Pakistan - Page 4

People heading for evening prayer at the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore.

Delhi Gate, the most imposing entrance to the Lahore Fort, which is very similar to the Red Fort in Delhi, and the Agra Fort, as they were built by the same ruler Shah Jahan.

Local busses all over Pakistan are decorated this way, this one is in Peshawar. I arrived in Peshawar after an 18 hour train ride from Lahore that cost $1.75. Peshawar is a frontier city on the border with Afghanistan and during the time of the Soviet Occupation apparently had a higher concentration of spies and intelligence agents (CIA, Mossad, British, French, Soviet...) than anywhere else on Earth. During that time, and more recently with the brutal rule of the Taliban and lately the "War on Terrorism", Peshawar has become home to a lot of Pakistan's roughly 3 million Afghani refugees. It is still a base for arms and drug smuggling, and in the mountainous regions along the border with Afghanistan to the West of Peshawar are the notorious "tribal areas" which have defied virtually all government rule since the time of the British Raj until today. I was a bit uneasy here, it was a startling thought to me that my tax money back in Canada had paid for troops and weapons in this "War on Terror" that had forced some of the very people I saw here from their homes in Afghanistan.

Some local Pashtoon Chefs, Peshawar. Even with my unease as mentioned above, I was always treated as an honoured and respected guest in Peshawar, as in other places. This is the custom in most Islamic countries, and hospitality is an especially important tradition of the Pashtoons, who strictly adhere to the same tribal code of ethics that they have lived by for hundreds of years.

A break from the very bumpy 12 hour bus ride from Peshawar to Chitral. With me are two Pakistani tourists from Karachi on their way to visit a unique area of Pakistan, the Kalash Valleys. These remote mountain valleys are filled with the Kalash people who are claimed to be descendants of Alexander the Great and his generals (who passed through this area at the extent of their "rampage") and still adhere to a pre-Islamic way of life.

This may not look like much, but in the background is Tirich Mir, the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush range at 7700m. Taken from the guesthouse in Chitral. I was so relieved to be up in the mountains and out of the heat experienced in the South of Pakistan, with mountain temperatures in the very reasonable 30 degree range.

A morning street scence in Chitral, the man on the right is wearing what is called a Chitrali Hat, which are also very common in Afghanistan.