their slim tracks as we watched at the gorges
below and the steep drops over the edges of the paths .At
one point we drove on the summit of a mountain ,covered in
snow , with only a very narrow space for the bus to
navigate itself safely up.We stopped at a hut on top and
had tea with the bearded ,severe Pashtuns who on contact
were acxtually quite amicable.The tea was populated with
thick pieces of fresh unwhipped cream.The trees that hung
onto the steep slopes clung to the edge with only a few
roots and the whole landscape looked like that of another
planet and not of this earth.As we descended into the
valleys we saw hundreds of schoolboys swimming in the fast
flowing rivers with disused car wheels around them to keep
them safe .They were heartily enjoying the long ,hot summer
holidays that schools in Pakistan enjoy.
On arriving at Chitral we took up rooms in Hindu Kush
Towers and often went for tea at the former Royal Palace
.The king of the area by tradition came to the throne
after the death of his father and after having seen off all
