The Mountains

The north of Pakistan is a truly wild region, with proud and fiery Pashtuns, wild stories and wild landscapes. Both Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great passed through here. It's still a dangerous area where Taliban and islamic fundamentalists alike hide in the mountains under the protection of local war lords. The government has little or no control here, especially in the North West Frontier Province which lies on the smuggler's route between China and Afghanistan.
I took a minibus from Peshawar to Mardan, a small town in the foothills of the mountains 60 km north of Peshawar. It was my first experience with Pakistani transport in the mountains and one I won't forget lightly. In Asia they generally pack up their buses with as many passengers as possible, but in Pakistan they take this a bit further than usual. I was sitting with my knees up to my chin, unable to move an inch, my backpack on my lap and with 2 smelly men's faces a mere 10 cm away from my own. And then they squeezed in a few more people. It took us over 5 hours to cover the 60 km. Every busride I took over the next 2 weeks travelling through the Hindu Kush was similar, if not worse.


Two scenes from the Hindu Hush, photographed around little mountain villages.



After 2 weeks I left the mountains at Abbottabad.
I noticed this advertisement board and was hoping something would add to it's appeal. Suddenly a man took position under the woman's finger, a car stopped in exactly the right position to show the old man sitting on the pavement behind it. I had time enough to snap just one picture before the car drove off and the man walked away.