Visiting an ancient cemetery

Visit to Chaukhandi

To avoid the heat at Chaukhandi, we decided to wake a little earlier at 0730 which required the use of an alarm since we had an internal windowless room. The hotel didn’t know anything about Chaukhandi but taxi driver (Asghar) which normally hangs outside the hotel knew about the place. It doesn’t sound like a well-known sight so we agreed to go with Asghar even though I believe his price was a tad high. We had come across him yesterday and his opening price was 10x what was reasonable. Fortunately he was more “on the same planet” with pricing today.

The ride took about 40 minutes and it was located just off the National Highway, behind plenty of ramshackle garages and some truck/bus decoration shops. Chaukhandi is a cemetery from the 15-18th Century, attributable to the Baloch and Jokhio tribes. The graves of the rich are made from beautifully carved sandstone, but the poorer people just get a pile of rubble. Some rich families are buried together on the same pedestal and may even have a pergola of some sort.

The caretaker was nice and kind (as with nearly everyone we’ve met with the notable exception of Asghar the taxi driver). He showed us around and told us a fair bit. At no time did he ask for money but we did tip him a little because we wanted to.

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Thinking, planning and resolving

Back at the hotel I updated my blog, did a bit of planning and booked our “mountain” flight on Pakistan Airlines from Gilgit to Islamabad (ie. bus up the Karakoram Highway and fly down). Our preferred travel in the opposite mode wasn’t possible as flights from Islamabad to Gilgit were full till way after our stay in Pakistan.

The call centre was helpful, understandable and courteous; we should have more Pakistani call centres. On the call,  I was quoted the price of PKR6510 for the flight but that’s because I sounded like a Pakistani, I was told.  Already?

Upon advising that I was a foreigner by giving our names, the price went up to PKR10,250 but with assurance that the higher price bring a higher waitlist priority in the case of a disruption. The booking carried a 3 day ticketing time limit so it made sense to pay for it at the airport later today.

I had to make the call through the hotel phone as my SIM didn’t work for outgoing or incoming. The Telenor (telco) call centre said it was properly activated as far as they can tell but would take 90 hours to investigate. Ggrrr! I emailed the nice store manager at Clifton who assisted me when I went for my SIM registration.

We left for the airport about 1600, thanks to a late checkout from the hotel. I had hoped for some rest after our outing but too much time was spent thinking, planning and attempting to resolve issues. And people think I’m on holiday.