PAKISTAN •TRAVEL

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Total km biked: 1285 km
Days biked: 16 days

The road condition varied greatly.  We heard from some people that the Karakoram Highway (KKH) is in the worst condition it has been in the last 15 years. We thought the road was great for cycling.  Although there were quite a few potholes and rock scars in sections, there were no major problems, but the drivers can be a bit wild. While cycling the KKH, we were delayed by 2 landslides, one just south of Pattan, which was cleared within a few hours and one just after Sost on the way to the Khunjerab Pass.  This landslide was much more significant, blocking the road for over three weeks.  The debris flooded a nearby river, which in turn flooded the KKH itself.  From what we heard and observed, the Pakistani highway department is totally unorganzed.  After two weeks of the road being blocked, the chairman finally decided to make a trip out to the site to assess the damage.  Eventually, a Chinese road crew came down to help with the clean up.  As a result, the road was cleared in a couple of days. 

Extrememly hot in the south (Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad). We recorded near 50 degree (Celcius) temperatures in Lahore (in May). Although the KKH gains elevation as it continues north, it was still very hot until we reached Karimabad.  We lucked out with a few days of overcast weather around Gilgit, which was a welcomed relief.

Food and water was readily available, though a little bit thin around the area of Pattan in Indus Kohistan.  In the south (until about Abbottabad) there are extremely well stocked gas station convenience stores, where we ate lots of popsicles.  These gas stations also have bathroom facilities and drinking water (though we still used our filter). Many people at petrol stations offered us gifts of cold drinks and food.  The Indus River is inaccessible from the KKH in most places, due to the KKH's high position on the canyon wall.  Fortunately many streams cross the KKH originating from mountain drainages.  Water was never a problem for us.  Pakistani people in general are also extremely generous and kind to guests (as in the Muslim religion guests are considered a gift from God), and multiple times a day cars would stop, offering us cold drinks, snacks and water. 

Food in Pakistan tends to be on the greasy side and seems to give everyone a little digestive rock and roll at one time or another.  Meat is extremely popular, and as a result vegetarians are often left with the choice of oily dal (lentils) or even more oily sabzi (vegetable, usually okra in rurual areas during the time of year we visited (May/June)), or chapatti.  Karimabad offered, by far the best food options on our route, with nearly every guesthouse/hotel offering a set price all you can eat meal with 3 or 4 courses, including a salad, soup, 3 different meat and/or vegetable dishes served with rice and chapatti, and dessert.  The hotel owners/workers in this area are really great hosts as well - very nice people as a whole.

On a practical note, many Pakistani restaurants also have a "Family Room" where women and families eat, please see our World Culture - Food page for more information.

We used a combination of hotels/guesthouses, people's homes and camping.  Outside of the more tourist centered region in the Northern Areas of Pakistan (Karimabad, Passu, etc), hotels where more expensive than we expected.  In Rawalpindi, we paid about US$6.50 for a double room for one night.  This was a pretty standard price until we reached Hunza.  Here, where there are more tourist visits, we could easily find a double room for $2.50. 

As we cycled through the Muslim fundamentalist region of Indus Kohistan, we stayed in a couple of hotels, but also chose to camp at police stations, due to the dangerous nature of this area (Please read our Keep Turning updates for more information.).  Police in Pakistan are incredible for tourists!  Often times while cycling through a checkpoint, they would invite us to join them for tea and meals.  They were extremely generous, allowing us to sleep in their compound.  The police post just north of Raikot Bridge was exceptionally incredible, as they cooked us dinner and breakfast, and spent about one and a half hours helping us fix all of our flat tires as a result of running over a collection of thorns earlier in the day. 

We were also invited into people's homes regularly.  As we pulled into Gujranwala early one afternoon, we walked into a small store to ask where an inexpensive hotel was located.  Immediately, we were asked to sit down and given a glass of water.  Soon after a plate of chawal (rice and chickpeas) was brought over and the man's nephew, who spoke English appeared.  The rest of the day was spent with this nephew and his friends who rented a car to drive us to all of the local sites, fed us lunch and dinner and many snacks, took us to relax by a small river and to visit a local farm, and offered us a free place to sleep for the night.  Incredible and not unusal in Pakistan!

Alternate transportation: After hearing some awful stories about female cyclists being raped and male cyclists being beaten in the fundamentalist area of Indus Kohistan, we considered taking a bus from Chilas to Raikot Bridge. After much discussion, we decided to cycle, so we did not take any public/alternate transportation in Pakistan until Sost (Khunjerab Pass). Cyclists are not allowed to ride over the Khunjerab Pass into China, per order of the Chinese government.   Therefore, it is neccessary to take a bus from Sost, Pakistan to Tashkurgan, China, which is actually quite expensive, costing about US$30 per person/bike (cyclists must also pay for their bikes). 

We really didn't use much of a map in Pakistan.  The KKH is a very obvious road...it would be hard to get lost!  We did get a tourist map of the KKH from a travel agency in Murree which we carried with us, but rarely used.

Pakistan is an incredible place of drastic extremes, in our opinion.  We experienced so much genuine hospitality and kindness, which is unknown about Pakistani people in the general population in the west, or the US, at least, however to be fair there is another side of Pakistan as well which not kind nor honorable (Please read our Keep Turning updates for more information.).  As far as culture, it has been one of the most amazing places for us on our entire journey.  That being said, there are also some serious precautions and dangers to be aware of. Cycling through the Muslim fundamentalist Indus Kohistan area (most cyclists take a bus through this section or are given a police escort or plan their trip to avoid it entirely) for females in particular is not recommended in our opinion.  Females are not allowed out of the home after ages 10 or 12.   They are extremely supressed and are not allowed to be educated.  We did not see a single teenaged or adult female for 4 days.   Due to the lack of interactions with females, men in this area do not know how to react to women. Reactions can range from inappropriate over interest to disguist and sometimes a twisted combination of both, resulting in violent crimes/rape against women.  This area is lawless.  Many Pakistani tourists we met as we traveled told us this area is dangerous for them as well, with cars and busses being robbed.  More than once, we were told by passing motorists not to stop cycling on the road and be careful of local citizens. In the southern area of this region near the town of Besham, very large rocks/boulders were thrown at us from the side of the road, as well as from cliffs 30-40 meters above the road.  On the worst day, rocks were thrown about 20 different times in one day.  Not very enjoyable to say the least. In our opinion, Pakistan is a land of extremes.  We met the most incredibly generous and giving people we have ever met here, as well as the most hostile. 

There is also an incredible bond between women in Pakistan, that even Meredith, as a foreigner was able to be a part of.  Due to the oppression of women, they seem to come together in joy; laughing and truly enjoying their time together. The women were extremely generous, wanting to give Meredith gifts of clothes, jewelry and even spent over an hour painting her hands with traditional henna designs usually reserved for marriage parties.  In a private residence the back of the house is the women's territory.  As a man, Keith was never allowed into this area, while Meredith cooked, talked and played with the children and babies of the family. 

We would also really recommend the Rakaposhi Basecamp trek (which can easily be done in a day, although the Lonely Planet lists it as a three day trek) and the hike to Hon Pass from Karimabad, which can also be completed in a day with no trouble.

Atm's are easy to find in the large cities of the south.  But cyclists and tourists should be aware that after Gilgit, few atm's exist for foreign cards (we heard there was one in Karimabad, which was untrue).  In Karimabad, there is a Western Union branch. There are no atm's or money changing banks in Sost.  Who ever heard of a border town that does not change money?  Also in Tashkurgan, banks do not change US dollars to Yuan.  Hotels or private businesses are the only option, but they offer a terrible rate of 7 Yuan to 1 USD.  Our lesson was get the correct currency (and enough of it) in advance. 

Internet access is also quite slow in Pakistan. We managed to find one DSL connection in all of Rawalpindi after hours of searching.  It is called PacNet in Sadar Bazar. There is a place in Gilgit which offers a satellite connection, but this is not very fast either.  The best connection we found (but which was also slow and unreliable) was in Karimabad. Next to Cafe de Hunza is an internet cafe run by a Canadain non profit organization.  In China, the connection is much cheaper and faster, especially in Kashgar.

We obtained a free visa extension in Islamabad, but it took two days of processing.  We met multiple people in Gilgit who received a free extension on the spot, so it seems like a better option for extending your stay in Pakistan.

We are pretty certain that not a single day passed by where we were not given a gift of some sort, whether it be a cold drink or an offer to pay for our meal or an invitation to sleep at a private residence. 

Although there is an anti-American government sentiment in general in Pakistan, we never experienced any acts of aggression due to the fact that we were from the US.  However, we did not freely offer this information either, especially in the Indus Kohistan region.  We were advised by the District Attorney of this area to tell the general public that we were from Cuba (whose capital is Savannah, but some people call it Havannah, did you know).   Most people outside of the Kohistan area, were able to distinguish between a country's people and its government, although mentioning we were from the US was a sure conversation stopper.