Rakaposhi Basecamp and Lahore

As our time in Pakistan was slowly coming to an end, we travelled back down south to Lahore with a quick pitstop for another hike in the lower Hunza Valley.

Although we said we’d never hike again after K2, the snow capped peaks towering above us in the Hunza Valley couldn’t be completely missed, so we set off for the two day/overnight hike to Rakaposhi basecamp. A very steep hike where the best views only reveals themselves in the last 10min, but boy is the view worth it.. a massive glacier extends in front of you with some mesmerizing ice formations and patterns. I also made a furry friend at lunchtime on the way down, although he was mostly interested in my lunch, not me😊

Our last 4 days were spent in Lahore, a huge and busy city full of Bazaars and Rickshaws whizzing past and famous for their food and historical buildings. One of our favourites was the beautiful Badshahi Mosque, oozing a peaceful grandeur as the sunset makes the sky glow behind its domes.

We sampled many of the local foods, for example the famously delicious chicken karahi (an oily curry named after the wok-like metal pan it is cooked in), Halwa puri (a breakfast dish consisting of a fried puffed up flatbread and a sweet semolina pudding), Paye (hooves of goats, slow-cooked to a gravy- NOT our favourite, too slimy haha), Falooda (a desert with vermicelli noodles and milk ice cream), Lassi (yoghurt based drink) and – last but definitely not least- our absolute favourite Pakistani thing: Milk Chai! Especially good was the 15cent chai sold by a hole-in-the-wall chaiwallah in the bazaar. Tooth-rottingly sweet, but hot, comforting and deliciously creamy.

One of the most entertaining things we did in Lahore was to take a trip to see the famous Pakistan-India flag-lowering ceremony at the countries border, just a 30min drive away. The two countries, who are notorious for not getting along, attempt to trump each other in this pompous ceremony and show of strength. The army officers stomp up and down at the border gates, loud music blasts, and the crowd shouts “Pakistan” and “India”, each trying to drown out their neighbour. A very amusing thing to witness for sure.

Some people back home have asked us “why would you go to Pakistan?” especially considering the things you hear about it on the news. But beyond the hospitable people, the tasty food and the stunning landscapes, it’s one of those places where you can still have genuinely unique and adventurous travel moments. Here’s a handful:

1) One day we went for a casual lunch in a small conservative town in the middle of nowhere once. We walked in to a grimy non-descript restaurant and about 10 local men were sitting there having lunch. Not a single woman in sight. Upon seeing us, we were quickly ushered into the back corner to sit at a table that was hidden behind a big black curtain – they call this the ‘family room. ’This was an odd sensation, being segregated like this, and I kept wondering whether this was to shield me from prying eyes or for the benefit of the men in the restaurant by not having to eat lunch next to the temptations of a woman. Probably some of both haha.

2) Another thing about restaurants and women. Servers and generally staff everywhere are exclusively men. Essentially, women don’t exist in public in most of Pakistan. When talking to you, they will only ever address Hadleigh when we are together, not me. At restaurants they only bring over only one menu and give it to Hadleigh, assuming of course that he, as the man of the family, would make the decisions and order for me. This took a little bit of getting used to. Nobody is trying to be rude of course, I don’t get ignored if I ask a question or anything like that, it’s just how things are done here. Same thing, when we hitchhiked with strangers, they will ask Hadleigh things like: “Hello sir, nice to meet you. Is this your wife? What is her name?” – even if I am sitting right there. On the other hand, the men are extremely respectful, always making sure that you have your space, nobody is inappropriately approaching or touching you, on a bus etc they make sure women sit next to women and so on. In general, you couldn’t feel safer anywhere in the world…Except for the traffic.

3) Like in many developing countries, the traffic and the driving habits are absolutely chaotic. Traffic lights and lanes are a mere suggestion, cars weave around each other freely, and the custom here is for stationary cars to turn out into oncoming traffic without looking. It’s the job of the person going straight to watch out and avoid people turning in front of you. It’s a recipe for chaos. Rickshaws on several occasions would turn headlong into oncoming traffic on the motorway, causing me to panic slightly in the back. You can witness entire families (up to 5 people) riding on one motorbike, the women generally riding side saddle on the back and the small toddlers and babies just put up front at the handlebars; all without a helmet of course. Despite all this, it seems to work! Organized chaos. We never witnessed any accidents in our time here.

4) Everybody here is super curious about you as a western tourist. Strangers will regularly come up to you asking if they can take a photo/selfie with you. Once you agree, it can lead to a bit of a line forming, everybody wanting a photograph with the westerner, even shoving their kids in front of you to be in the photo. This leaves you feeling oddly like a celebrity and it is quite challenging to extract yourself again from the situation.

5) In these photos though, we noticed that they almost never smile! This seems to be a cultural thing, not sure about the “why.” So when you see pictures of serious-looking Pakistanis, they are not actually unhappy or about to join al-Qaeda, they just don’t like to smile in photographs (but they smile a lot in everyday life!).

6) Speaking of which - One day we took the train from Islamabad to Lahore and had a couple of hours to kill at the train station before departing. So we looked around for a place to leave our bags while we would go grab a bite. But there were no storage lockers anywhere in sight. So we asked the policeman in the security booth if he would mind us leaving our big bags there. After first seeming perplexed, he then seemed apprehensive as he asked what was in our bags and then gingerly agreed for fear of being considered inhospitable. He finally explained that he was doing this for us “in good faith” because generally the (very good) reason they don’t have storage lockers or bag deposits is because of the security situation in the country. Talk about eye-opening!

Overall Pakistan turned out to be a huge and diverse country, full of different tribes, cultures, languages as well as stunning landscapes, great food and some of the most hospitable people we have ever met. We are already making plans to return to Pakistan in the future “inshallah” (God willing), to see the rest of this amazing country.

If you’re looking for an adventure that costs next to nothing – give Pakistan a go.