Our Flight to Islamabad OR Paranoia on PIA!
Trip Start
May 14, 2009
1
31
34
Trip End
Jun 15, 2009
Islamabad,
Punjab,
Pakistan
Friday, June 12, 2009
For safety reasons it was decided that we should fly rather than drive to Islamabad where we had booked a connecting flight two days later to Urumqi, China.
The KKH from Gilgit to Islamabad passes through Indus Kohistan and the town of Besham which is located on the bulge of the Swat Valley, the hot bed for Taliban infiltration. Kohistan is also known as being some the wildest area surrounding the KKH with little or no government control beyond the main highway. As mentioned earlier in this travelogue, Canadian Defence personnel we met in Tashkorgan had warned us about taking this route by road as their intelligence indicated that in this area the Taliban were very close to the highway. Our Australian High Commission had advised also that Besham was "not particularly safe"
From Gilgit - the Winding Trail to Fairy Meadows
. Furthermore, we were advised that this leg of the Karakoram Highway was in particularly poor shape and the trip to Islamabad would take around 24 hours. We were of course convinced that flying was the preferred option.Our only problem was that the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights from Gilgit to Islamabad are more often cancelled than actually fly. Any chance of bad weather is absolutely perilous for planes that fly at an altitude of just 5,000m weaving around and passing lower than mighty peaks including Nagar Parbat, Pakistan's second highest mountain at a height of 8125m.
But thankfully luck was on our side and the day dawned clear and beautiful. Our flight was only slightly delayed but the tension amongst the passengers was very obvious. Even if you were not worried about meeting the Taliban on the KKH the delays to travel from flight cancellations were more than a minor inconvenience.
We were tense too but nothing like the passenger in the seat in front of Alan. This man looked sort of half shaven (a dead give away I KNOW) and pretty suspicious to me. Alan said I was imagining things. This man was obviously extremely nervous and kept anxiously looking around the cabin, sweating profusely and wiping the perspiration from his neck with his serviette
We Fly Between Peaks of Over 8,000m
. But it wasn’t until he kept using his mobile phone to video the flight crew and cabin (why would you video the crew and cabin?) and then nodded to the long bearded fellow opposite that I was convinced he was a Taliban plant about to detonate the entire plane. You can imagine how relieved I was when he pocketed all the sugar from his cup of tea. I tried my hardest to reason that there would be no reason to pocket the sugar if he was about to blow himself and everyone else up. And I was right. He must have just been a tad nervous. Phew….
The flight from Gilgit to Islamabad was spectacular. Our plane flew out of Gilgit Baltistan over Fairy Meadows and because of the clear conditions we had a wonderful view of the winding walking trail from the Raikot Bridge turning right over Fairy Meadows toward Chilas. Further on our flight towards Islamabad we saw the magnificent Nangar Pabat soaring high into the distance.
