On the Run.........

Since about a week now a lot of movement here whish make my life very busy. Work, travel, late evenings...etc, just a little tired these days and not too much in a writting mood!! This is certainly a good thing!

:-)

The Karakoram Highway & Skardu

Today is my first day of holidays. I have a head of me an other 5 days to relax and not think too much about work! I am now in Islamabad where I arrived yesterday, I was planning to do a great trip, but due to limited time to plan properly, and exhausted by the last few weeks of mission, I decided that I would remain calm instead of making my trip yet. Nevertheless, I still can start planning my trip for in 6 weeks when I get the next holidays. I apparently need to remain in Pakistan for an other 3 months.....yeah, I know, its a long time.... ;-) but thourgh, I love it here, just to beautiful to go yet. My plan is to visit the North eastern area of Pakistan. The one which makes the border with China/Tibet. I plan first to fly to Skardu, which is a little south east of Gilgit which sits at the gate of Hunza valley. Hunza is famous for its beautiful scenaries and temple. I Am hoping to spend my first night there in Hunza which is about 2 hours drive from Gilgit. (check this to know more: http://www.hunza.20m.com/).

After checking Skardu and what it has to offer, I will go along the KKH until I reach the Khunjera pass via K2 view point and through to China Xinjiang province.
K2 was succesfully summitted in 1954. Since then, there have been 189 summits. Forty nine climbers have died on K2, twenty-two while descending from the summit. In terms of the number of accidents that happen on the descent, it is the most deadly mountain in the world. The statistics for female climbers are particularly dramatic. Some even say K2 is "cursed" for women. Five women have reached the top, but of those 5, three died on the descent. (The other 2 have since died on other 8,000-meter peaks.)

Anyway, I am not intending to do any climbing, just thought these stats would give a bit more to K2 than just a name. I have enough with tower climbing! On the way to K2, there is apparentely a lot of unique views and peaks to pass by. There is also a large number of lakes and Glaciers which hopefully gives me some of the most amazing videos/photo shots.

I would have never through of being here in pakistan one day, even as a bag packer. Shame on me, this area of the world is just a pure blast of beauty and amazement from Nature! yeah, I know, the KKH doesnt end up just over the border in China, but if I keep on going this road, I might just not return to work afterall, I only have 6 days ;-)

Dream dream dream, take the dreams away from me, and I'll stop living!

;-)

What's with Henna and White Hairs ? (Q/A)

The Quran says that men must not use any colours for their white hairs. However, they can use Henna & Katam! This was the answer to my wonders about this. I had heard of it from friends but I wanted to find the real version of the story somewhere, google brought it to me, click here

Illustration, Click Here.

Bana road

I have just spent a two days trip further to the North to install a Radio Room. The place I went to is called Bana. I am not sure it is written on any map as it is small and deep into the core of the Northern Mountains. To get there you have to use some snaky slippery, extremely narrow road built-in the cliff of the mountains. When the mission was submitted, I wanted to arrange myself a trip via Helicopter, it was meant to be much more practical and safe. However, a colleague of mine also wanted to join for this special expedition to this no tourist seen place, so the trip by chopper was cancelled and replaced by a 4x4 road trip.

In order for us to depart, we had to get an escort from the police station. The reasons to these mandatory escorts are still unclear. No one here knows exactly, the real purpose of this escort. It’s meant to be for our protection the police says, but in fact, rumors tells that it could well be that Pakistan does not want certain people to lose themselves in some areas where certain things would be seen ( let free your imagination). This makes it a very intriguing topic, but for my own safety I prefer to not dig into this. Once we got our escort, we started heading north and begin our journey.

It takes 2 solid hours with good road conditions to reach Bana, and good road conditions means: no rain, and no landslides. The road is made of mud and rocks, and is engraved inside the 80% straight cliff! If it rains, you are very likely to get a 4x4 roll-over all the way down the mountain with tones of mud following up. As security is a concern in the ** the trip was prepared accordingly to the state of the road so no problems. However, on the way, we did face a small landslide and had to standby on the edge of the cliff for 20 minutes before the bulldozer made its way through and free the passage for all. The journey to Bana was just one of the most spectacular drive I have ever taken in my life. The road itself, the view, and the incredible people living along the road made it an unforgettable event! Arrival on Bana was a little surprise. We had been climbing up the mountains and reaching the top of some, but yet there was other mountain higher overtaking the one we were on. Bana was sitting in the middle of a valley which itself was on the top of a mountain. The altitude of this valley is only 1300m which does not sound like a lot but does look like it when your there.

Bana is one of the most earthquake affected area from the 2005 quake, and need a lots of support from humanitarian still. Installing a Radio Room there would allow more efficiency in the movement of this mountainous area. Food, Tents, Medical…etc distribution is a lot easier when you can coordinate things. There is no electricity there, no GSM network, and nothing modern like we easily find in big towns. We started working as soon as we arrived there, and the first obstacle on the way was to find good place to set the Radio room tent. Once this was localized, we then started installing the equipment and try to get the job done as soon as we could. We were only given 24 hours to accomplish this installation and return to base. Unfortunately, as the sun fell very behind the high mountains, soon we were in the dark, and no more work was possible. By this time, it was the moment to look for a place to sleep, and we only found this in on of the spare tents which were lying near by. We set our beds, and heated the room with Gas heater.

This was only 7:00 when we were done and ready to sleep, but I wasn’t sleepy, and neither was the Pakistanis driver which took us there so we both decided to head to the center of the village and check out for a place to eat! We went into one of them and there I could not think of me leaving this restaurant (hotel they call it) without having some footage of it. I asked my friend (the driver) Khurram if he thinks they would mind if I was to make a short movie with them, and he said: “They will love it; they have never seen a camera”. He asked them and they enthusiastically given their go ahead! I ran to the tent and got my video camera! It was certainly one of the best footage I had the chance to take since I have started using a camera. There were these men in the kitchen which itself was outside under a porch where they had set some wood fire cookers. The light was provided by the fires and the men where on the spot to make me some delicious local meals. Unfortunately, having been food poisoned the two days before, I was still worried of getting some bad stomach, so didn’t enjoy any of it but the making of it video taped was my pleasure.I guess seeing the video of this would be just self explanatory and certainly much more entertaining that “I” writing but have not found a way yet to share videos. The night went by with some really deep sleep and the morning arrived with its extremely cold and humid clothes! As there was nothing there, we didn’t get the pleasure of a breakfast watching the mountain, and immediately went on with the left out work from the day before. The mission was completed by noon, and soon we were ready to go! Of course, before that, I wanted to enjoy a little more the company of Khurram and his expertise of the place also to get to one of the high point in the mountain further up! It was worth the trip! Only about 15 minutes from the tent, and high up in the mountains was this riz culture and farmers working as hard as ever with for landscape background the entire valley we had taken so much time to come across from! Just stunning, what more can I say! We made our way out with as much pleasure as the way in, and reached Battagram in early afternoon! Mission completed the heart full of amazement and questions about how far can go the wonderfulness of Nature!

To top up the last couple of days event, this morning, while I was just waking up from a deep sleep 7 hours, I heard a massive noise! It was like if you take a bag full of round stones and shake the bag as strong as you can! Stick a microphone in the bag, gradually bring up the volume on the amplifier, and listen!
This was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake right near by our place. As I was lying on the ground I have not felt the vibration, but all the people in the office have ran out, and the one in the kitchen tent literally saw the whole kitchen set bouncing from one side of the huge tent to the other one! (You can check the earthquake status on a daily bases at www.iris.edu (seismic monitor).

What a Blast this week! ;-)

Raimbow!

Yeahhhhh!

Pakistan childrens

So beautiful, so new and entertaining is the moment shared with these naive angels. No talk, no writting, just gestures and mouth games, just an instant where you wonder what the other thinks, complete absence marks, just the gestures and the smile can give you a guide! When leaving them, I gave out 50 Rps (1$), and they started exploding of joyce and jump around. "You share" I pointed out, one of the boy screamed for me to give him more, but the blue little girl grabbed his arm, and told him, I guess :), "We share he said!!".

Manserah, contemplation.

I am now arrived in Manserah (North East) Pakistan where most of the humanitarian traffic passes by. It is located in a beautiful valley and of course surrounded of uncredible mountains. It also has some magnificiant Rice cultures and a beautiful contrast in color with the brown, white, black, and green mountains. The clouds thickness and opacity gives this uncredible 3 dimensional effect to the already so suprising view. I have sat there after finishing a job and stood there for ever so much the Nature around was incredible. Then while observing and breathing fully this amazing moment, I started noticing the peoples. All these people you can freely observe whithout having to be seen. When you are sitting up here, you dont get seen by people, but you see them naturaly behaving and doing their day to day things..... This brought me to remember where I am and to maybe find a meaning to my life at the moment.

In the end, I concluded that my life at the moment, is just a journey through others'e one.

;-)

Number One Gate...

Some people say that passing through a bad moment is taff luck.... I wonder why this is being said! I feel that the worst moment you go through in your life are by the best experiences and lesson you can have. The stuff below that I wrote a few days ago happens on a regular basis. When it happens I really feel low. However, it is something I see like part of this uncredible adventure which Im having fun in, and its here to make it this more special! It also allow me to write in here on a regular basis. Writting is such a great thing when you are in this situations, and Im really loving this writting monologues with myself which after time and long moment of no understanding are in fact just way to balance things up. Being working in the field like this brings you a lots of question about yourself and current situation. The hard part in this is that you have to work out what you really want in a way which does not allow to think of it an othertime. You try to refer to other peoples back home, or about people around you, but you are surrounded of people like you which make it so hard to judge a right balance between home people and yourself. This job is such a tricky one!

Anyway, changing subject, its been a few amazing last days! This Bagh in kasmir is simply breath less experience. After this day of downtime and depress, i woke up the next day on a good vibe! the day was just very proficient, Managed to get a tent from the pakistanese army after 5 hours meeting with lieutnants, colonels, god know who else to sign paper proving that the PK army had given a tent!!! wow, the funny part is that this tent was donated before after the earthquake my us... Anyway, this is not my point in writting tonight.. After this day of good work, I ended at the gate with the guards. The guards are national staff whom make sure the entry of the camp is clear of any threat. I did met a few of them already before that day, but never got into there intimacy of late evenings at the gate. There where they all gather together and talk for ages. That evening two of them, Zen & Kashi decided to take me out the camp for a little walk. We are not allowed normaly to get out the camp after nightfall, but this day, I broke the rule and went with them. We walked only about 3 minutes down to the cliff which dominates the village and its lights! It was an amazing moment where we chatted for so long and where work was not related to any of the conversasion we were having. I was discovering our a Pakistanese live and what are the 30's like for a national person. I havd a simply amazing time, and when we returned we sat all together again at the front gate. These people are beautifull, they are like childs laughing about simple thing such as arguing on about how many continent there is on the planet, and then one would step up and say something funny like "2" and everyone would laugh like kids! Ill try to get a shot of these new friends from the Number one Gate! :)

Oouchh... an other wierd evening...

Its been only a month now in Pakistan, and most of it in the North East (Kasmir). The work progress has so far given good results and I start to feel a little more settled in this new environement. The people here are for most of them Pakistanese. There is about 70% of the staff in this coumpound which are national resident and the rest us are from abroad. The age average is probably around 35+, and the majority are relatively calm and into their work, at least for the expats. The coumpound is relatively small, and there isnt much to do at evening. Unlike when you just arrive in a place and meet people, you get a totally different feeling after some time. The more you remainin in a confined environement, the more you start to feel unsociable with the people whom surrounds you all this time. You react a lot more to the feeling of lonelyness and isolation.Funny enough you generate this atmosphere to yourself, and it kill any hope of seeing things change. You try, get with the rare people (3 or 4) which gather for an evening to have a glass of wine and release the stress accumulated during the day, days, weeks, but then the next time you do this again comes the same scenario, same people, same unfortunate luck of at least having this... One of the most difficult thing which goes with this is that even if you decide to have some "fun" chat and time, you still have to face the problem of living in a very mixte communoty of people which have different moods, different habits and appreciations of the common space we have to share. There is not a place in this coumpound where you can actually talk with anyone without having a hear listening, a person sleepless from your talks, or a local resident from whom you have to hide in case he would not like you to have fun at this time a night.
What I usually do to try and feel better, I retire to my 3m square compartiment in one of the collective tents and try to get away/out from here. This I may try it by surfing the web, waiting for anyone to show up on msn and share a moment of chit chat, or by watching a DVD. Here again, when you have done this again and again, you then just lie and watch the roof hoping for something. At this stage you could think that its the end of this crazzy chain of event, but nope... because then you start thinking about your life, about your friends, about everything.. and there you never know where it goes. I'll confess that most of the time it goes to, what;s next? where is my beloved... what is the family doing....etc. Its just so wierd and hard! In the meantime, what I do is passionating in terms of meeting all these people of the world and seeing them saved from a certain death sometimes, and the children being given something while they've lost all.. How paradoxal is this, while you give all you have in a cause or in a simple feeling of love for them you carry with you, you feel yourself isolated from the love of anyone you know... you feel so alone sometimes... I am still at the stage of wondering if this is just me having a lake of experience in the subject or if its just if its normal time to time to feel like... All I feel so far while doing this job is that you receive more love from these passenger which you are here for, children eldery people and poor victims of aweful disaster/massacre, than from the people you would expect to be the one to care about you. Those you care so much about, for one reason or an other, are those who just never have a nice word for you which would mean so much to you. I guess having a more "rational" life back there in the modern world brings with it, indifference and a lose of value and beleif in universal love. I no more beleive much in this feeling we call love, and trust with all our soul and body... its just doesnt make sense to me no more... I hope one day, it will mean something again as it does in the modern world, but for now, love is just about loving every one who gives you this little bit of time, this little bit of affection and sympatie to make that all this lonelyness becomes easier. Now if you say you should go home and live this more rational life.

I would certainly say right now, if going back home and living there, in this society where you may get loved by some people and get forgotten whenabout you need them the most, I'd rather still think about it. At least here, even if its not paradise, you meet random people with real simple loving energy which gives a sense to your presence here....

anyway, emptied my bag, feeling better.... writting to myself has always turned out to be the best therapie in these moments.

I miss you my "Z"!!

Zzzzz!! I miss you, I wish I could ride the smooth curve of the savage cost with you, I wish I could take good care of you and cudle your beautiful tank with love and tenderness! ...... hmm, hahaha something is going wrong with me!!! ;-)

Travel in Style Or your own way ?

You have the choice! You may choose :
Travel In Style, OR....

Travel your own Way!!!! I promise, it also works!

Beautiful ?

I guess there is not so much I can write here but just that these two man are looking absolutely amazing. This is right at the border near the so called "Line of control" between Kasmir and the disputed area (india/pakistan). The people here dont really seem to have any problem with the territorial issues, it is a lot more to do with finding a supply of food to get their family to survive. It is very high up here, and it is also damn cold! There is not much you can say but that its a pity once again to see the political authorities, have no other occupation than fighting to get more land, which afterall does not have even economical assets. Its purely and simply a stupid political game, looking like two man fighting over who has the nicest car..... Human idiocy is just facinating! All the merit to these mans and woman surviving there, and having to face much more important problem like famine, earthquakes, and winters!

Journey aboard of a Toyota pickup!

Yesterday afternoon, Tuesday 28th/06, was decided to be a chilled out day! Indeed, I had done all the work I had to do, and was waiting for more work to come along. As a result, and being taken over by a feeling of lazyness, I decided that it was time to have a break, and explore elsewhere than the camp! I easily managed to find a my two good friends around the camp who did not hesitate a second to jump into the car and wait with me for the driver to start the ride! Murtaza (on the left) came up with this great idea of making ourselves confortable at the back by integreting in this standard pickup the confortable chairs option. This was just the most brilliant idea of putting camping seats at the back!! yeah! This was just an unreal experience when crossing the town on the back of the pickup with all these pakistanese watching us and smiling! We headed up on of the multiple mountains around here, as you get high, it gets cold, so soon we were no more proud of our brilliant found with the seat at the back! it was freezing, and seeing the edge of the narrow snaky roads was a real scare! Through we made it to the top a along with this amazing view on the vallee! This must have been a little mountain as we only reached about 3000m+ but the spectacle from up there was breath taking, and worth while!
Next, we plan to take a two days trip on the week end and get up a higher mountain which should allow us to see the feets of the K2 mountain chain which are just about the border with China! of course, K2 is a little far to be seen from here, but just to see the feets of it will be an exalting moment! Inshallah, I will get the chance to head up to K2 sometimes when I get a few days off! (K2 is on the border with China and is the second highest mountain in the world at 8611m).

For those with Google Earth check this one out :
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=139207

This last pic here, is the view from the top where we drunk a Thai and had a moment of pure oxygene breafing! :-)