I rose, dressed, fumbled out of the door, and made off for the airport once more. Only to sit for another 3 hours, the board delaying the flight again and again till it just said indefinitely. Finally the voice announced over the tannoy that the flight to Gilgit would now be departing. We took off an hour later, but not before the crew realised that flight had been overbooked and people were shuffled around, even the jump seat in the pilots cabin was used. 

As we flew over the hills a thick blanket of snow covered most of the hills, it softened the whole landscape clouds and the hills just blending together. As we approached Gilgit it all thinned out and disappeared to my great disappointment. The flight landed and we walked out into the sunshine, collected our bags and walked out of the airport. Iqubal, the greatest driver in the world (see previous posts), was there to greet us with Meher waiting in the car. We went straight to our hotel ordered some breakfast and rested for a bit, enjoying the sunshine outside. Two tabby kittens joined us and although very shy I managed to get a few pictures of them and watched them play their curious games of catch.

cute kittens...

When Meher turned up to collect us we set off for the local artisans houses. We were there to check on the progress of the pieces we had set them last time, and also to make sure that they could be completed on time and find solutions if the progress looked bad. There was one piece that I was particularly worried about, one woman had been working on a bed spread since Feburary and when we first met her she had only completed four flowers out of 17 and had three sides of a border and French knots to complete and at the last check up she had progresses to seven flowers. When we arrived she brought out the piece.

getting there...

Almost all of the flowers outlines had been finished and another side of the border had been finished, but it was still to much work for one woman to do in four days (we have to take all the pieces back to Islamabad with us next Monday), So we asked her to get her friends to help her finish the piece. When all the business was finished plates of fresh juicy pomegrantes were brought out for us. Apparently they are given to all travellers and tourists because it is thought to bring in a good harvest the next year.

all out to say goodbye

Another artisan who we visited earlier in the day had finished her piece and showed us some other things that she had been working on. Some small dolls clothes which were so cute,

for a miniature man

Georgie fell in love with them and played around with them for quite a bit.

Don't they look cute together

Then we went to go to yet another artisans home to work out some timings for stitches that she used and to pick up one of the shawls that we had asked her to complete when we last met up with them. It was beautiful, neat cross stitch designs  all beautifully composed, meant to be showing things that related to her. There was just one small problem the animal that she was meant to have represented in a box, was supposed to be local, a creature that she saw everyday.

She chose an elephant.

I haven’t exactly seen a lot of elephants in Pakistan, and I doubt she has either. Note to myself when asking the artisans to do something be a lot more specific about what you mean, and be firm about your decision. 

When the day ended we were shattered and eager to go to bed, got a quick bit of dinner and watched a bit of ‘The Family Stone’ and drifted off into a deep sleep.

Posted: September 30th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1

Its been a rather turbulent time since I put up my last post.

The bomb shook us all. Georgie and I have both questioned whether it is time for us to actually start considering the possibilities of going home. For the moment we’re both watching the political situation and how the locals are reacting.

I also think I’m beginning to get cabin fever, from being stuck with the same person day in day out. We spent Sunday trapped in the guest house, unable to go out, as we had been warned that it was safer not to and even if we had wanted to all the decent restaurants (usually frequented by westerners) were shut. The food that we were served that day was the most inedible food I can ever remember eating eaten. Dry cold toast for breakfast, spaghetti bologness (no its not a spelling mistake on my part, that’s how it was listed) which turned out to be chicken in a very artificial tomato ketchup like sauce and spaghetti. Dinner we decided upon soup, creamed chicken soup and toast. This is what appeared at my door

Don't think the colour did it any favours...

Its consistency could only be described as almost set jelly; the cream that had been dribbled in the top had turned hard. I tried to eat its looks reflected its taste and it ended up eating just the toast. That night I went to bed a rather hungry girl.

I awoke at 4:45am the next morning to try and catch our flight to Gilgit (back up north again), and with as much excitement as I could muster at that time in the morning signed out of the guest house and raced off to the airport. We checked in and waited for our flight to be called. We waited, and waited, drank tea, ate a slice of cake and waited. Three hours later they told us it had been cancelled.

So, tired, pissed off and still very hungry georgie and I collected our bags, reconfirmed our tickets for the next morning and went back to the office. When we arrived Georgie broke down admitting she was thoroughly miserable. Georgie had been ill for a few days that week and had also mentioned that she was thoroughly bored because we don’t go out enough, which is true, but she had also complained that I should be happier and more excited out here (rubbing point one. I am happy just a little more reserved than she is and I often find it all a little overwhelming at first)  and I should be more encouraging and positive to help her bounce back to her usual happy self. (rubbing point two. I can be negative or neutral in my outward opinions, but I do not think another’s happiness is my personal responsibility). Anyway to get back to it, Seher told us to take the day of and rest up at her house, and before we left we went round to head office to say hi to Hamid and Ali, again there were tears and more comforting promises were made that after ramadam we would be thoroughly entertained and shown all the local sights that we had been unable to go to, because of our restrictions i.e Never alone, Not going out after dark.

We got to Seher’s and within five minutes I had crashed out, waking only to eat some wonderfully filling meal cooked by the maid and going straight back to sleep. Feeling refreshed I awoke at 5, to find Georgie rummaging through her bags looking worried. She had lost something very dear to her,  I helped check through bags looking for it but no luck. her calls to the guest house to check if it had been lest behind had yielded nothing, all the same we went to check. We pulled up and Georgie rushed in it was there, they had double checked after her call and found it. Case solved we went back to Seher’s had a cup of tea and went over to Phill’s for a bit of Chinese, Father Ted, and 300 (the movie). I crawled into bed about 12 and set my alarm for 4:45am again, praying that tomorrow would be a better day.

Posted: September 29th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

There was a bomb blast today at the Marriott hotel in central Islamabad. 

My prayers and thoughts are with the families and people who have been affected by this. 

The entire city has been shaken by the sheer intensity of the bomb. 

One experience that i hope never to relive.

(since last night the whole city has been shut down, all hotels, restaurants, or other places frequented by travelers or westeners have either closed of been shut down.)

Posted: September 20th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 4

It’s getting to harder and harder to write about the days that I’ve done and not just writing up each day so, again I’m just going to skip through a few small bits from the past few days. Nothing really exciting happened since Saturday anyway, mainly a lot of sleeping and relatively boring office hours. But there were three rather exciting things that occurred

1. Georgie and i decided to sit out on the balcony and watch the sun set, nice relaxing moment at the end of a tiring day.

Relaxing

i noticed a small bat flying about and pointed it out to Georgie, great i thought never usually get to see bats in the UK i didn’t even know they had them out here. then something bigger flew overhead, a little too quietly for a bird, but i didn’t get a very good look at it. then another one flew over the roof, it was a huge huge bat. More of them kept coming and flying over the guest house, we just sat and watched them in awe. I tried to take some photos

but It's a lot easier to take pictures of Georgie

and taking quite photos in the dark of a small black creature isn’t all that easy, so i have a nice black blur to show you instead.

see the sort of black thing at the top of the picture, that's a bat!!!

Oh and one more thing there are little lizards crawling all over the walls in the evening, we saw a lot more in Mithi but there are two living here at the guest house so sticking with the animal theme

yay lizard, isn't it cute?

2. We had our second meeting with Shandana yesterday. She wasn’t really happy with the progress being made  and is concerned that without the artisans being pushed a lot of the products won’t be finished on time (this echo’s Georgie and my own feelings, but this time Seher has to take action). So the suggestion put forward was, that within the next week or so Georgie and i should go back up to the north and go and visit all the artisans one by one and personally check on their progress and either hurry them or come up with a solution so that it can be finished in time. Inside i was jumping for joy, i couldn’t wait to get back into the field and see some more of the amazing things that the northern areas has to offer. we would be getting to travel even further this time as some of the artisans lived higher up into the valleys. yay, more exciting times and i get to wear a jumper again!! and see sights like this…

beautiful... again credit for this goes to Georgie

3. There was the most amazing storm last night, thunder rumbled in the sky, the wind blew so hard i thought it might take the metal sheeting off the roof. i went outside and stood on the front lawn just staring up at the sky, watching patches just light up, as the lightning struck within the clouds, occasionally you would see forks shoot out from the clouds. The atmosphere was absolutely electrifying! i stayed out until i was rained in soaking up the whole atmosphere. I went back upstairs to Georgies room to see if she had been watching the storm and found her hanging out her window taking pictures. she managed to get some amazing shots. If i ask nicely she might let me put up a few of her shots just to show you how intense it was. I think i might do a bit more reading on Lightning, always did love studying the weather.

anyway till tomorrow, Claire x

Posted: September 17th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1

Next morning was beautiful

the magic doorway that lead... to nowhere

I tried some of the local butter, which looked a bit more like lard, but tasted ok. We were also served a fried egg each but after Georgie found a locust in the middle of hers I wasn’t quite as keen on mine. Breakfast over we headed off to the workshop were we met the four artisans,

All in their bright colours

there were meant to be a few more but due to our delay in Gilgit they were unable to meet us the few days later than our original plan. So we got down to work sorting out what had to be done, and there was quite a lot to do.

Cutting out shapes

on the fabric so that the women could begin to appliqué them on to three cushions and a blanket that a designer had requested from some prints that had been sent over.

Seher at work

The ladies set about the task and when the time came for them to leave, they said goodbye and we carried on working for the next three hours till we had everything sorted for the next day. We had to leave no later than 2pm otherwise we wouldn’t make it to Karachi by dark (apparently the new political situation means that we should all be a bit more cautious than we normally would, especially when it come to travelling in the dark).

Mithi and the moon

We arrived back at the guest house again to find that it was over run with crickets/locust flying everywhere and dive bombing at us, apparently a small swarm and landed in the area and were taking over for the evening. So we retreated to our rooms, completely covered up and dashed out to eat very, very quickly. I finished in probably the quickest time I have ever eaten a meal. Georgie tried to watch a bit of TV outside our rooms, but quickly realised that getting dive-bombed every couple of seconds wasn’t worth watching “Failure to Launch”. Eventually after getting rid of the crawling bug feeling, we slept soundly till the next morning.

Morning came and the bugs had gone, we ate up and dashed over to the workshop. When we came in and greeted the women, Georgie noticed that they were wearing a bindi on their foreheads

(the little red dot on the forehead)

 and asked if they would let her wear one two. So highly amused they agreed and gave her one of theirs to wear.

more people assumed she spoke Urdu when she wore it

They really livened up after that, and I practiced a bit of Urdu that I had recently learnt “yay billie he” translated this is a cat and I learnt the word for flower and how to say my name is Claire, “Mira nam Claire he”. It’s almost defiantly not spelt correctly but it is roughly how it sounds. But this small attempt at Urdu on my part encouraged them to get me to learn a few more words, and so I tried to teach them the same in English, as they hoping to send one of the women over to England for the exhibition.

looking closely

We set them up with all the bits that needed to be done and the local RSP with instructions to keep a close eye on the work and the quality of finish. I was just about to take a group shot before we left and my camera died, I must point out that the batteries that I was using had lasted since about June and I had completely forgotten to pack more in my smaller suitcase. I was absolutely kicking my self, but hey I’m going back again and I’ll take double the amount of photos next time!

last views of Mithi till next time

By three we were back on the road to Karachi. Even though I was sitting in a fully air-conditioned car the sunlight coming through the windows was roasting me, but I was just so fascinated by everything that we drove past I didn’t really care. Five hours later and we entered Karachi city at rush hour with all the trucks and witnessed more than a few accidents (but luckily all with the cars rather than people) lots of gripping the seat and closing the eyes on my part. Georgie and I felt that we didn’t get quite enough fabric the first time, so after Iftar when the shops had re-opened we dashed back out for an extra hour and went around the fabric market again and picked up a few more bits before going back and sleeping with no fear of bugs.

 Wednesday we got up caught our plan home and dashed back to the office. Islamabad looked different as we drove to our guesthouse that evening, so civilised, tidy and ordered. Which felt so utterly strange from our initial take on the city, Dirty, unorganised, rude, and boring. We were glad to be back, especially going to our new guesthouse where we could actually unpack and live in the room. But I was most looking forward being able to sit out on the balcony and enjoy the evening (forgetting about the mosquitoes for a second), oh and the free Internet! So now I’m going to skip to this Saturday because that’s when the fun started again!

 I got a call early in the morning from Seher, apparently she and Georgie had decided the night before that we should go to Nirvana to go get a manicure or pedicure, because tonight we were going to a party. My first house party, yes I know rather sad but hey, I’m a late bloomer when it comes to these sorts of things. So we walked round to Nirvana, as we’re now only a street away from it. I went for a pedicure (as it’s a barefoot party, apparently all the parties over here have to have a theme) and then we went to the café for a small spot of lunch and over to Sehers to pick out something to wear. According to Seher, a shalwarr kameeze isn’t typical of what you wear to a house party over here, as its usually full of expats, you wear normal party stuff, which was everything Georgie and I had thought was totally inappropriate to wear out here. Very kindly Seher lent me one of her dresses and Georgie styled her clothes in a different way. We went to Phils house before we went to the party, definatly better to go with those that you know than alone. We met a few lovely women who also worked for the British high commission and invited us to their champange fridays, their antidote to the lack of things to do in Islamabad. Ten o’clock came around and we made off for the party, we knew we had found the right street as it was lined with cars with loud music filling the air. A dance floor had been cleared and there were a few people dancing away but most stood around drinking and chatting outside the house. I chatted to a few people and did a bit of dancing towards the end of the party, i even tried learning a few new pakistani dance moves (katy you would be proud).

Seher, Phill, and Myself

It wasn’t the best party but we still had quite a bit of fun.

Seher, myself and Georgie

we left around 4am when the party was beginning to finish up and as soon as we got back to the guest house i curled up in bed, and slept.

A bit like this...

Posted: September 16th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1

We got up early, but we were already late. I had left it to Georgie to set the alarm for the next day but, as many of us do she mistook the AM setting for the PM. We shoved everything into our bags and dashed to the car hoping to catch our flight out of Gilgit. We made it and then had to queue and wait and queue again to get onto the plane  the skies over the mountains were fairly clear, our only turbulence was over Islamabad, i still managed to sneak in another trip up to the pilots cabin, its just sooo cool and they definitely have the best view. As soon as we had touched down in Karachi we were off and rushing again, back to the office to drop off some stuff, get a fresh set of underwear, check emails, pick up some lunch and go back to the airport to catch our flight for Karachi (all while it was raining like crazy outside). Back at the airport we began to relax the last leg of our journey for a short while, but as we reached the security check point i was stopped and asked if i had a knife in my bag. I had forgotten to put my penknife in my main bag so i was turned away told to hand it in to one of the check-in staff. I felt sure I would never see it again. I wasn’t happy, it was a gift from a friend before I left and meant quite a lot to me. I put it out of my mind and boarded the flight. When we arrived in Karachi I was still feeling slightly blue, Seher and Georgie tried to cheer me up and re-assure me that it might be in one of our bags, but I knew it was gone. We drove straight to our guest house where Seher dropped us off and went to stay with her parents who lived a couple of streets away. We decided to stay in and take the rest of the evening easy.

The next day we decided to do a bit of exploring in the city and with Georgies guidebook in hand we set off (me without my camera, as its makes me feel like the ultimate tourist and target, so afraid no pics of Karachi this time around). We took a tuk tuk into one of the main shopping areas and started to wonder up and down through the markets, each seller trying to get our attention, apparently the first customer of the day gets a better deal, but this patter is for every new customer (as Seher later told us, she was offered the same thing at about 2 in the afternoon). I was sorely tempted to buy a beautiful patchwork quilt but decided to leave it as there’s always plenty more to see. We trailed round the market areas one by one and Georgie picked up some bracelets  and a couple of other bits. Empress market was full of dried and fresh fruits and nuts and spices. I bought a bag of dried apricots and Georgie went for almonds pistachios and some dates. As we walked through the market we found the meat area a large warehouse in the middle, full of carcasses hung up people bartering over cuts of meat, flies buzzed around our heads and I didn’t stop to take a closer look. Unfortunately on the other side was an even more pleasant sight the heads of the animals were lined up for sale, you see they quite like to eat brains here, you can even get brain curry…mmmmm. As we carried on walking around looking at all the weird and wonderful displays I began to get rather annoyed by just how noisy it was, the buses and cars all honking horns, people all chattering away at each other, the general humm of generators as they worked overtime to power all the air conditioning units. I had noticed a church as we were walking through the city and thought great what a wonderful place to go and just clear my head for a few minutes. It was locked and so was the next one, it seems the churches over here aren’t quite as welcoming as I had hoped. So Georgie and I hopped back into a taxi and went to the fabric shopping area. Like a mini shopping area just full of fabric stores, the shop keepers all saying, ‘hello miss, hello, come look’ telling us that the had wonderful fabric that they were sure we would like. By now Georgie and I have learnt to smile, nod and either shake you head or say no ‘shukrea’ (thank you in Urdu) and carry on walking. So we strolled around the shops looking at broderie anglaise, silk chiffon’s, velvets, Irish linens, silk devore, lightweight summer cottons, more ribbons and a few tailors tucked in along the edges. Some printed with bright coloured flowers, others interesting geometric patterns, I wanted them all, this is most defiantly my kind of shopping I could have stayed there all day. I ended up just buying a couple of yards of the most beautiful silks and silk chiffon’s, but promising that if I had time when we came back to Karachi I would be going out to get more…

Getting back to our Guest house was a little difficult as there aren’t really street names in Karachi. There are named areas and we took down the name of the guest house, but we didn’t know any of the local landmarks or how to direct in Urdu. So when our tuk tuk driver couldn’t work out where it was that we were supposed to be going and drove round in circles for a bit before stopping to discuss our destination with the local traffic police. I called up Seher and after a rather long discussion she managed to get him to head in the right direction. Back at the guest house we scrubbed up and waited for Seher, she had invited us over to her house for Iftar (the first meal after fasting) and dinner. It was wonderful and was really nice to get to meet her family and have some home cooked Pakistani food! We rounded up the evening at about twelve, Georgie was so tired she almost fell asleep sitting up.

 Sunday morning we had a lie in. A nice wind down after the past few days, that we most defiantly needed. After lunch we packed up, picked up Seher and headed off for the desert, on a lovely five hour drive. We drove out of the city and into the desert passing though small towns, all bustling with markets, tuk tuks, animals and people. There were shops selling huge lengths of bamboo used for scaffolding,

All shapes and sizes

and lined up by the dozen were jingerly jangerlies.

trucks so heavily decorated with wood, stickers, bells, that you can’t help but notice them

Then we would go for a stretch where there was nothing at all for miles,

nothing for miles

just rough scrub land, slightly greener thanks to monsoon season.

quite a few fields of rice and corn

I ended up sleeping for about an hour and when I woke up we were still traveling but the sun was beginning to set. The animals were still roaming around in the dark and with a severe lack of street lights we almost drove straight into a caravan of camels.

(sorry its so blurry, driving and stopping suddenly doesn't do much for picture perfect shots)

We arrived in Mithi all busting for the loo and extremely tired. It wasn’t quite as hot as I had expected it to be, but happily it was a lot less humid which made the heat a whole lot more bearable. Some food was already prepared for us and although it was spicy lots of yogurt was there to help calm it down, and it was probably the best home cooked Pakistani meal yet. At our guest house we settled into our rooms, I decided it might be wise for me to put up my mosquito net as we had already seen cockroaches, crickets/locus, mosquito’s and a large black beetle that had scuttled across the floor. Certainly made me feel a bit happier that I might not get bitten, my bites were beginning to add up and irritate me.

Posted: September 15th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

Our Hotel back in Gilgit wasn’t the nicest hotel I have stayed in, Dirty sheets, towels, carpet and a friendly cockroach in the bathroom! The wake up call at 4:30am for those fasting didn’t help to improve my opinion of the hotel. When we did finally decide to get up we found out from Seher that our flight had been cancelled so we had an extra day in Gilgit.

The morning started off with a trip across another suspension bridge although this one heads straight into a cave on the other side,

Into the cave

makes it a bit difficult to see the other cars trying to come through (and with only one car on the bridge at a time, it make the experience a whole lot more exciting).

It creaked all the way across...

Georgie and I didn’t really know where we were going and so sat quitetly till we pulled up in the middle of a field, and walked up to a house. The door opened and we recognised one of the artisans that we had worked with in Gilgit. We had brought her one of the scarves to work on that we picked up in Hunza. She welcomed us straight into her house and as we sat down she brought in lots of apples and pears from her own garden. even though it is Ramazan she insisted that as a guest in her house we should eat them.

A fruity arrangement

 So we steadily ate our way through a few as Seher timed one of the types of embroidery that she used on a hat,

Sewing away...

which Georgie later tried on.

The Giggly girls

We went to one of the bazaars to look for some fabric, couldn’t find what we wanted so the girls from Gilgit office suggested we go to see the carving of Buddha on the mountain and the streams from the snow. We made it up there and gaped at the carving very nice but nothing special, but the stream was wonderful,ice cold water straight off the mountains.

hot day cold feet

The water was so blue, so clean I was able to drink straight from my hands, you know when its so cold that you get a rush to the head, so refreshing. I rolled up my shalwarr kameeze and decided to have a quick wade in, a few minutes later I quickly realised that I could no longer feel my feet and so moved back into the sun to warm up.

This stream wasn’t quite good enough for our drivers there were bigger streams where we could paddle more, so we drive back down a bit and went deeper into the valley.

Really just a donkey track...

The roads up these valleys are the strangest I have ever been on. The road (partly built by the Chinese) just stops and starts again, so we would go from smooth if slightly bumpy roads to rock and sand track. There are never any barriers to stop you from going over the edge, you are completely reliant on the skill of your driver.

Yay Iqbal, he's our man if he can't do it no one can

The situation was made all the more interesting when we met cars coming the other way, when it appears that a game of chicken takes place i.e you drive straight at each other and only at the very last moment to do you both move over just enough to pass each other by.

Most scary on the Karakome highway (look for the faint line above the trees, that's the road. nice drop.)

Anyway we got half way up this valley and the light had changed the evening was beginning to turn, so we gave up and headed back down stopping for something to eat next to a rocky river bed. I took off my sandals and rolled up my trousers and went for it climbing over rocks going for quick paddles in the icy river.

Rashid on the rocks

Dashing back occasionally for bits of food or something to drink. Georgie just sat and watched the world go by on a rock for a bit,

watching the world go by

there was nothing else for at least a mile around, and the sound of the rushing river filled the air. I right then that our flight might get cancelled for another day, just so I could enjoy the pure beauty of this amazing place for just a bit longer, I am in love with the mountains.

The next day we woke up early to make our flight, got there waited to find out if it had taken off from Islamabad. But the weather had turned and the flight was cancelled. Much to Sehers disgust we had to check back into another hotel, and then return to Gilgits RSP office. We checked our emails and headed out  this time to explore a different valley.

Just stunningly beautiful

The way up was so rocky with little sign of any life, the roads full of sand and rocks and then it began to rain. I had laughed off the fear with which the weather up here was talked of, how could a little bit of rain get people so frightened. I began to realise why as we wound our way up the Valley edges, the way above us was virtually vertical and very soft sand stone or something similar (sorry daddy, I still can’t quite tell what they all are), anyway the rain loosens it all and without warning a landside can start. But knowing that I was going to be fine, I stayed calm as i could and soon enough the rain stopped and the sun lit up the way. The further up the valley we got the greener it became and the more people and donkeys we passed, but the more we went on the futher the road detoriated till you could barely call it a track let alone a road. Then we found…

"THE BRIDGE (of mild mortal peril)"

The most dangerous bridge I have ever seen, not very high but over a very fast flowing, turbulant section of the river. Purely made from sticks and a few gaps filled in with rocks from the road, but a jeep similar to our had just crossed it so over we went, slowly, I just closed my eyes and prayed especially hard. It wasn’t until the next day that Seher told me, the driver said on the way back down, we probally shouldn’t have gone over that bridge, especially with us all in the car. Sometimes I’m really glad there’s a language barrier.

see quite easy when you shut your eyes...

We reached the top after about three and a half hours, and stopped at what a sign painted on a rock called a Hotel, although it was more just like a well constructed hut.

nice holes for air conditioning

But it still deserved its name ‘The Lake View Hotel’ for just in front of it was the most beautiful lake. The bottom of the lake was covered with algy in the brightest array of greens and blues, even where there wasn’t any the water was so clear it literally glowed in the sunlight.

i still can't believe how beautiful it was

It was so inviting and I was very tempted to go for a swim but there were men around and after a quick temp check with my hand, the thought soon vanished.

so calm and clear it reflected everything perfectly...

We got back in the car and went around a few more bends till the end of the track and decided that now would be a good time for lunch. We wolfed it down, I did a bit more exploring round the edge and watched Rashid and Iqbal skip stones across the still lake, then jumped back in the car and started off back down the valley.

over another part of the raging river

Didn’t take nearly as long to go down, and I chose to sit in the front seat by the window, just to see the drops on the edge of the road.

The wonderful vertical drops

I slept well that night. Isn’t it amazing how much a car journey can tire you out. 

Posted: September 11th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

So back in Islamabad, and the internet at the guest house isn’t quite as amazing as expected, but i still have it and its better than nothing. A few more good bits thought, my bank card finally decided to work yesterday, yay! so i can now live on more than just 330 rupees per day, roughly £2.40 (my monthly wage divided by 30). Second good bit, i recieved my first letter from my granny. It had arrived while i was away travelling but the post mark said it reached Islamabad on the 4th, (note to granny: it takes roughly a week, give or take a bit for a letter to get here). So all in all a bit of an emoitional evening thinking bout family and home and just crashing out recovering and showering off all the sand and grit.

But anyway back to my travels. Day 2: Hunza 

I work up at 8:30 to a beautiful crisp morning, the air was filled with the small sounds of the valley beginning to wake up.

Looking up the valley

The snow capped mountains surrounded the green valley and you could hear the faint roar of the river that flowed through the bottom of the valley.

looking down the valley

The breakfast was the best that I have had since arriving, fresh apricots (locally grown), fruit salad, fried egg, toast with lurpack butter and jam and fresh orange juice! Lunch is usually mid afternoon so you have to stock up on breakfast or you’ll get very hungry. After Georgie and i had finished, Rashid arrived so we strolled around the garden and picked a few apples from the hotels garden

 and set off up the hill to an old fort.

See the fort at the bottom of the mountain?

Unfortunately just as we reached it we had to turn back, all the artisans had arrived and were waiting for us at the workshop.

We walked into the room to find 20 women waiting for us

one of the twenty

Seher quickly introduced us and the work began. Some how Rashid had been able to download and print off the layouts that the designer had wanted so we set about explaining them to the women. The layouts then had to be transferred to the scarves so that the women knew where they were supposed to be sewing. I was charged with marking things out and making sure that the lines were as visible as possible, In the past the women had been using ballpoint pen on the products and consequently some of the pieces had been ruined. So as the girl in charge of finishing this was one of the points I had to make sure they understood pen + product = poor quality of finish = no pay. We did have fun with the women and they were very helpful even when we struggled with the language barrier.

Picking their threads

I was able to make a few suggestions about the way things might be done and when I explained why they were taken on board. Feels really rather strange to have people listening to you opinion and really valuing your input, believing that I know more about finishing and the processes of things.

At around five we finally finished, packed up and went back to our hotel. Georgie and I sat outside and watched the sun set over the mountains then we packed up and set off back down the mountain.

View from the verranda

I was so sorry to leave that place, I loved the cool, clean, fresh air, the stunning views, cute shops (that sold all sorts of gems!) and the freshest fruit.

mmmm tasty apple...

On our way back to Gilgit we stopped off at the bottom of mount Rakaposhi for something to eat. The sunset meaning that the rest of the people with us could eat as well, as Ramadam began that day.

The ever beautiful Georgie

I tried the local dowda soup made with chunks of beef, noodles and other local bits, it changes according to each town so you never quite know what your going to get. It was great to eat warm soup as we looked up at the glacier and the wind from the river rushed by us.

the EFU girls, with Seher and Georgie

The place that served the wonderful soup and pakoras

so for now another sight of Rakaposhi, till tomorrow, love from me x

Posted: September 11th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

Well I’m finally back in Islamabad, and it feels great to be stuck in just one place for a bit. Our trip went on for a bit longer than we initially expected, but i had some great adventures which made it completely worth it. I’ve tried to keep writing bits as I’ve gone along but I’m still a few days short of the entire thing, and as there’s rather a lot of it I’ve broken it down into bit which I shall post up over the next few days.

We began our travels to complete some workshops with our groups in Gilgit and Hunza (the northern parts of the country) and then later on to Karachi and Miti. So mini bit of information about the north of Pakistan, flights are pretty irregular as it all depends on the weather. If they can’t see their way through the mountains because of cloud or any other obstacle then they cant fly because otherwise they risk crashing into a mountain. We were very lucky, caught our flight and had one of the clearest views they had seen in quite a while. We past some huge mountains, namely Rakaposhi.

The magnificent (although rather dangerous) Rakaposhi

Both Georgie and I were invited up to the cockpit to see the mountains as we flew by, most beautiful views. Not something you get to do everyday.

Looking down these messages were written all over the mountains

When we arrived in Gilgit at the tiniest airport, where there are only two flights a day (they lock it up when it not in use), we went straight to the office and after a quick cup of tea (yes I’m beginning to like tea) we started our workshop with the artisans.

Working out what had to be done by whom

Looking at some of the products that they had finished or were in the process of finishing, giving them new scarves to embroider and trying to communicate our problem with the threads. We came up against a few problems in that, I didn’t pack enough threads for the workshops a mistake I wont be repeating, and that the designers email detailing her work didn’t come through in time before we left. So the design idea that she sent us were stuck some where in cyber space. Oh so helpful when your working with a designer who appears to be rather picky about how her work should be done. Anyway all in all it was a good workshop, an easy starter for Georgie and myself, I enjoyed meeting the women and looking at the designs that they came up with and how much they enjoyed their work.

Georgie looking pretty in purple

On the same day it had been decided that we would travel up to Hunza in the evening so that we could have a full day up there and make the most of our workshop. So Seher, Rashid, Georgina and myself all piled into our car (a sturdy Toyota land cruiser) and set off.

The usual bridge to cross the river and take us to the other side of the valley had recently been washed away by some strong flood water so the only way to get across was by using the wooden suspension bridge (built by the army and I wasn’t supposed to take pictures).

Across the bridge we go

I was rather nervous about crossing the bridge, but I later came to see it as one of the safest and regularly maintained in the area.

On the other side of the bridge we came up against and interesting situation, a protest had begun, rocks were being piled onto the road so as to stop all the local traffic and when a few drivers tried to cross the blockade young men with hockey sticks and metal bars moved in threatening to damaged the car. Tyres were brought in and burned filling the air with acrid smoke. All the while the road had been filling up with more and more cars and motorbikes all trying to get through. We calmly sat in the car eating lollipops watching the situation unfold around us. An hour and a half later the army intervened and we were allowed on our way.

By now darkness was closing in and the road wound around the edges of cliffs, the darker it got the tighter I clung to the seat in front (quick note: most of the cars in Pakistan don’t have seat belts in the back of the car). Getting thrown around in the back of the car as we twisted around corners and up and over all the bumps in the road continually tensing my muscles expecting the worst every time we over took a vehicle on a corner was very tiring and by the time we made it to Hunza, a good two hours late (we met another mini protest on the way), I was shattered. Almost too shattered to notice the amazing night sky and the huge black skyline of the mountains that blotted out the bottom of the sky, or appreciate the coolness of the mountain air before I fell asleep.

Mount Rakaposhi fading into the night

Posted: September 10th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

Claire x

Posted: September 5th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 3