Islambore!
Trip Start
May 15, 2006
1
124
145
Trip End
Nov 2007
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
back to Gilgit in order to go to a place called Skardu
to watch a Polo tournament which is held there every
year for Independance day, we d checked the dates and
as I really wanted to see some Polo in Pakistan, we
thought it was worth the 20 hr bus back to Gilgit.
When we got there, we found out that the Skardu polo
was cancelled!
Just as we were tearing our hair out, a guy at our
hostel told us that there was going to be a Polo
tournament for Independance day at a place called
Babusar Pass, on the way back to Islamabad which was
our next destination. No one really seemed sure of the
dates and its the first time they ve held a tournament
there so we weren t sure if it would be any good. We
ummed and ahhhed about what to do and we d just made
up our minds to go when someone told us that the
villagers of Babusar have a reputation for being
really unfriendly 2 foreigners and the whole area is
known for being inbred and unfriendly! On the morning
we were supposed to leave we went to see if we could
book flights from Gilgit to Islamabad for the next day
but they were full for a week and we couldn t face the
20 hr bus again so we decided that at least Babusar
would break up the journey, even if it was rubbish.
A guy from the hostel was going there so we stuck with
him and he really looked after us. The road to babusar
starts about 4 hrs away from Gilgit and jeeps only go
there in the morning so we had to spend the 1st night
in Chilas, the town at the junction which was HOT. It
s situated in a deep gorge and the rocks absorb heat
so it never cools down, even at night. It was the
worst nights sleep I ve had for a long time, the only
way to get any relief was to chuck a bucket of cold
water over ourselves and lay down under the fan, we d
be dry in 5 mins!
So, Babusar. It was really worth the effort. It was a
beautiful setting and a great atmosphere. We were the
only 2 foreiners there and we were treated like
royalty. We stayed in the VIP camping and got free
meals there. We also got prime seats in the VIP stand
to watch the matches. We were even interviewed by the
press and national TV! The Polo was fantastic, much
rougher than at home and the riders don\t change
horses for the whole mmatch, pretty impressive when
the Polo ground is at 4 200 masl! After melting in
Chilas we were freezing up there at night. We hadn t
planned to stay for the whole festival but it was so
good we decided to watch the final on the 14th and
head off straight afterwards. We wern t sure if we
would make it all the way to Islamabad in a day but we
went for it anyway. The first leg of the journey was
60km from Babusar to Naran village - a hill station
popular with Punjabi tourists. It took 6 hours, the
road was the worst one we ve seen in pakistan and
thats saying something! About half way a jeep in front
of us got stuck in the mud. The driver and others who
were stuck behind him tried everything to free it,
even tried to tow it out but the rope snapped. It was
time for the last resort. A family of 6 fat Pizza Hut
eating Punjabis decided that they would have to get
out of the back of the jeep! They declined to help,
preffering to stand and watch and moan about getting
their shoes muddy whilst complete strangers did the
dirty work for them and got the jeep out of the mud.
While all this was unfolding, our driver decided to
take a short cut thru a ditch to get past the stuck
jeep. Of course resulting in our jeep getting stuck
even worse than the one in front! 90 mins later we
were all back on the road and heading for Naran again.
5 km from Naran we stopped in the middle of hicksville
for a 1 hr lunch break at 5pm! At 6.30 we fianally got
to Naran and got straight on a minibus for mansera,
120km away and on the main rd to the capital.
After 30 mins our bus turned around due to landslides
blocking the road so we were stuck in naran for the
night. The next day however, buses were running so we
set off at 11am. At 11pm we arrived in Mansera! It was
a long, long, hot tedious day. However we made lots
of friends along the way who invited us to parties and
dinner in Lahore and were unbelievably generous,
refusing to let us pay for drinks and snacks. We
decided to carry on our mission to Islamabad sice we
were already shattered and there were 2 seats in a
mini bus ready to go. At 2.30 am we arrived. Only to
find that all the hotels in Rawalpindi were rat
infested dives, overpriced or full. The biggest
difficulty we ve found travelling in Pakistan is
finding decent accomodation. You actually have to
demand clean sheets and batrooms, the standards are
truely gruesome. By 3.45 am we still were homeless so
we decided we\d try the hotels in Islamabad 10 kms
away. We had a rest at the taxi stand and left for
Islamabad at 5am since it wouldn\t be worth paying for
a nights accomodation by this point, we waited for an
early check in.
Finally we found an OK hotel. we had 2 hrs sleep and
then set off for the Indian embassy to apply for our
visas. This is the last place in the world you need to
be after a mammouth journey and 2 hrs kip! It was
frustratingly slow, annoying and of course, hot! Most
of the people in the queue behind us, Dean commented
smelt as if they had put a pickled onoin under each
armpit a week ago and had not showered since! This
didn t help either. After 2 hrs melting in the 40 plus
heat we got to the front of the queue and were hit by
an icy blast of air con thru the tiny gap below the
window. Any other country let you into the embassy but
India make you queue outside and sweat - or freeze if
u go to the one in London! It takes a week to get the
visa and Islamabad is dull beyond belief so we r
waiting in Lahore which is awesome beyond belief.
Hopefully we ll be off to India this time next week!
