We now have 2 beautiful antique Bokhara carpets rolled up ready to go to their new home in Paris. We did well, we almost bought 3 carpets only we weren’t sure where we would fit them! Because we spent about 5 hours deep in negotiation…. we missed the rest of the afternoon so we didn’t set off for the Peshawar bazaars until nightfall. It was fantastic. Imran took us through various different bazaars and then on a walk through the old city before bringing us to a wonderful BBQ restaurant where we sat upstairs just off the terrace for our best meal yet. It was sad. Our last meal. Our last evening with Hatam & Asghar. We had become friends.
Peshawar really was the highlight of my trip, it’s a city, but a nice size city – with all the romance of a frontier town.
We left the next morning for Karachi which is a big sprawling city full of people, and cars, and buildings. Almost a shock after the villages we had experienced over the previous 10 days. Jamal took us on a tour of the city, stopping to see the most beautiful Tooba Mosque constructed in white marble with thousands of mirror tiles in the interior, said to be the largest single dome mosque in the world. We also stopped to see the camels and donkeys on Clifton Beach and the Quaid-i-Azam Mausoleum which is a monument to Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Unfortunately for us it was closed because of an official political visit that evening. In the early evening we hired a boat for a few hours to go crabbing in the harbour. It wasn’t the good season for crabbing, we didn’t catch any, but our crew had brought along some live ones that they cooked up for us on the boat all the same. It was a lovely evening out watching the sunset – we weren’t the only ones who thought so, the harbour front was packed with people all jostling for space on a boat.
In the evening we were collected by a business associate of Michelles and driven to his house for dinner. Michelle’s new job involves sourcing suppliers from low cost countries and she has in mind doing some business in Pakistan since one of her divisions already has a successful relationship with this company based in Karachi. The evening was marvellous and the hosts were incredibly kind and a very interesting couple, we kept them up late telling them our tales from our trip up north – hopefully we’ll have the chance to repay their hospitality once we move to Paris.
Then it was the end. Our trip to Pakistan was finishing. Originally terrified and not too keen to travel to such an unknown country, now, after less than 2 weeks we felt we were being torn away too soon. So many places we didn’t have a chance to visit, so many more trips were being planned to return. The country was beautiful. The people were so kind and so generous and so happy. It really was fantastic.
If you ever get the opportunity to go to Pakistan, go. You won’t regret it. You’ll be amazed.
If you need any help planning it, booking hotels or even if you have any questions, contact Jamal at Pakistan Travel & Culture Services, I would have no hesitation recommending him to anyone for any trip in Pakistan – wherever you wanted to go, he has contacts and partners and resources all over. He managed everything perfectly, we didn’t want for anything and not once did we feel like we were being jostled about as tourists. It was an intimate, private tour at a very reasonable price. I can’t thank him enough, the best way we know how, is to return in January 2007!
That’s the plan.