indiana jones, karaoke and dog meat

We had a spontaneous party one night when some of the guys found some Chinese firewater (a spirit), as alcohol is illegal in Pakistan, this seems to be the alcohol that crosses the border. We all went down to BiRT and put some loud music on and danced on the roof! The following day I tried the 6c making some progress- I linked the first 2/3rds in one go- it had great cruxs with wicked moves.
I joined Suuz, Danny, Hannahj and Sebastian on a bridge walk- this involved crossing the river on 2 bridges that were Indiana Jones style! They were pretty scary- consisting of steel cables (lots of broken strands) and random planks of wood that weren’t really planks- more strips of wood, often broken and spaced far apart, pushed through the cables. It took over 10 mins to cross too. We managed to turn it into a mini adventure by taking the lower road to the bridge which Khan told us not to take! It was steep with scree heading into the river. But the real reason was the path had collapsed at one point. Dannys idea was to wade into the swampy river to rejoin the path! We ended up in waist deep freezing water but made it to thew bridge. We met a lady from Malaysia who joined us on the walk but decided to turn back at the wading, but met us on the otherside after finding an easy path not far back!
In the small village on the otherside of the river wemet a local called Abraham who showed us the was to the next bridge and when we crossed, he offered us tea at his house. (the 2nd bridge was worse and next to it was the remains of the new bridge- blown away in a hurricane!) Abraham was into fine art and we discovered his father used to be a porter back in the 50s and 60s on some expeditions to summit virgin peaks. He went with Brits, Germans and Japanese up 8000m peaks and had letters of recommendation from the teams on his wall. Unfortunately he didn’t speak English but seemed a character! We were given tea and apricots and salt for our tea- apparently a northern Pakistani thing- we presumed it was sugar until Sebastian put a teaspoon full in and found he was drinking sea water! The family were far from offended when we found it funny- they joined in! we hitched a ride with the first car that passed. One last day in Passu and we tried the sports routes again. Then it was goodbye to Paul and off along the KKH towards the border. We got through Pakistan Immigration in the morning and drove the rest of the day through no mans land. We camped overnight in no mans land then drove to the Chinese immigration, passing the official border at 4800m altitude.
We were struck immediatel by changes- all the men in army uniform- the smooth tarmac road with lines on it and 2 lanes! And the toilets- a building with 4 holes and small dividers that us girls had to use at the same time. The boys had a guard watching them too!
They examined all our luggage- taking everything out all our lockers, then we had to do it all again at the official immigration a few hours drive later in Tashkirgan. Here we had our temperature taken, bags x-rayed and BiRT had to be thoroughly checked so we checked into a hotel- a nice hotel with free shampoo, TV and 2 to a room! We met our first liason officer- we have to have one all the time with us traveling through China to keep an eye on us! His name was Abdul, and was a nice guy and useful when sorting out bills etc!
At dinner, the group discovered beer for the equivalent of 30p and it soon turned into a party, where we went to a karaoke bar which looked like someones house and the soundsystem was really bad!
We explored the town finding fresh fruit- grapes and apples! And really good ice-cream for 10p. we ended up staying for an extra day as BiRT had to have certain forms to get into the country which didn’t arrive. We walked round the old fort and saw nomads on the grasslands. We were ready to get driving again to Kashgar.
also the food- we have a meal called '4 Disc Pure Speculation'. I think the meat in it was exactly that! we havent seen any dogs around and had meat in every meal- including what they call the vegetarian meals! so im fairly sure we have eaten dog or other random animals!

indiana jones, karaoke and dog meat

Pasu, Pakistan