When I told my friends and family that I was going to visit Pakistan, they said I was crazy, that it was dangerous, that it was full of terrorists and that I would be shot or kidnapped. Safe to say, after spending a full month in this beautiful country and travelling all the way across it, I felt safer than walking around in Europe’s cities.
Pakistan gets such a bad rep from our media and safety in the country has improved immensely the last years. Almost the whole country is Muslim, so the people are immensely hospitable and will try to help you with everything. They are very religious and honest and I did not see a single scam or theft in the whole country.
It’s a very cheap country to travel, 1 euro equals to 300 Pakistani rupees. For a meal you usually pay around 1 euro and if you want to eat really fancy you’ll pay 5 euros maximum. The only expensive part about it is the limited hotels where you are allowed to stay as a foreigner (and those are usually quite expensive for a dirty hotel room).
I really enjoyed my month travelling through Pakistan. If you’re adventurous, it’s the perfect country for you! The people are great and there’s a lot to see. You will be invited to dinner by a lot of locals and get free taxi rides now and then. The country is so big that you’d need a year to see everything. I went in winter which is the perfect season to discovering the south and the deserts. In summer the temperatures get so hot that a lot of people die from the heat each year.
The most special thing to me about the country were the colourful trucks and busses, horns in twenty different jingles included. They were all so decorated and looked really special. In my opinion these trucks are the best representation of the country: Very colourful, chaotic, surprising and very slow!
After some struggles getting the visa, I flew to Karachi. Pakistan was the destination I had the most fear of because I read a lot of websites saying that it’s not an easy destination to travel to. My flight was delayed a LOT (thanks PIA), I arrived at 3 in the morning. After getting a very expensive taxi to the hotel (I knew I paid way too much but I had no clue what the right price was), I arrived there and thank God people at the reception were still awake. The room was really dirty, as expected, but atleast it had good WiFi.
I needed a few days to adjust. Pakistan is chaotic as hell and there doesn’t seem to be much order. Everyone does what they want to do. Crossing the street was even more diffult with a constant stream of fast rickshaws and bikes. There’s sidewalks, but those are occupied with tonnes of food stalls and shops showing their wares. Half of the street is blocked by parked bikes and cars and more street vendors, good thing the streets are so wide. During busy times of the day the streets are so congested it’s faster to walk. The first day I was electrocuted while holding onto an electricity pole. Luckily it scared me more than it hurt and I vowed never to touch a pole again.
I did a lot of research to prepare myself before going here. A friend recommended InDrive to me. It’s like Uber but cheaper. This app was a lifesaver. It was so easy (and cheap) to get around with this. You drop a pin on the map and the driver knows where to go, try explaining a Pakistani who doesn’t know English and doesn’t understand Google maps how to go somewhere, it’s miserable. Even if they don’t know the location, they will pretend they do and start driving. You have to guide them every step of the way. Usually you will find Rickshaws and bike taxis everywhere and getting around is a breeze. You can cross the whole city for just a couple euros.
The food is totally different from what we eat in Europe. Generally everything is so spicy, they grind chili peppers in almost everything. After a month I got so tired of it, everything is just needlessly spicy and you don’t get a break from it at all. Even if you go to McDonald’s or another famous chain they will have made the food spicy in some way. Safe to say that I’m able to handle some serious spice now after a month of suffering.
I visited a bunch of things in Karachi, there’s plenty to see. Every day I ended off with going to Burns Road nearby my hotel. It’s a street famous for the best streetfood, and you can get almost anything there. I tried a different dish every day.
I visited Clifton beach, the palace, the museum, air force museum, the clock tower, Clifton mall and drove by Frere hall. There’s a lot of nice buildings from the British era, but most of them are very dilapidated and not maintained (spoiler alert for the rest of the country).
After 6 days of Karachi I was.. Knock knock, diarrhea arrived. I spent the whole nacht puking and running to the toilet, feeling absolutely miserable. After taking some pills I felt better and managed to visit something during the day. The nauseousness left but the diarrhea stuck with me for weeks. Getting sick from the food is part of the experience. You can be as careful as you want, at one point it will get you.
After 7 days of Karachi I was ready to move up and explore the rest of the province.
The plan was to do a different city every day, visit something during the day, sleep, get up early and head to the next place. Rinse and repeat. I managed to do this until Larkana and I’m quite proud of it. Transport isn’t easy in this country and usually you don’t know what options you have until you get there and ask locals.
My trip illustrated on a map with pictures, in an attempt to keep my blog post shorter
Chaukhandi tombs
Right outside of Karachi there is a big graveyard of old tombs. The most interesting tombs were build in the 17th to 18th century during Mughal rule. They are made out of sandstone with intricate carvings and arabic writing making them look quite cool. Some of them have roofs while others are under the open sky. They are mainly graves from leaders of the tribes in the region.
Banbhore fort
Ruins of old fort abandoned from the 13th century when the river moved and the port dried up, it’s only 10% excavated and the walls are the best preserved part, there’s also one of the oldest mosques ever found. It had a really nice guesthouse for a good price where I stayed for the night.
Thatta and Makli
Thatta is famous for it’s Shah Jahan mosque (builder of the Taj Mahal), Makli is famous for the Makli graveyard with beautiful graves and mausoleums. They are build in the same style as the Chaukhandi tombs and it’s UNESCO heritage, like most places you can visit in Pakistan.
Hyderabad
This is a nice city next to the Indus with a lot of little streets, mosques and shrines everywhere. There is another big mausoleum and some more cool tombs.
Sehwan
Very spiritual city with a big temple complex where there’s a yearly festival that draws thousands of people. For the rest there was not that much to see, only some nice markets. It was nice to head out to the fields nearby and see the Indus.
Dadu
I only came here for an ATM that turned out to be broken when I arrived, nothing to see in this city aside from being the starting point to head to Gorakh hill station. I wanted to go there originally, it’s a village on a big mountain, almost 2000m high and it’s on the border of Sindh province and Balochistan province, where foreigners can’t really go. It gives you amazing views over the surroundings and the only chance of seeing parts of the Balochistan desert.
Larkana
Nice city where I made local friends, who introduced me to the Sindhi culture. There’s a lot to see in the area like Mohen Jo Daro and the tomb of Benazir Bhutto. I liked the vibe of this city a lot and the hotels weren’t as expensive as the other cities. There were fields of fruit trees and very good fresh guavas.
Sukkur
Beautiful city on the Indus, with a dam, a lot of things to see in the city, two cool bridges and the ‘seven sisters’, a fortified tomb. I went to go see the endangered dolphin species on the Indus, this is one of the only places you’re able to spot them. This was my favourite city in Pakistan even though I didn’t sleep here, only visited during the day and took a sleeper bus to Lahore in the evening.
Lahore
Cultural capital of Pakistan with a huge old, walled centre and loads of history, old mosques and forts, museums… I stayed in a real backpackers hostel here and met a lot of other travellers for the first time in Pakistan. Stayed here for a couple days during the election because it’s a safe city and I learned a lot more about the culture from the other backpackers.
Rohtas fort
Mughal fort on the way to Islamabad, most of the walls are still standing together with some towers and a palace, UNESCO world heritage and you’re free to walk around, explore, climb and taste the views from the top of the walls. I made some stunning photo’s here and travelled together with Oskar, an Austrian backpacker I met in the hostel.
Rawalpindi
Old city of Islamabad, the capital, bordered by Margala hills which are beautifull to hike in. Stayed here for a couple of days at a locals house using couchsurfing. They were very friendly people living in a rich area, we went out to some restaurants and went to watch a movie aswell.
Taxila
City close to Islamabad, has a lot of historical buddhist monastaries, over a millenia old. They’re once more UNESCO sites and cost a decent amount to visit, but they are really cool. There’s 8 or more sites but they are spread over the area. We hiked from one to the other and explored a cave full of bats. We slept in an abandoned youth hostel where the ceiling was falling down, but it was very cheap.
Peshawar
Big city close to the border with Afghanistan, capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province which is known for a lot of tribal areas, where the families run their own land according to their own rules, and sometimes small wars break out between the tribes. Great food, a lot of Afghan refugees. We once again used couchsurfing to stay with a local (there’s only one hotel in Peshawar and it’s crazy expensive). We had a great time there with Zia, he is an older fighter who fought against the Americans in Afganistan and has good relations with the Taliban. There’s a lot of gun factories in the city and we went to visit those. Almost all of them make cheap copies of American guns.
Swat Valley
Popular valley in the foothills of the Himalayas, 1000m above sea level surrounded by beautiful hills and very peaceful. We stayed at a very friendly local’s house who showed me around the area. Sadly I was only able to stay here for two days since my visa was expiring and I was flying out of Karachi.
After saying goodbye to Oskar, who stayed in Pakistan for longer, I took a sleeper bus from Swat valley all the way back to the beginning to Karachi, it’s almost 2000km and it took the bus 24 hours but it was very comfortable and I made some more friends on the way with whom I went for dinner in Karachi on my last evening. After an atrocious airport experience I flew at midnight to Muscat, Oman.