Resting up after a long ride
Surprisingly, I felt quite good upon arrival at Gilgit. We were dropped out of the centre and at that time, there was no way of getting to central hotel. It was too far to walk. The domestic tourists managed to speak to a local and ring for some kind of a private-car taxi. When it arrived, for some reason they put us in it rather than themselves. Pakistani hospitality at work again.
I asked to be taken to our preferred guesthouse. We ended up at another one of the driver’s choice. I quickly check in my guide and it had a good write up but was in the Budget category which I had steered clear off so far; we didn’t need to skimp that much. At 0530, no one answered when we rang the bell (power blackout I think) and banged on the gate. So we got some tea at a nearby cafe and tried again at 0630.
The Medina turned out to be a great choice with a nice courtyard garden, tidy rooms and great hospitable people. Twin room with bathroom for PKR650 only.It was 0730 by the time I got into bed and slept for three hours. The rest of the day was devoted to some well-deserved resting and interneting to catch up on my blog posts.
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- Waiting at a cafe till a decent time so we could bang on the guesthouse gate!
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- Our lovely guesthouse, the Madina. Nice compound and gardens. Tidy rooms. Great people.
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- Gilgit’s main street.
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- Advertising for camping trips; errr … Pakistan is still very innocent.
Native English Speakers
You may have heard me say before that I seldom meet native English speakers (eg. US, UK, Australia, NZ) in my travels; they seem to visit a narrow range of countries. I tend to meet central and eastern Europeans, Korean, Japanese in my travels.
Well, today I met four native English speakers in one day; a group of three plus a solo. The group was less than friendly and were paragliders. The solo was an outdoorsy person and was friendly enough but not overly chatty. It wasn’t the typical backpacker exchange that I love. They all seemed quite focused on their sport and didn’t have much interest in the cultural aspects of Pakistan; their interactions with the hosts didn’t mirror the hospitality that was being showered on them .
In a way, I think they would be happy doing their thing anywhere in the world. Perhaps it’s somewhat like an intercontinental car rally … using their host country as their backyard or a playground for their sports without appreciating anything else about it. Hhmmm, thinking about it that way makes it quite offensive!