Archive for the ‘Travelling Tips’ Category

Ist das nicht gefährlich in Pakistan?

Nein, es ist nicht gefährlich.

Wenn ich das sage glaubt ihr mir natürlich nicht. Das klingt nach einer Verniedlichung und ihr werdet weiter an eurem Vorurteil festhalten: In Pakistan ist es gefährlich. Und das stimmt. Es ist gefährlich dort! Während man in Pakistan ist, könnte man mit dem Flugzeug abstürzen, einen Herzinfarkt haben, in einen Verkehrsunfall verwickelt werden oder einem Bombenanschlag zum Opfer fallen. Alles Risiken die auch das Leben in Europa mit sich bringt.

Aber es ist doch gefährlicher als hier.

Genau. Ein bisschen. Doch gerne vergisst man wie viele europäische Touristen jedes Jahr nach Südostasien fliegen und dort ein grosses Verkehrsrisiko auf sich nehmen. Wir können dankbar sein, dass es bei uns so sicher ist. Doch die meisten von uns sind bereit ein etwas grösseres Risiko auf sich zu nehmen als das Risiko eines europäisches Durchschnittsalltags. Und das ist ok! Leben heisst erleben heisst Risiken auf sich nehmen!

Aber in Pakistan gibt es doch Bombenanschläge.

Ja, täglich sogar. Nur gibt es in dem Land auch 173 Millonen Menschen. Und in einem Bombenanschlag sterben 0-100 Menschen,selten mehr als ein Dutzend. Ich würde die Zahlen gerne mal mit der Zahl der Verkehrstoten vergleichen. Dazu kommt, dass praktisch alle Anschläge auf Staatsgebäude oder auf Polizeistationen abzielen. Die Chance als Tourist Opfer eines Attentats zu werden ist sehr klein. Ich schätze sie sogar kleiner ein, als die Chance von einem Lastwagen überfahren zu werden. Zugegeben, die Chancen addieren sich. Doch das Risiko, dass man mit einer Pakistanreise eingeht ist klein und es wird jedes Jahr von Dutzenden Touristen eingegangen die das Land auch wieder heil und um Erlebnisse reicher verlassen.
Interessant war ja, dass ich mich im Alltag in Pakistan sicher gefühlt habe. Ich bekam die Anschläge näher mit, las die Zeitung, redete mit den Einheimischen, fuhr an Orten vorbei wo Anschläge stattfanden. Doch die Chance, dass ich zur falschen Zeit am falschen Ort bin, war so klein, dass sie mich nicht mehr berührte.

Wenn Pakistan so sicher ist, wo ist es denn überhaupt noch wirklich unsicher?

In Kriegsgebieten, an Orten an denen offen gekämpft wird. Dort sollte man sich wirklich nicht aufhalten. Ausser als Kriegsjournalist vielleicht. Die überleben ihre Einsätze übrigens auch fast immer. Wieso das? Weil Kämpfe meistens nur in einigen Strassen und zu einigen Zeiten toben. Weil es auch in einer Stadt im Krieg oft sichere Quartiere gibt. Es gibt viele Mitarbeiter von Hilfsorganisationen die in Kabul, der Hauptstadt von Afghanistan, leben und überleben. Und man kann auch nach Afghanistan reisen.

Man muss nur seine Hausaufgaben machen. Man muss wissen wo man wann besser nicht hingeht. Und so war es auch in Pakistan. Ich war nicht im Swat-Tal und ich war nicht in Peshawar – der Grenzstadt zu Afghanistan in der es viele Anschläge gibt. Doch das Swat-Tal ist klein und Peshawar ist eine einzelne Stadt.
Ganz anders sieht es für die Einheimischen aus. Ich konnte jederzeit weiterreisen, sie mussten bleiben, hatten Häuser und Familie dort. Das schlimme ist nämlich nicht ein einzelner Anschlag, schlimm ist die wachsende Verunsicherung. Ich war zu einer Zeit in Islamabad in der sich die Zahl der Anschläge im Land von wöchentlich auf täglich steigerte. Die Armee ging agressiv gegen Militante vor und die gaben mit Anschlägen zurück. Universitäten und Schulen wurden bedroht und für ein bis zwei Wochen waren viele davon geschlossen. Plötzlich war der Schulalltag nicht mehr geregelt möglich. Die Kinder blieben zuhause was wiederum eine Umstellung für die Eltern mit sich brachte. Der Alltag begann zu bröckeln. Die Verunsicherung war gross. Wie geht es weiter, wie wird sich die Situation entwickeln? Inzwischen ist der Alltag wieder normalisiert, man geht trotz Drohungen und weiteren Anschlägen wieder zur Universität. Doch die Verunsicherung bleibt.

Dann soll ich also doch nicht nach Pakistan gehen?

Schau, es macht einen riesen Unterschied in welcher Rolle man in einem Land lebt. Wird deine Heimat unsicherer, dann beeinträchtigt das deine Lebensqualität direkt. Hat man Haus und Familie, ist es dein Heimatland, dann ist grösstmögliche Sicherheit wünschenswert. Bist du aber Reisender, Tourist, Besucher, dann hat die Unsicherheit nicht dieselben Auswirkungen auf dich. Pakistan ist ein sicheres Reiseland. Je nachdem wie du sicher definierst. Was bedeutet für dich Sicherheit?

 

How far can you go?

I was in Iran, I was in Pakistan. For many people, it is unthinkable to go there. Why? It is not safe they say.

What is safety? When are you safe? We normally don’t think about it, but honestly we know that we are never safe. Every second our heart could stop beating, every time we walk we could slip and fall and get injured deathly, every time we close the door of our house behind us is a moment we enter a dangerous world (as if there would be no danger inside the house as well). Some people are paralyzed because they are scared of life. Others step out into that world and enjoy the life that was given to them.

So you are scared of going to Iran and Pakistan while I recommend it. What can you do to overcome your fear? First, define what being safe means for you. Second, inform yourself.

What is safety?

You are never entirely safe. Live with it. Safety is always relative. You can express it in a chance to survive a certain situation, but you can never entirely guarantee it for anybody. So it is never about if something is secure or not, but about how secure it is. How unsecure is too much for you? Take some time and find your line. My personal line is the everyday traffic on the streets. Many people get killed every year by simple traffic accidents. And we live with it, it is a part of the risk we are willing to take as a society. Every day. And it is okay for me too. So I consider everything that is safer than street traffic totally safe for my life. And everything that is more insecure than traffic is worth a second thought. I don’t have a no-go line because I was never confronted with it. A German friend of mine who lived in Pakistan has one. She would quit her exchange semester and go home if there is open fighting on the street. Not before.

Maybe that line is totally unrelated to what you can think of. Let me show you the steps there. First, let us go to India (or any Asian country, for that matter): The traffic is crazy. It is dangerous – at least if we apply my line. But still, crowds of tourists go to India every year. For all of them it is okay to stretch the line to some more crazy traffic. So it is for me.

For a long time, the situation in Pakistan was like this: There were suicide attacks, but only rarely and always on government buildings (police stations, secret service offices etc.). Is that something to fear? Not really, unless you are a policeman or other government official. Otherwise the chance that it hits you is incredibly small. Way smaller than getting hit by a car.

This year, the frequency of the attacks increased. On the peak, there was a daily attack. Some on the market place in Peshawar (a city close to the border of Afghanistan), one on a sidebuilding of a mosque (killing a liberal cleric). That was during the time I visited the country and it was very interesting to see how it influenced people. Suddenly people did not feel so secure anymore. I could observe that feeling in expats who were discussing their security situation. Until this point they always found confidence in the fact that the attacks targeted the government and not them. Still, most of the bombs did. But suddenly the fear factor that a bomb could hit you everywhere everytime came into the game. Exactly what the obscure enemy wants. But everybody stayed. Nobody left the country in a rush. The news were big, the unease was growing, but the real danger was still small.

What the foreigners know is that they have to keep themselves informed. Because it could happend that the front moves. And you don’t want to have an open fight close to your city, not talking of one in front of your house. That would be a real reason to leave. But the chance that this would happen was small. Which brings us to the second point.

Inform yourself

Be honest. You don’t have a clou about Pakistan. You have seen some pictures on TV and Pakistan is always in the news and that gives you a bad feeling. So what you first have to do is learn to put what you see on TV in relation. You see the result of a bomb blast, you see a huge demonstration, you see streams of refugees, you see open fightings. Well, did you ever think about that this probably happened only in one street? And in the next street… Yeah, have you ever, ever thought about the street behind the one in the news? I tell you something: In the street behind, in the parallel street, there is everydays life ruling. Maybe not in a war zone, but for sure in Islamabad.

In Turkey, I saw news on TV, showing refugees within Pakistan and I got the feeling they are flooding all the country, making it impossible to move. I almost skipped Pakistan because of that. What a huge mistake that would have been. Because of that, I know how hard it is to put information into relation when you don’t have the opportunity to see behind the news. Well, at least, try it. Don’t let fear rule. Don’t be put of by a destination by poor information. Even if there is an open war going on in a country, chances are that it is travelable in big parts. Have you thought about how journalists get the news without being killed? They are mainly in the street behind…

So, which additional information made me going to Pakistan?

Or: why didn’t I got killed in Pakistan?

The country is huge. Have you ever had a look at it on a map? You know that India is vast, but in North-South direction, Pakistan is not that much smaller. On the TV screen it may look small and the point showing where is bomb blast was covers half the country, but take it into relations. All the places they don’t cover in the news are totally safe.

I avoided all the ‘most unsecure’ areas. The areas were the army is active, Peshawar – the city close to Afghanistan that faces regular bomb blasts on market places. In most of the places I went to, I felt totally safe.

There are even travellers going to Afghanistan. I even heard the rumour that some Japanese guy cycled through it half a year ago. There are travellers going to Iraq. You think this is suicidal? Not if you inform yourself well. Most visitors to Pakistan skip Peshawar for security reasons. Most visitors to Iraq stay in the north which is a safe part, ruled by a Kurdish government. It is all about good information and about where you draw your line.

 

How to deep deeper into a culture

There are certain things that help much to get an insight in how a culture works. Here are some suggestions for your next trip.

  • Go to the hospital. Preferably as a patient.
  • Post a parcel. Not with DHL – in the main post office.
  • Use a taxi.
  • Use an overland bus. Use a train. Use whatever else there is. For example motorbike taxis in Teheran.
  • Try to find something specific in town. Things you want to buy. It is getting more interesting if it is a thing of high value, for example a car.
  • Ask for a vegetarian meal.
  • Ask for the way.
  • Spend a day ore more in a small village.
  • Try to talk to locals.
  • Meet locals.
  • Be in need of help.
  • Do as the romans do and contemplate why they do it that way. Join their free time activities.
  • Work on a local farm for some weeks. (http://www.wwoof.org/)
 

How to get a visa for Pakistan in Teheran

  1. Learn to understand Indian English. It will be of much use to you when you deal with the embassy folks. If you don’t understand it you might find yourself in dialogs like the following:

    Embassy staff member: “***some really tough subcontinental English*** – do you understand?”
    Me: “No, I don’t understand.”
    He: “Can’t you speak English?”

  2. Go to your own embassy and get a recommendation letter. Or first call the Pakistanis and ask if it is still needed: 66944888. In the Swiss case, it costs you 40 Swiss franks (today: 360′000 IR) and you can get it between 8.30 and 11.30. Have a look at the current opening hours.
  3. Get a visa application form at the Pakistani embassy and fill in everything needed. To lower confusion:
    • It is necessary to provide an address in Pakistan, any hotel will do.
    • And they want the address of two persons coming up for the costs in case of an accident or such. That these two addresses were exactly the same, only the first name of my parents was different was not a problem.
    • There are also lines for the same thing with addresses in Pakistan, I left them blank, that was ok.
  4. Next they want you to write a personal application. They gave me a blank sheet of paper and I wrote an application with my hand.

    Dear Sir
    I hereby apply…

    It feels weird.
    You should state why you want to visit Pakistan, how long, when and especially why you did not apply for the visa in your homecountry.

  5. Hand in:
    • the application form
    • the handwritten application
    • three photos of you
    • the recommendation letter
    • a copy of every page of your passport that has a stamp or anything on it

    Hand it in between 9.00 and 11.00. But too early does not make a lot of sense, because they will let you wait until 11.00, then ask you a few questions and then tell you to call again in about 3 working days. They told me to call 4 days later, between was also the weekend (Thursday and Friday).

  6. You call, you go to the embassy. They tell you to deposit money on a bank account. In my case 32 Dollar respectivelly 320000 Rial. Walk south from the crossing until the end of the street, then right, and just over the crossing you find the bank, badly signed. You go back, hand in the receipt from the bank and your passport and they tell you to pick up your passport a few hours later with a receipt they give you. This time use the main entrance.
  7. For Swiss overlanders: Apply at home! You can get a three month visa with a flexible entry date within the next year.

Address of the embassy of Pakistan on Teheran:
Block No 1
Ahmed Etimadzadeh Alley
Dr. Hussain Fatimi St.
North Jamshidabad
14118 Teheran
www.parepteheran.org

 

Bicyle Shop in Tabriz

There are a few bicycle stores in Tabriz. But there is one that got some reputation in the cycling community. I guess not because of the ‘free service for tourists’, but because they do their work with passion, have a lot of spare parts and are very friendly.

So if your bike needs something and you are in Tabriz, that is the place to go:

Saeed Mohammadi Bike
Nader sq
Tabriz
Tel 280 77 76
saeedbike.blogfa.com

A few years ago, someone stopped Steven on the street while he was cycling into Tabriz: “Hello Mister, you have a problem with your bike”. He brought him to his cousin Saeed and because they did not have the spare parts he needed, they drove him to all bike shops in town. Great service, isn’t it?!

Funny sidestory: Steven gave me some pictures (that I carried with me all through Turkey) to bring them to Saeed. They came along with a visit card with the address. When I asked at the hotel reception where this address his, the man said: “In Esfahan”. I obviously had the wrong visitcard in my hands. However, Chris also had an address of a good bike shop, so we went there to look for spare parts. When I sat at the table, waiting for my bicycle to be ready again, I compared the table on the pictures in my hand with the table in front of me and started wondering…
The table on the picture and the one in front of me where the same! I was in the right place and could deliver the pictures!


However, a word of warning has to be said: While the service of Saeed is good, it is not perfect. I had to readjust my gearshift after the visit and if they want to exchange all your spikes, you better say no…


Saeed has a guestbook and it was fascinating to have a look at all the travellers that passed through this place.
Here is a list of the homepages I could find in the guestbook, the oldest entries were about 15 years old: