Adventures with Julia

September 10, 2019

Shifa had been telling us about the Maharam, a month long season of mourning, that culminates in a festival and parade that was coming.   He did not really want us to go near it as he thought there could be trouble.  There are, apparently, festivals throughout the country on the 9th and 10th of September for the purpose of mourning the death of an important Shia leader, Imam Hussin, who was brutally assassinated by a man named Yezid in 680AD in Karbala, Iraq.   He was a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.  Yazid was a Sunni and the Shia have neither forgiven or forgotten the incident.  The majority of Pakistanis are Sunni and in past years the festival has, sometime, resulted in fights and and even bloodshed.  Shifa finally agreed to pick us up at 11am and take us to a point from which we could watch at a distance.  However, when we got there, the last the marchers had just passed.  So Khajulah drove as fast as possible over the rugged and winding mountain roads to get us to a point where we could walk down a steep dirt track for about a quarter mile to reach the location where the main event was to occur on the KKH. Needless to say, the KKH was completely closed in every town for most of the day.  Also, cell phone service was shut down by the government for the day as a means of stopping social media communication and potential gang problems.

Marchers arrive to receive tea and a snack.

A serious looking participant

Gathering on the roadside to share tea and snacks

Shifa and me in the crowd. He would not leave my side.

A participant with a hat like one of mark’s

A Boy Scout. There were there as volunteers to help where needed

Two cute boys with a lunch container.

Interesting snap. The boys looking quizzically at the albino man, sheltering his eyes from the direct sun and a Shia girl watching quietly. She was one of very few women at the festival.

Another boy wonders about me.

Unraveling the prayer rugs

A small boy sitting on the opened prayer rugs with lunches for four.

Police monitoring the crowd.

We beat the crowd and stayed on the edges of the road for quite awhile.  As marchers arrived, they stopped and sat on the ground for tea and a snack, then walked a few more steps to where hundreds of prayer rugs were laid on the ground and they could pray in comfort, although it was hot in the sun.  After half an hour of praying, lunch was passed out in plastic containers.  The men and boys sat around in groups to eat. When the containers were picked up, speakers began to make remarks to the crowd, who then sat on the prayer rugs to listen.  There was a loud angry sounding speech, a couple of songs, a long softly delivered speech and another crowd rousing speech.  We estimated the crowd to be between 800 and 1000 people.

While sitting, the men are pausing between prayers

They bow with their heads touching the ground in prayer and reverence to God.

Lunches were handed out to the participants. We were offered lunches too.

A loud, strong space that sounded angry to my ears. Shifa and I estimated between 800-1000 people.

Security watching the crowd as 2 men sing.

Finally, the participants, who were mostly wearing all black clothing, began to form up into groups before the serious marching and chest beating began.  A riderless horse was brought to the front of the crowd to represent the martyred Imam Hassin.  I was impressed at how organized the event was and how the need for food and drink was handled seamlessly.  At the head of the line were ambulances, police walking around and military with guns, watching from the back of trucks.

Military on alert

Boy Scouts lead the parade

Moving the riderless horse into position.

One group forms in front of the loud speakers

They start beating their chests in rhythm.

Again and again to the beat of the drums.

Thumping their chests.

There is the albino in the middle of the front group.

The men seem to be getting organized as they thump their chests.

The largest group forms up behind the loud speaker.

This group starts beating their chests.

The third and final group are more organized and contained inside a rope barrier as they move. Shifa thought this was the most violent group.

A boy shared the balcony with us.

At this point Shifa was uncomfortable with us being in the crowd so we found a perfect spot on the elevated stoop outside of a local motel. We had probably spent 15 minutes watching the proceedings when we were spotted by two plain clothed security men working for a local politician.  When they reached us they began questioning Shifa about us and our presence. After some back and forth discussion, it was decided we would move up to the second floor balcony of a street side motel and watched the proceedings from there until they passed out of sight.  By then they were beating themselves very strongly in time with drumming coming from loudspeakers traveling on trucks behind each group.  Shifa told us later that, before it was over, some people had beat themselves bloody with the chains many of them carried.  However, there were no fights and no problems.  By the time they passed by our observation point, we had had enough.

Shifa quickly grabbed a cab for Mark and me so we would not have to climb back up the hill to the car where Khajulah was waiting.  That was very thoughtful and appreciated. The cab driver spoke pretty good English and we learned that he had spent 20 years in the Pakistani Army and now operated a small guesthouse and moonlighted as a taxi driver. We also learned his younger brother was in the US Army. Last year when his brother re-enlisted and was graduating as an officer, our driver had requested a US visa so he could attend the brothers graduation.  Unfortunately, he was denied a visa. We were back at the hotel in 6-7 minutes on the now re-opened KKH behind the festival procession.

Back in our room, we agreed that we had had enough action for one day even though it was only 2:30.  It was relax time for us.

September 11, 2019

We depart the Serena after 4 lovely nights in one place.  We didn’t move very far, but we stayed busy all day until we reached the Eagle’s Nest Hotel.

First stop was the ancient petroglyphs that happen to be along side the KKH about 10 minutes north of Karimabad.  It was nice to have them so accessible.

The description informed us that these petroglyphs, called Haldeikish, mostly belong to the time when this area served as a connecting line of the Silk Road, especially under the Kushans from the 2nd century and later.  This is one of the earliest and most reliable sources for understanding the history of the region during the last millennium.  Here are a variety of images we took.

Altit Fort from the petroglyphs. The glacier looks huge behind the fort, but it is a long ways way.

Spread over 4, large rocks, thousands of graffiti and petroglyphs, names, titles, dates,  and design in several different scripts reveal the diverse logistic and geographical origins of visitors and travelers through Hunza.   They highlight the important role the Hunza Valley played as a transition point for cultural exchange on one of the ancient Silk Route networks.  Some inscriptions from Buddhist pilgrims date from 83AD.  Another inscription mentions the greatest Gupta Emperor, Chandra Sri Vikramaditya, who reigned over most of India during the early 5th century.  I have never seen petroglyphs so informative.  Unfortunately, most of what I could recognize were hundreds of Ibex and a few men on horseback.

While at the petroglyphs a Pakistani truck stopped to greet us.  They let me sit on the fender.

Just down the road a few hundred yards, we stopped at a cave that Shifa explained was an abandoned ruby mine.  Apparently this area was rich in Rubys and people are still prospecting.

Another mile or so down the road and we turned off onto the road to Nager.  Very shortly we encountered the confluence of the Hunza and the Nager Rivers, which keep the name Hunza.

Confluence of the dirty Nagar River with the clear Hunza River.

Nearby was a hanging bridge over the Nagar River. Too wobbly for me.

The Hunza River, which we have followed and watched for many days is the only river to slice through the Karakoram Range.  It was there before the mountains and has maintained its flow through a cluster of 7,000+ meter peaks to meet the Nagar River at this point. Very nearby was a hanging bridge that Mark and Shifa crossed.  I started and quit as it was just to jiggly for me.

Apricots drying on rooftops

A little girl watches us from a field.

wheat is being threshed in a field next door.

another threshing operation further up the valley.

A young girl with freshly threshed wheat.

Golden Peak is at the top of the Nagar Valley.

Up the Nagar River drainage to the village of Hoper, we encounter mountain peaks and fertile valleys.  Wheat was being threshed and apricots were drying on roof tops.  From the fertile green valley, we could make out Gold Peak looming in the distance.  Hoper village was 40 kilometers up the road and we were headed for the Hoper Hilton for lunch.  THe mountains along the way were magnificent. When we reached Hoper, we climbed up a short, but steep trail to look down on a glacial field and up at a range of mountains.

Glacier ice field directly below us

Gold Mountain is on the right, Traver is on the left and Rush Mountain is in the middle.

The cutest aspect about the Hoper Hilton was the name.  The place and the food was pretty awful.  However, as usual, the scenery was incredibly grand.  The elevation was 9200+ft.  We drove back down to the KKH, then across the Hunza River and back up the Karimabad hill, except we continued passed town and on and on up the hill to the Eagle’s Nest Hotel at 9250 feet.

September 12, 2019

We were here for a change of scenery and to catch the sunrise on the peaks.

Sunrise at 5:43am

A little more at 5:50

Full Sunshine on the mountain.

Shifa takes a photo of us overlooking Karimabad with

Altit Fort hangs over the Hunza River

Looking down on Baltit Fort in the early morning.

Slowly, we drive down the mountain, enjoying another look at the scenery.  It has been pretty heady looking at gorgeous peaks everyday and enjoying delightfully sunny, yet pleasantly cool weather. We are now headed for Gilgit with stops along the way.  First stop is the busy, one street town of Aliabad.  We get out of the car and walk the street chatting with people we meet and checking out the various products available.

Rakhaposhi Mountain 25,551

Rakhaposhi Mountain 25,551 feet or 7,788 meters.

From there we drive to the tourist spot where “Rakhaposhi, at 7,788 meters is the 27th highest peak and has the highest unbroken slope on earth with its gleaming Ghulmet Glacier.” The sign by the road also read, “It is the only mountain on earth that plummets uninterrupted for almost 6,000 meters from its summit to its broad base, which measures almost 20 kilometers east to west.”  There is a rough road that climbs part way up the mountain so we decided to drive as far as possible and then walk.  We managed to get to 2366 meters and had only another 5422 meters to go when we turned around and went back down the hill to the cluster of cafes, with mouth dropping views.  Pakistani tourists were all over the place.

After a small snack of French fries at one of the cafe’s, we carried on down the road with one more stop to watch a baker making momos, or pasties, on the street and next door a wood turner making a small bowl.  We bought no momos, but we did buy a few spoons in apricot and willow wood.

The bread maker spreads a meat concoction on bread…

After filling and sealing the meat pie.

Cooking the pies on the hot burner.

Wood carver making a small bowl

Close up of the bowl turning under the pressure of the spinning water wheel.

The carver opens his water wheel to show us how it works

poons and bowls he had for sale. We bought 1 willow and 4 apricot and spoons.

Finally, we arrived in Gilgit and went directly to the Serena Hotel to unwind and enjoy the property, which had a large, attractive English style garden.  We watched the sunset from our green garden terrace.  A gentleman named, Saidulah Baig, joined Shifa and us for dinner in the hotel.  We had a very informative visit talking about his work educating girls in Pakistan and the Central Asia Institute (CAI). We learned that Saidullah is also Ishmaili and that he and Shifa went to school together when they were young.  What an unplanned coincidence that is.

Saidullah Baig, Shifa and Mark after dinner at the Serena Hotel.

It had been an action packed couple of days and we were ready to go to bed shortly after saying good bye to Saidullah.