Islamabad

  Islamabad, Pakistan
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

More landslide

Well, I done think there is much I can say that the pictures do not show. On our way to back to Gilgit we got held up for a number of hours by a landslide that didn't seem to want to stop. The digger would finally clear the road only for alot more rock to fall immediately after, in the end, we waited until the road was half clear and made a dash for it. I covered my face as we went under incase any rocked hit the windows.
From Gilgit I did not hang around and headed to Islamabad on an overnight bus, which I just heard from two guys who just arrived had taken them 32 hours due to 3 landslides blocking the roads. It was not a journey I was looking forward to. It appeared I was lucky as it only took 12 hours, although I didn't get much sleep on the

Run!!!!!!

bumpy road.
I didn't really have much I wanted to see in Islamabad as it was a relatively new suburban town with no history. It was only built in the 1960's to replace Pakistanis capital from Karachi and I also knew that alot of the Western buildings and places to stay were the target for bombs. (you probably saw recently in the news about the Marriott Hotel being blown up, this was one of the only places in the city you could get alcohol)

When in Islamabad I went straight to the embassy. The embassy was for Afghanistan...yes Afghanistan.
Being so close, much as with Kazakhstan when in China, I feel it would be sad to miss the opportunity to see this amazing country that I have read and heard about (even if most of this was in the papers or media, hardly

landslide

promoting tourism?). However, Kazakhstan is not Afghanistan and presents alot more (and different) dangers for me as a backpacker so alot of research on my behalf was needed to ensure my safety...or at least minimize the risks. If I did manage to get a visa, I would also need another visa to re-enter Pakistan which I was told could take up to a week.
The Embassy in Islamabad would not issue me a visa without a letter of invitation and a meeting with an official. There's no way that I would be able to convince someone that I was going as a tourist going to Ag ghanistan (I later found out that most Afghan's do not even know the concept of tourism) so I gave up on the idea...and headed to Peshawar on the Afghan border, the Lawless Frontier where the were no real laws and I heard anything was possible, I mean anything!