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Foreigners' trip to Pakistan - 2011

Gee...I'd hate to say it, but I think this may've changed after summer of 2007 as that's when the WOT really started in Pakistan.

last year, more than 25,000 visited Gilgit alone....

however, the tourists of tribal areas have seized to exist, which was the most as compared to any other area.

posted copied and pasted from post number 101.
 
February 14, 2011:


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Hadi and Kadijah's Wedding (Pakistan Trip)



DHA Golf Club, Karachi. :yahoo:
 
It is funny how many foreigners think that they have to cover their heads while in Pakistan. This picture shows otherwise. Notice the local women not covering their head......:P

Yes, that's true. But the ones that are considerate to the customs & traditions are given a lot of respect by the locals. And it is my opinion that some white women who cover their heads & wear shalwar kameez look absolutely stunningly beautiful, such as this lady:

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She is quite simply, breathtaking in my opinion. To me at least.
 
Yes, that's true. But the ones that are considerate to the customs & traditions are given a lot of respect by the locals. And it is my opinion that some white women who cover their heads & wear shalwar kameez look absolutely stunning, such as this lady:

225440412_a99ac3d6a8_b.jpg


She is quite simply, breathtaking in my opinion. To me at least.

is it Khyber agency?
 
I think she is standing close to ali masjid. We used to stop there for drinking water and it has historical significance as according to local peoples hazrat ali(R.A) visited this place. I dont know if its true or not but that's what they believe :)

yeah right...you are still wondering !!
 
so this is Pakistan...

Pakistan almost came off our list of places to visit. Especially since it seemed that India might declare war on Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks. In the end, we did go but on a much shorter trip. And we were so happy we did.

We entered Pakistan rather uneventfully at that infamous border crossing near Amritsar and got a cab to downtown Lahore.

We stayed at this extremely friendly, social hostel in Lahore. The main downside was that nearly everyone there was sick, and since we were all sharing washrooms, it seemed rather inevitable that the bugs get around. And indeed, we both had a few bad days and a general malaise that lasted a couple of weeks.

The hostel was cramped and dark and crowded but had a decent rooftop common area where various residents and travellers would converge day and night to share stories, repair bicycles, make tea and take advantage of the wireless service.

After a couple of days we even started getting used to the scheduled blackouts that would happen between 7 and 8 pm and then 9 to 10 pm most evenings.

Coming from India, we immediately noticed a change in the urban not-so-wildlife. Cows were off the streets and back on the menus. Also a lot less stray dogs around, but suddenly prowling cats, a rare sight in India, were much more common. We wondered if cats don't do so well on the primarily vegetarian Indian diet.

Walking around town, it seemed that most locals we passed would do this sort of double-take when they realized we were foreigners and then say hello or wave or, at the very least, stare. Yes, people stared constantly in India as well, but in Pakistan stares were more startled and curious than creepy.

It could be that foreigners are a rare sight these days. Other than the people staying at our hostel, we sure didn’t see many other tourists, even at the main tourist sites.

The first real shock of Pakistan was that most locals on the street just wanted to connect with us and weren’t after our money. Really. Coming from India, we responded very cautiously at first. But eventually it became clear that a lot of people just wanted to welcome us to their country, shake hands and say, "Hello. What country are you from?" or "Can I help you find something?"

People in general were thrilled to learn that we were Canadians, many reporting a cousin in Toronto or somewhere in the US. They were all too happy to point us in the right direction, or more commonly, physically walk us to the place we were looking for.

We even got a free rickshaw ride. No kidding! It was only a few blocks, we were happily walking, but the driver, who spoke virtually no English, would not take no for an answer. You could have knocked either one of us over with a feather. Rickshaw drivers are notoriously hard bargainers in India—they don't give up anything for nothing.

Much like cities in India, the streets and sites of Lahore are teeming with groups of young men hanging around alternately goofing around and playing with their mobile phones. Matt was cornered by one particularly gregarious young man who insisted Matt take his photo as he ran ten feet up a sloped wall, launched himself off and jumped to the ground (see photo). Can’t drink and can’t hang out with girls, gotta do something with all that youthful energy!

so this is Pakistan...
 
Arriving in Islamabad, Pakistan:

Flying into cities in the Gulf states at night is an interesting experience. Unlike many countries, there are virtually no small towns between the massive cities. So, you will fly along in complete darkness and then all of a sudden find yourself on top of a brilliant, swirling metropolis. They remind me of elaborate crop circles (remember those?) of lights.

Arriving in Islamabad was a bit different. I arrived at about two in the morning (Pakistan time) and just as the jet was landing, half of the city went dark. It was interesting to see.

I sailed through Immigration, but still had hours to wait until the rest of my crew showed up. So, I went to the front of the airport and started hanging out with all of the taxi drivers that congregate there. They all offered to take me anywhere I needed to go and several offered me tours of the city. After some reflection, I decided this wouldn’t be a bad idea given the amount of time I had to wait still. So, I accepted a tour with the driver pictured below on the far right.

We drove around for about 45 minutes or so through urban areas, past the recently bombed Marriott Hotel, through residential areas – all over the city and I don’t remember any of the names he mentioned.

With no prompting, the driver suddenly asked me if I liked motorcycles. I perked up and answered in the affirmative at which point the driver became excited and said that he had to introduce me to his nephew.

Now, remember that it is about four in the morning in Pakistan… We rolled up to the nephew’s house and, of course, he and his family were sound asleep. No matter, we went crashing inside and soon the entire family was rousted to greet the American guest. Far from being put off by my untimely intrusion, the family was giddy with excitement to have me as a visitor.

With little effort, I was talked into being given a ride on the nephew’s motorcycle. It was a Honda sportbike, but I didn’t understand what he was saying when I asked him what kind it was. All I can really tell you is that it looked sexy and was really fast. Anyway, we were soon on our way…

At first I just wanted to get off. I could feel the rear wheel sliding on the corners and we were absolutely hurtling through traffic. “Jesus Christ,” I remember thinking, “Here I’ve promised my mother I’ll be careful on this trip and I’m not even in Pakistan two hours and I’m tearing through Islamabad’s streets at triple digit speeds with a complete stranger and no protective gear.”

After a few moments, I realized the nephew was a skilled rider and I relaxed a little. He took me to a wooded area that was apparently popular with other riders to run through because there were many of them there on sportbikes. Some of the other riders were giving their all to a route through the woods and as genuinely good riders in their own right, were genuinely shocked to see someone blowing by them doubled up. But even though many people tried to race us, no one could keep up with the nephew.

(The nephew is the guy in the red hat in the above picture)

Eventually we made it back to the nephew’s home where I was treated to a remarkable breakfast prepared by his wife. Then the whole family accompanied me back to the airport and waited with me until my guide arrived from Britain several hours later. The taxi driver absolutely refused to let me pay him for the tour and as hard as I tried to extend some token of appreciation to his family (even trying to buy them lunch), all of my efforts toward generosity were resolutely refused.

After being treated like this, I get even more annoyed now when I hear people make comments about how we should just nuke Pakistan. Or comments about how everyone in the Middle East hates us.

Yeah, right. Imagine a family of Americans treating a stranger from the Middle East in the princely manner I was treated.

Arriving in Islamabad, Pakistan | The Velvet Rocket
 

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