Hitchhike from Karachi to Peshawar (1963)

Hitchhike from Karachi to Peshawar (1963)

1963 completed Matriculation exam, during holidays we decided to hitchhike from Karachi to Peshawar. Explore the Pakistan from South to North (1,000 miles). Family was deadly against the idea of hitchhiking in Pakistan, but on our constant demand they had to slender and with very little money we left home, where family drop us at Landhi, which was end of the Karachi city limit in those days and we set off by foot, after family returned to home waiting for our return by the night but that never happened.

As we started walking along the road to next city people started asking questions and 99.9% suggested to turn around and go back home because in their opinion it wasn’t safe enough to travel on the highway’s of Pakistan they said and I cote “one way trip to the hell”.

It was 10 am local time, when we me and my brother Rahmat Ali started walking towards Chokundi graveyard, sun was shining but for us it was like moon light, good old days in a matter of fact we had been here several time in the past on our bikes this beautiful monument was a part of our heritage and they way we observed the destruction of those tombs was very sad experience we and our another friend Ahmed Shaw who use to lives in Malir goat. We three of us were good friends and we had many adventurist trips together in the past exploring Karachi suburb on bikes, may be will talk about those adventure some other time in future.

By the time we got close to Pepri Station and it was already late afternoon we decided to take a lift, to reach Thata a small town city. A car stop and the man behind the wheel asked us the same questions, he was on his way to Thata town, it was getting late afternoon and we were thinking of finding a place to spent the night, the gentle man in the car looked polite educated person different than other who advice us to go back Karachi, this guy was friendly and invited us to come along up to Thata where he was going and ask us to spent the night in his house, it look good and we accepted his offer and jump on his car during introduction we told us his name was Basher-ur-Rehman and he was a bengali from Dhaka City from East-Pakistan, his most question were about our ambitions plans. He mentioned that he was in Karachi on some official meeting, but did not say anything about his work and now he was on his way back home, where he lives with his family.

He asked how much do we really know about the Sindhi Culture, during conversation somehow he mentioned Kalri Lake, than he told us the story of Noori Jam Tamachi is a mythical Sindhi folk tale which happened in the region of Sindh. It is a tragic love story, similar to Romeo and Juliet, between King Jam Tamachi, belonging to Unar tribe, Noori, belonging to community of fishermen (Muhanas).

According to the legend, Noori was buried in the Kalri Lake. Today there is a mausoleum in the middle of the lake for Noori that is visited by hundreds of devotees daily. The legend has been retold countless times, and is often presented as metaphor for divine love by Sufis. One of its most famous renderings is in Sindhi poetry by Shah Abdul Latif Bhita'i in his Shah Jo Risalo. He Basher-ur-Rehman discusses in more detail about the meth and promise us that he would arrange a visit to the shrine next day.

Soon we arrived in dusty town I would rather not to call it a city he drove toward official residence of government official’s area where at the bungalow the policeman open the gate it was to our surprise the Pakistani flag was hosted. Than only he introduces us that he was the Commissioner of Thata. We were sent to the guest room where we had a shower and then on the tea we were introduce to the family he had two school going children of 10 & 14. Soon more visitors started coming to his home and it was a party like atmosphere and we were the center of attraction. The great feeling I still remember and that was the end of the first day of pleasant journey in to the unknown.

Next morning his driver showed us the Makli and other interesting places near Thata and later after lunch he took us to the Kalri Lake, there we took a boat and went to see the shrine and afterwards dropped us on the road going towards Jamshoro, and once again we were walking on the road enjoying the natural beauty, meeting new people answering the same old question about us and family and Karachi.

When sun started to settling down we thought we should get a lift to go to Jamshoro where one of the person met us yesterday on the road and asked us to be his gust when we arrive in Jamshoro for a night, with a little effort we got a lift in a truck which was on his way to Peshawar, the truck driver Mohamed Khan wanted us to ride all the way… but we said no way we got lot explore by walking on the road he stoped at the truck station Jamshoro the driver offered us tea and biscuits while we were enjoying tea and conversation with the new crowed a person who was listening to our conversation said Jawed bhi lives nearby and he would be delighted to take us to his home.

After we had tea we jump on his pick-up truck and he drove zigzagging through the narrow dusty streets of Jamshoro suburb and arrived in front of a large house covered with a tall boundary wall with an iron gate, the guard welcome us and took us to the guest house of the boundary where we were served cold salty lussay (a kind of drink made of Yogurt & milk with lots of sugar ) while waiting. Jawed bhi after a while appeared from the main house, he was very pleased to see us, and welcome us with a big hug, thank the Pick-up driver for bringing us to his house. A traditional Sindhi meal was prepared and during this time some more people from neighborhood join the guest house and another party warm up and we were so pleased with our decision that we did not listen to close minded people and would have not be able to meet these wonderful people.

Next morning he made a plan to show us the nearby country side, and later in the evening he planned to take us to Kotri for famous Palla fish dinner he asked if we ever had Palla fish? We said no.

Kotri a large town and the headquarters station of the Kotri Taluka, or administrative district. It is situated on the right bank of the Indus River and since 1900 has been connected with Gudu Bander on the other side of the river by an iron bridge replacing the Steam ferry which used to ply between these two places.

In 19th century Jhirk was the busiest river port and centre of commercial activity in Sindh. It also served as the headquarters of the Indus Flotilla, the most modern navigational system of those days.

Karachi Port near Karachi was connected to Jhirk the head quarter of Indus Flotilla, which was in Jhirk town near Kotri and then it will go up to Mithankot Rajanpur district near Dera Ghazi Khan and then to the last point Makhad Attock. This part of Indus Flotilla was called Punjab flotilla and the Indus flotilla interchangeably.

The river Indus was an important artery of communication between Karachi and Jhirk near Kotri Sindh was an important river port, the Indus Flotilla used large quantities of firewood and it was kept to fuel steamboats. Hassan Ali Effendi kept account of the incoming and outgoing wood and Steam boats.

The town has excellent road communication to Karachi. There are two routes one by Thano Bula Khan, and the other via Jhirk, Thatta, Gharo and Landhi. A road also goes to Band Virah, a distance of 39 kilometres.

The city boasts an excellent railway and road network, a courtesy of its neighbour, Hyderabad on the other side of the river. Soon, Kotri stood out as a major terminus for the city of Karachi allocating trainful of passengers from the Kotri Railway Station. It also serves as a starting point for the River Steamers for Sukkur and Multan.

We spent the night with one of his friend’s farmhouse, and it was fifth day since we leleft Karachi and amazingly we have had spent not a single Pisa (cent)…Great wasn’t it wonderful!

Hyderabad is the second largest city in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in the country. The city was founded in 1768 by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro upon the ruins of a Mauryan fishing village along the bank of the Indus. it was known as the Paris of India, for its roads used to be washed with river water.

The Baloch Talpur rule lasted almost over 50 years and in 1843; Talpurs faced a greater threat, the invasion of expanding British colonial empire. The British wanted to annex Sindh due to their strategic interests in the Punjab region and Afghanistan. The Talpur Amir signed a peace agreement that gave significant concessions to the British. After signing this peace agreement Amir Talpur demobilized his volunteer army.

The British General Napier also started to march his army back towards Bombay. When the General Napier heard that the Talpur Amir had demobilized his Baloch army he turned back his army and again threatened Hyderabad. The peace agreement with Talpur Amir was of no consequence as British have a history of cunning character. The British came face-to-face with the Talpurs at the Battle of Miani on 17 February 1843. General Napier was firmly determined in conquering Sindh and plundering Hyderabad. The battle ended on 24 March 1843 when the Talpur Amirs lost and the city came into the hands of the British, their Fort was plundered, thousands were killed and Amirs themselves were exiled to Rangoon, Burma, never to see Sindh again. The British than made the city part of the Bombay Presidency of British colonial empire. Bit of factual historical story was told by one of his local friend he wanted us to know the history and the character of British.

Next morning we tour the Hyderabad city had our lunch with one of his friend’s house. Around 4pm Jawed bhi drop us at road to Matiari and we started walking towards Hatri village while we were walking a car stopped it was fully loaded with personal belongings look like somebody is moving out from his home the gentleman on driving seat looked familiar face they were very friendly they stop car and came out and started chatting with us and were very surprise to hear our plans the guy said I wish I can trust you! Shook hand and kept driving but a while later the car turned around and he asked is it true you guys are really hitchhiking to Peshawar and said we have no place otherwise we would have given us lift at least to the next town as they were going to Lahore than he changed his mind and he said we got to make some space to fix you guys in, according to them this area is not really safe, we give you lift up to Hala next town. Ok so they organize their rubbish and we got in the car, during driving he simply asked did you recognize me? I said no… anything special he was very surprise. Do you watch films the answer was not much we have other activities beside we don’t have no money for that;)

Then he introduced himself that he was Nazeer and he is a comedian, film actor, than only we recognize him, they were actually coming from Karachi after finishing some shooting and were going to Lahore to prepare for next shooting in Murree hills. They were very helpful gave us their number and address of Gullberg in Lahore and invited us to be his guest, while we were in this area... He dropped us at Hala bazaar we had dinner together and they move on to wards Lahore, we spent night in a road side truck station and we slept on charpai (local name for bed). this was the first night where we were all by our self and had to pay for charpai.

This was the time when my father was working as a Chief Engineer of Noori Sugar Mill in Moro, that night we marked our route through Nawabshah to Moro and plan to stay at least one week with (Dad) Abamia as he was not happy with our plane of hitchhiking he wanted us to take the bus and come straight to Moro. Next morning we started our day with the planning to go to Nawabshah, but by mid day a car (Mercedes Benz) stopped there was only one middle age fat person in three piece suit dozing on the back seat and the driver was in uniform, he was surprise to see two young men hitchhiking on the dusty road of the part of Sindh notoriously known for dacoit region. He asked his driver to stop the car.

The car stopped and driver querulously inquires about our presence on the dusty road, where we were going? When we told him that we are hitching to Peshawar they were astonished, when they learn that we were coming from Karachi their curiosity increases even more and he the Mr. Bawanie offered the ride for next city Nawabshah.

This was the first time we were riding in air-condition comfortable Mercedes Benz. He was extremely surprise when he learned guys like us so smart and failed to get a decent summer job in Karachi City. Let me tell you Bawanies were one of the richest families of the country and he was the owner of the sugar mill where my father was working as an engineer. His driver took 3hrs to drive from Karachi to Nawabshah where it took us nearly 6-days to get here.

We deliberately did not tell him who we really were we just told him Nawabshah is our next destination. During ride the conversation was pleasant, we learned that he has a son of our age and the sugar mill was on his son’s nick name (Noori). He did mention that he was going to go Moro, for couple of days, and invited us to visit him in Karachi when we’ll be back. By the time we arrived in Nawabshah we thanked him for the lift and got of the car in scorching heat, he moved on to Moro which wasn’t far off and we took a while to adjust the reality of the life.

Nawabshah city was famous for sugarcane and banana production. The climate is usually very hot and dry, with summer temperatures soaring as high as 51 degrees Celsius. The city was in one of Pakistan’s hottest areas. We spent the evening with the people of the city and we found them friendly enjoyed dinner share our experience with them and one of elderly person later invited us to come along to his farm house not too far from the downtown Nawabshah and spent night there. When we got to his property, it was nice place, the tube well was working and pumping out the water, into a big pond, where water was collected before using for irrigation, Cha-cha Mohammad’s suggestion we all jump in the big pool which we did and had a great time playing in the pool. Later in the open a dozen of charpies were set up for us to enjoy more lassie with locally made snacks and then late night we slept on those charpies in the open sky.

We woke up early morning with crack of dawn it was extremely pleasant, the surrounding fields were green and the birds were singing the sun wasn’t arise yet some more people from surrounding sugarcane fields came down to meet us and then all of us together enjoyed local cheese, butter with pharatha in breakfast, and then we all together walked towards the main road in a form of caravan, slowly one by one they return back to their daily works and we moved on towards Moro.

Moro There was nothing interesting all the way from Nawabshah to Moro except the factory. We could see the chimney from a long distance which was still under construction the factory itself was not on the main road we took a ride in an Oxen cart, normally use for transportation of sugar can. When we arrived at the gate it seems people were expecting us they welcome us with a surprise to see we were in a one piece. Soon they took us to my father at the factory residence area where our father was staying. There were two rows of bungalows with a bungalow at the end, the end bungalow was reserved for the Bawanies and the one side were occupied with the Polish engineers and rest were habitat with the engineers and managers. There was a common hall for social meeting adjacent to the dining hall, where all the staff eats their meals.

Abamia ( My father) was very pleased to see us; there was a room set up for our stay. After taking shower we sat and enjoyed tea in the veranda as the evening was quite pleasant. Later at the dinner we were introduce to the other engineers. Most of them were from Poland as the plant was polish. Theirs English language was not so fluent like ours but we manage to communicate in a friendly atmosphere.

The coffee was served at the end of dinner, Abamia then he went to his room for Esha prayer. And we kept on talking on current affairs, as Pakistan was undeclared colony of US and controlled by British slyness agencies (Mi-5) & American CIA, working together with the help of Pakistani Army (ISI civil bureaucracy and British blue eyed virtual landlords (*Mir Jaffer)

Although CCCP and Chinese consulates were very active in Karachi and their continuous social programs were a source of education for the masses, but instruction from the western boss’s to Army. Police and other Secret agencies of Pakistan were to demonize them by using Islam as a tool through the religious agencies, it was very said that they use violence imposing their wishes upon the people of Pakistan. As the British consultants were embedded in the education ministry they took this opportunity to twist the education curriculum and they were actively involved to curtail the positive efforts of empowering people of during those days Bengali were the most politically matured people among the other nations living in Pakistan. They were single out and branded communist (today equivalent word is terrorist) and thrown into jails, and other torture centers operated by these government operated agencies...

(Let me tell you Pakistan when created was a welfare state, after the repeated martial laws the Army turned the country in to totalitarian state.)

Chit chat continue till middle of night, then we parted and this was the first time in my life that we both brothers had a room of our own and air-conditioning magic put us in deep sleep where a continuation trail of sweet dreams lasted till waiter from the dining room woke us at mid-day for lunch. In the dining room we meet the people again and they envy us to enjoy such a long sleep, well this was such a great night of our life which we can never forget…

The Ahmed Bawanie stay only one night to see the progress of the plant as the mill was under erection and it was close to trial run and went back to Hyderabad where they have other business ventures. Our plan was to stay for at least one week as we were already pretty tired and wanted to explore nearby area using the company jeep.

Dadu district was created in 1933 by the British Indian administration by merging Kotri and Kohistan tehsils from Karachi district and Mehar, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Dadu, Johi and Sehwan tehsils from Larkana district. Next day we took the jeep and went crossing the river Indus to Dadu spent the whole day driving around country side and came back before the sunset as we were strictly advised because of the notorious dacoits area.

Daulatpur is a town, 20 km north of Kazi Ahmed and 20 km south of Moro, in Nawabshah District of the Sindh province one of the sugarcane supplier bump into us in my father office apparently he was very impressed with engineer shaib’s ( my father) thought it would be a great idea to get to know my dad so he invited us to spend a full day with their family, but my father declined the offer for himself but said he wouldn’t mind if we go ahead especially when the factory transport was not involved. Now he had permission from Abamia, so we had no problem accepting his generous offer so we went exploring the vast land belonging to him and his family, his luxurious home which was outside the main Daulatpur town. We spent two days enjoying his hospitality.

Before joining Moro Sugar Mill as a Chief Engineer Ahmed Ali Siddique was working on his project inventing Screw type Cane crushing machine, which was tested by PCSIR Karachi and Siddique Sahib (South Asia a respectful form of address for men, formerly widely used to address white men during the colonial period. The term is also used as a title, placed after the man's name.) Got the Patent registered and he received letter of competence from the government of Pakistan, but no finical support was provided to develop the project in order to save a great amount sugar being washed out in sugarcane residual.

Bawanies were giving lenience to set up this sugar mill in Moro, who could be a better person than Mr. Siddique a meeting was organized by the chief engineer of PCSIR Karachi during the meeting it was understood that the new invention will be given an opportunity to prove its worth.

This was the reason he had accepted the job and a clause was included in his job contract that his invention will be put into practice to prove the economical benefit to the country that prerequisite to put up simultaneously screw type crushing plant parallel to the imported polish roller type crushing unit to increasing extracting 3% more sugar contents in juice from sugar cans. During our stay Abamia showed us the area reserved for his venture, but nothing of that sort ever happened.

We learned that Monday factory jeep was going to sukkur for official purpose so we decided to take advantage of the situation and ask Abamia to let us proceed towards Peshawar, he wasn’t pleased but said nothing and ask his assistant to organize our departure on Monday morning. Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Memon who was the HR Manager of the factory, riding with us up to Sukkur, although we met him several time during our stay in the factory but never had a chance to have had decent conversation with him.

his knowledge of Sindhi culture was so rich during the travelling he invited us to stay in his family home in Sukkur just being with we learned a lot the history of Sindh civilization, and step by steps as we passes by different town and cities told us the historical facts of the areas their cultural background we traveled and learned much knowledge about cities and town and their culture and historical background as we passing by through the region.

Kandahar is a small town situated on the dung-hill or Darro, to safeguard the town from Flood waters of Indus It is one of the major towns of Noushehro Feroz District. It is commercially busy and beautiful town of the Sindh.

Khairpur is the twelfth largest city in the province of Sindh. It was founded in 1783 by Mir Sohrab Khan, who established the Khairpur branch of the Talpur clan. The great mystic Sufi Sachal Sarmast came from this city. The city is famous for its dates, known in the Sindhi language as Khark, and in Urdu as Khajoor.

Sachal Sarmast (1739–1829) was a Sufi poet from Sindh, India during the Kalhora era. He was born in daraza near Ranipur, Sindh. His real name was Abdul Wahab and "Sachal" was his nick name. He also used it in his own poetry. Sachu means truthful in Sindhi while Sarmast means mystic in Sindhi and Urdu. Sachal Sarmast literally means 'truthful mystic'.

He is regarded as 'shair-e-haft zaban' (poet of seven languages) due to his poetical works in Arabic, Sindhi, Saraiki, Punjabi, Urdu, Persian and Balochi to address the wider audience in these languages. He spread the message of love for humanity through poetry.

Sukkur is the third largest city of Sindh province, situated on the west bank of River Indus. Sukkur saw a significant socio-economic uplift after the 1930s, when the British built the world's largest barrage here on the Indus River. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, thousands of Muslim escaping from genocide moved to Pakistan and thousands of Hindu Sindhi escape genocide left Sukkur for India.

The Sukkur Barrage has 66 Gates. The Sukkur barrage (formally called Lloyd Barrage), built under the British Raj on the Indus river, controls one of the largest irrigation systems in the world. Construction of the bridge was started in 1923 and completed in January 1932. The 5,001 feet (1,524 m) long barrage is made of yellow stone and steel and can water nearly 10 million acres (40,000 km2) of farmland through its seven large canals. Some of the canals are larger than the Suez Canal.

The British built the world's largest barrage here on the Indus River to irregate the area for cotten growth, to feed cotten for their factories in Manchaster England ignoring the fact the ultimale destruction of downstrem ecological desiaster.

By building this barrage they have blocked the water flow down stream and the indus delta which was a florishing economy was truned in to desert and destroyed local papulation land and animals. To-day Sea water has risen up into the land up to 50 KM causing the biggest ecological disaster in the history of Sub-continent of India.

Rohri town of Sukkur District, Alor was the ancient capital of Sindh, now modern Rohri. In 711 AD, Alor was captured by the army of Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim. In 962 it was hit by a massive earthquake that changed the course of the Indus River. It is also claimed as their original homeland or originating place by the Arora community. After the earthquake, the Arora community claims to have left Aror and spread to other parts of the Punjab and Sindh. Ubauro is a town of Ghotki District in Northern Sindh and then start Province of Punjab and Kot Sabzal is a small town lies on the border of Punjab; this town is overshadowed by the presence of other larger towns like Rahim Yar Khan, Jacobabad and Bahawalpur around it. Rahim Yar Khan was the first city in Punjab where we spent the night with a friend of Zulfiqar he was a land lord (Chaudary) we stay for next two days being his guest we were always been welcome wherever we went with open hart, but here we felt a pinch of abhor for the people of Karachi quit surprising experience but it proven later as we proceeded further into Punjab especially when we enter in the city of Lahore that we realised that our feeling were right. We have been treated differently. From Rahim Yar Khan we went through Khanpur to Bahawalpur the city was once the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, located south of the Sutlej River and lies in the Cholistan region near the Thar Desert. The city of Bahawalpur has a rich heritage and is an important hot spot for historians as well as archeologists here we met a distant relative of Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi a young man of his 30's we bump into him in the bazaar where he was shopping he stop his jeep and querulously inquire our presence in the dusty town of Bahawalpur, he was extremely surprise when he learned that we were coming all the way from Karachi by hitchhiking, he got off the jeep and started talking to these strange creatures from Karachi, he had hard time believing our story and then suddenly he invited us to his farm house where he use to spent his leisure time.

Well we were waiting for the invitation jump on the jeep, there we go he was actually driving luxurious *Cherokee long based air-condition jeep soon we become good friend and he asked us to stay for few days as he doesn’t have anything else to do except party all the time. He was one of those guys who born with silver spoon in their mouth.

*(a member of a Native North American people who once lived in the southeastern United States and now live mainly in Oklahoma and North Carolina. The Cherokee were one of the Five Civilized Nations who, under the Removal Act of 1830, were sent to live on reservations in Oklahoma.)

It was a very large mango farm and middle of that he had his farmhouse built-in, the architect was pretty unique. It was a mixture of Mughal and American architect, he himself was educated in London but most of his family was settled in New York State.

The Mughal era is an historic period of the Mughal Empire in India. It ran from the early 15th century to a point in the early 18th century when the Mughal Emperors' power had dwindled. It ended in several generations of conflicts between rival warlords. The first Emperor Babur, born in Uzbekistan is buried in Afghanistan, his sons and grandsons, namely Akbar the Great and Jahangir in India later descendants, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb in Hindustan. The last Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar is buried in Burma.

Emperor Jahangir's son was the Prince Khurram who later went on to become Emperor Shah Jahan and built one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the famous Taj Mahal to show the world of his love for his wife.

This prince Sadiq was no difference than his ancestor, he apparently looks very kind but inside this person it was hidden barbaric nature, for this kind of people the value of other people life means nothing no more than a tissue paper. During our stay with him having great time of our life a kind of hidden fear was always there which keep telling me to run away from this guy before we face some kind of disaster.

Three days of sheer fun, one day we exploring the River Sutlej and the jungles they wanted to chase wild boar but instead they killed many small animals, the adventures drive was exiting in the bed of the River. Which wasn’t possible without his or his family’s permission, second day we explore The Desert, driving into the dunes enjoyed the sun set camp over night it was like dream.

This wasn’t enough the hospitality was extended up to Bahawalnagar, and next day we were packed in another jeep with the special red color number plate of the palace along with lots of food and fruits sent to Bahawalnagar where he had another guest house to stay another day being his guest and set off on our hitchhiking trip towards Peshawar. Bahawalnagar city actually lies just south of the Sutlej River, our next destination was Montgomery this city was a small village on the Karachi-Lahore railway line approximately 180km from the Lahore. The city most densely populated region was between the Sutlej and Ravi rivers. After One day staying in Montgomery we proceeded to wards Lahore.

Hitchhike from Karachi to Peshawar (1963)

Part – 2

Lahore there were lot of places were on our list to visit i.e. Badshahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and the mausoleum of Jehangir and Nur Jehan are popular tourist attractions for the city. Lahore is also home to many British colonial structures built in the Mughal-Gothic style, such as the Lahore High Court, the General Post Office, Lahore Museum and many older universities including the University of the Punjab. The Lahore Zoo, world's third oldest zoo, is also situated here.

So we rented two bicycle and decide to go around and see the city well it was our favourite style to tour and discover any city, it cheep and safe people consider us one of them and don’t bother us, but here in Lahore when they learn we were from Karachi a kind of repugnance comes in their eyes that’s surprised us so we decided not to interact without having solid reason. The one good thing about the bikes where we can’t ride them we carried the bikes on our shoulder but we never tell the rental shop about our intensions.

Pakistani people we observed and found lazy, coward, non adventurer that’s why they use to surprised when they learn about us and our activities. Lahore was not to our expectation we found this city rather dull. After dusk the city becomes ghost town few cars tangas (horse driven carts) and taxis with light on in their cabins so police can see the passenger. Most night life was around Heriamandi (prostitite center), where cheap human sex trade flourish during the night.

At on stance there were only one room available even though they were over charging us, we paid and got the room we were hungry so we headed to the restaurant nearby for food, by the time we were backed we found our luggage in the lobby. We checked and found nothing was missing, the by that time the owner of the hotel was there and simply said the room was already booked for some Gorashab (British couple) manager didn’t know. There was no point arguing at this time of night we took the money back and taken our backpack and walked out in the street in search of another hotel. This incident conform the racist behaviour of Punjabi people against Karachaiits.

This was the time where a constant flow of European *hippies passing through Lahore on their way to Goa in India. (A young person, especially in the 1960s, who rejected accepted social and political values and proclaimed a belief in universal peace and love. Hippies often dressed unconventionally, lived communally, and used psychedelic drugs.) Having completed our tour of Lahore the walled city we moved towards Gujranwala through GT Road

Gujranwala

Under Muslim rule the district flourished for a time; but a mysterious depopulation took place and the whole region seems to have been almost entirely abandoned. The district gazetteer dates the name of Gujranwala to approximately the middle of the 16th century.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh who himself was born here became the most powerful of all the Sikh rulers. It was Hari Singh Nalwa, the great military commander of the Sikh Kingdom, who was credited with having built the 'new' city of Gujranwala, after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Gujranwala developed rapidly.

Gujrat was the next city in our rout the major sources of livelihood among this region was agriculture and small industries so there was nothing more than to see people working in their field. People were little more friendlier than Lahore.

Jhelum was the next city on the right bank of the Jhelum River, Jhelum is known for providing a large number of soldiers to the British and later to the Pakistan armed forces due to which it is also known as city of soldiers, having seen ugly face of Martilaw in the last decade and the discriminatory behavior of Panjabi Army of Pakistan The arrogant landlord of the area and their impolite attitude wasn’t very well taken by us. We moved further towards Rawalpindi the undeclared capital of Pakistan interesting chapter of Pakistani history under the iron rule of the Ayub dictatorship which changed the map of the Pakistan or another world it was the processing area to develop Punjab as a ruling province

Rawalpindi, locally known as Pindi, named after Raja Pindi, is a bustling city on the northernmost part of the Punjab province, strategically located between the NWFP and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Many tourists use the city as a stop before traveling towards the northern areas. During our travel right after leaving Lahore there wasn’t much adventure we came across the fields of different crops and the peasant living in medieval time local Chaudary were the virtual lords of the areas the police were a tool for them to carried out act of uncivilised behaviour, slightly better than slavery.

Travelling up to Pindi our mode of transport was either tractor trawlers or trucks, most of the time we spent our night at the roadside truck stations.

Rawalpindi is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near capital city of Islamabad, In the 1950s, Rawalpindi was smaller than Hyderabad and Multan, but the city's economy received a boost during the Martial law government of Ayub Khan, Ayub who illegitimately shifted the capital of Pakistan from Karachi to Islamabad (1959–1969), during which time Rawalpindi served as the national capital and the military headquarters of the Pakistani Armed Forces.

Life style suddenly changed and this so called city was no more than a cantonment area where no civil rules were existence Army official were treated like lords who were extremely rude towards the ordinary people but good ass lickers of British and American’s administration (Establishment), believed me or not one instance a high ranking military official proudly said that we survived on the mercy of these western bosses. Shame that reminded me of the incident, we came across in Lahore city hotel.

Attock was the next city 80 km further north located on the bank of the River Indus; in the northern border of the province the region had Taxila and Peshawar as its chief cities. Attock fort was completed in 1583 under the supervision of Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi, a minister of Emperor Akbar. We were given tour of the Fort by a military officer stay overnight with the young captain in cantonment area and next morning we moved towards Peshawar.

Peshawar is situated in a large valley near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, between the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau and the Indus Valley. Peshawar is now officially recognized as being one of the Oldest Living Cities in Asia. Its history and culture has continued uninterrupted since several centuries.

Peshawar was a major centre of Buddhist learning until the 10th century. As an indication of its importance, Peshawar was also the site of Kanishka's Great Stupa which housed relics of Gautama Buddha, and was widely considered to be the tallest building in the world at the time of its construction.

By this time scenario changes rapidly, reality was that we found our self among the rough and dirty People of this region who were barbarous, lazy, idle, and violent, even hippies found them intolerable. Travelling becomes more uncomfortable and sometime dangerous.

We did not have any serious problem but we never felt safe during the travelling, in on instance we were on way to Landi Kotal travelling in local public bus the smell inside was almost unbearable the guy sitting on seat away from the window continually spitting into their sleeves as he was told by the passenger next to him not to use window for spitting.

Peshawar we stay in the Military Cant area with a friend of Ahmed, the funny thing about the Military Cant areas which were a sign of domination during the time of British colonization still serving the same purpose. If you are in the Military Cant that means you belong to the rulers (invader) and you are privilege citizen disgusting but true…The commanding officer of the Cant use to be virtual ruler of the area to the extent that he can get away with murder interesting? Our friend the serving Captain introduce us the commanding officer during the dinner and he was pleased to meet us wasn’t he?

During the bus ride we meet a young man his name was Usman Chaudary he was working for the railway, and he was regular traveler between Landi Kotal and Pindi

Landi Kotal was a dusty town and it was also a gateway to Afghanistan, we ask any thing especial place to go and see the answer was nothing of much significance but he surely warned us about the safety He warned us that we should be back where we staying before sunset. He had an impression that we were defiantly invited by some tribal chief but to his surprise when we told him we know nobody in there.

His answer was interesting he said he has a key which can open first class railway compartment of the train. I said there is no first class bogy in this train, I know but there is one at the station in Landi Kotal.

We arrived Landi Kotal approximately 8am, there was not much to do at the bus station, we walked to wards the market area, the bazaar was full of goods from all over the world, the things we saw in the market were not to be seen in Karachi because import of those goods were ban, so obviously it was all smuggled stuff.

On the top the shop’s showcases were packed with cakes of different kinds of hashish, cocaine, guns, hand gurnards, assault raffles, even rocket launcher were freely available in the market the authorities Police, Customs, Rangers, and other military agencies were there and somehow they were involved in this illicit trade. The atmosphere was extremely wild lookalike we were in a Stone Age era. It was scary I thought the guy was right but where did he go? The only thing I enjoyed the most, was evening meal the road side restaurant was famous for this Afghani meal the curry of sheep meat the size of the meat pieces were huge but very tender, Afghani bread was itself so testy. While we were having dinner we saw our friend entering in the restaurant he came directly to us had a tea as he already had his meal. Together we went to the station and quietly sneak in to first class bogy and slept like a baby.

Next morning Usman took us across the border in to Afghanistan, in Tor Kham and we meet some of his friends one of them was so impress he offered us automatic pistol to take it to Karachi. I refused his kind offer and instead I accept a pocket size tape recorder as gift. Next morning we caught the Khyber train safari for Pindi during the travel we discover that our friend was a crook and involved in drug smuggling; his real destination was Lahore city

Landi Kotal is a town of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It lies on the Khyber Pass in the Khyber Agency. At 1,072 meters above sea level it is the highest point on the Khyber Pass and is the route across the mountains to the city of Peshawar.

Landi Kotal is a tourist destination which is accessible by train (called the Khyber train safari) or road from elsewhere in Pakistan, or by road from the Afghanistan border just five kilometers to the west

We found the People of this city were inhospitable, violent, and extremely intolerable. Travelling becomes more uncomfortable and sometime dangerous. Landi Kotal is the main shopping centre for both the Shinwari and Afridi tribes.

The bazaar was interesting we never saw anything like that, most of the goods for sale were illegitimate items such as drugs, weapons, smuggled electronic item which were banned in Pakistan were freely available for sale. Opium, cocaine, and other drugs were sold in wholesale rate.

Guns and other sophisticated weapons were sold under the nose of the corrupt military government of Pakistan. The most interesting thing was they were so organized that they were ready to deliver even ante-aircraft gun at Karachi, all we were asked to do to pay them cash and on the fixed date the gun will be deliver at given address, wasn’t that interesting?

On one instant we were about to be kidnapped because of our different outlook, four tribal men with guns caught us and try to take us into a waiting wagon but on the interference of the shop keepers we were released, and told to not walk around without local protection, that was spine-tingling.

The Khyber train safari is a railway route in Khyber-Pass it is an engineering marvel. The colonial era railway route has been described as "a journey into time and history". It consists of a train pulled by two vintage steam locomotives built in 1920s that takes passengers through breathtaking and rugged mountainous terrain. The train covers a total of 42 kilometers (26 mi) through 34 tunnels and 92 bridges and culverts climbs to 3600 feet. The train is well guarded on bluffs above the track, in little garrisons and pillboxes, the Khyber Rifles stand duty, staring blankly at the plummeting blue black ravines on Afghanistan’s inhospitable edge.

After having great experience and discovering about train safari we decided to take the train on way back from Landi Kotal to Rawalpindi.

The whole train journey was full of surprises the train had two steam engines the track was moving like a snake through the mountains one side was very tall peaks and other side was sharp slope pretty scary the bridges and tunnels were amazing not much to see in the form of villages or villagers, the route of the train was through Peshawar, Nowshera, Attock City, Hassan Abda, Taxila and than Rawalpindi.

There were only six proper stations in between where train actually stops to pick up the passengers, otherwise local people were easily getting in and getting off the train at any place where ever they find it convenient. The train had only four bogies and three of them were goods wagon and only one was passenger, mind it there weren’t many in the wagon we were the only irregular passenger but most of them were local residence. The speed of the train was so slow that some young people getting in and off the train just to enjoy panorama.

It was an odd trip one moment the car would be filled with sunshine, and outside the head of the valley shifted to view of tumbling stone gorge; the next moment we would be in darkness. There were three miles of tunnel on between Landi Kotal and Peshawar, and as there were no lights on the train, we travelled those three miles in total darkness.

Taxila We wanted to stop at Taxila as we have heard and read about the city’s history goes back to the Gandhara period and contain the ruins of the Gandhāran city was an important Hindu and Buddhist centre. We wanted to have 2 days stop and explore the ruins but due to lack of money we decided not to, and continue to wards Rawalpindi.

Arriving at Rawalpindi station we decided to go to a friend of our school time whose family was migrated to Dera ghazi Khan; his father was a Hakeem (Medison man) and running his health clinic. In order to reach Dera ghazi Khan we have to go to Panjnad a place where five rivers merged into River Indus then flow down stream in to the Arabian Sea.

On the way to Panjnad we had to go through Sargodha, Jhangsadr, Khanewal, Multan Muzaffargarh, crossing the river into Dera Ghazi Khan.

In order to catch the boat we were suppose to arrive at the river bank (Ghats) before sunrise for that we were woken up at 4oclock in the morning there was half an hour ride by Ox-driven cart to the Ghats (River bank) and then we had to walk in the mud to get on the boat, the half a mile walk was not only dirty but very difficult as the mud was so soft that our feet some places digs in almost up to knees, the boat was made of wood very simple and basics sail boat, did not have deep keel, instead it was balanced by extending the width of the boat that makes it rather funny looking sail boat.

The crossing of river Indus was extremely adventures at many instant we thought the boat would never be able to reach the other bank,

When the boat was loaded carefully and the ground crew gave the signals and push it in to the downstream current and the crew inside the boat were handling it with the help of bamboo poles the Nakhuda (skipper) was firmly sitting on the helm to stair the boat in the right course and the crew was taking his instruction seriously

Crossing the river as the water current downstream was swift, this boat did not have any engine it was driven on the mercy of river stream the only tool crew had were long bamboos which they were using for changing the direction of the boat or pushing it when grounded the water most of the way was shallow but when the boat hit the main stream water got deeper and they pulled the sail but I could see they didn’t have much control in steering the boat number one the wind wasn’t enough to fill the sail and water was too deep to use the bamboo pols, so we were literally on the mercy of the current, in the second part of the day the wind picked up and they were able to get the boat back to it’s actual path, and got closer to the other side of the bank and enter in shallow waters again but by this time we were already pretty far off the main course, this was the main reason of delayed arrival.

The duration of the voyage was expected to be around 12 hours, 6pm just before the sunset but because of no wind we were 5 hours late and after the sun set it was a nightmare but on the contrary the sunset was just remarkably beautiful but scary, most of the passenger were scared and praying for their safety, I don’t know whether we were scared or enjoying adventure which we had no control I still remember that voyage and wish to go back one day and enjoy the trip, and those amazing people.

Arriving at 10pm on the other side of the bank, 5 hrs late but the Ox-cart were waiting for passenger to carry them to the nearby village called Bet Itera it was very small village consist of few mud huts, most of the passenger were on route to Dera Ghazi Khan, but because of the delayed arrival of the boat we all decided to spend the night right there, villagers were accustomed of having late arrival of boat from other side of the river Indus, a hot meal was served, and again we were surrounded among the villagers inquiring about our unbelievable trip all the way from Karachi City some of them never even heard the name of this big city. They were so excited they didn’t want us to sleep although they knew how horrible voyage we have had. When they learn that we were going to be the guest of the famous Hakeem Ahmed Shaw in D G Khan, right from there we were treated as their own guest and everything was offer free of coast and the best for us. Next morning the bus driver was told not to charge anything as we were the guest of Hakeem sahib, he was also told that he should drop us on the door step of Havali (House) of Hakeem sahib.

Ahmed Shaw and his family was waiting anxiously and they were aware of the risk involved in the voyage, their concern was genuine many accident related the boat crossing at that point were common because of the river unpredictable current, the area very close where all the five rivers actually joins the River Indus and the difficult topography of this area being muddy and the constant shifting slit, digging new tunnels in consequences crossing at that point becomes dangerous. The fast moving water with along with debris as big as the grown up trees moving with speedy currents causes mud bars and tunnels if the boat’s hull hitting any of these object could easily overturn the boat.

Accidents have been very common in those crossing, which was revealed to us during the evening conversation or rather it was a welcome dinner hosted by the Hakeem shab. The evening was extremely pleasant we being the guest of honor enjoying every moment of the evening, suddenly the local press agent joined us and they decided to published our adventurist excursion in the Urdu news paper “The Daily Jung” and the following week the story was published, this was the first time we were ever published in the main stream Urdu media country wise. At home Ami-bibi (mom) kept the copy of the news paper safely

We spent one weak with Ahmed Shaw’s family the time passed so quickly and then we decided to move on and we plane our route along the western bank of the river Sindh, so so we will have chance to see more of country side.