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Other entries in Gilgit

Driving in the Mountains

We were on a 8 day drive along the entire length of the Pakistani part of the Karakorum Highway and back, which is famous both for the scenary and the fact that it was blasted into the sides of mountains-- a massive engineerng feat-- and took the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of men during its construction.  When I was in Xinjiang Ben and I took a long bus ride along part of the Chinese side, although we didn't go all the way to the border.  Still, at the end of this trip I was only 200 km from where I was in China, weeks ago.

The first day was very green, beautiful hills and rice terraces, and small villages with teashops and small shops.  We took a cable car that the locals use to get from one hill village to another, which was beautiful.  Our hotel in Besham, the first village we stayed in, was right on the Indus River, the cradle of South Asian civilization (and where the name "India" comes from), and it was very peaceful just to sit outside, watch the sunset, and sip too-sweet tea and eat biscuits. 

On the drive the Gilgit, the greenery gave way to barren rocky terrain, and it became harsh and arid, with almost no sign of life.  If not for the ever-constant Indus roaring away along the highway, there would be no movement at all.  It got pretty repetitive, actually.  Near Gilgit, however, the mountains became higher, snow-covered, and beautiful, and we saw glaciers as well.  5 of the top 10 highest mountains in the world are in Pakistan, and we saw two of them that day.  We also saw where the three mountains ranges we were driving through met- the Karakorums, the Hindu Kush, and (this is very exciting) the Himalayas.

We almost cancelled this whole trip because of Gilgit.  There are some pretty bad Sunni-Shia tensions in this town.  Clashes in January killed 14 people and led to a curfew where  no one was allowed to leave the house.  Recently, more killings over which version of Islam to teach in the school cirriculum occured, and several shops are still closed.  The tension was in the air, as police with rifles patrolled the streets and set up checkpoints.  We went for a walk, and then decided to get our photos downloaded, which took till after dark, and we had our driver and the entire hotel out looking for us.  They were so worried.  It's too bad because Gilgit is beautiful-- surrounded by snowcapped mountains-- and the biggest town in the region we are visiting, and there would've  been a lot to do in town.

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