Pakistan (2005-2006)

Multan – The Mausoleums of Multan

May 2, 2006 Bahauddin Zakariya Mausoleum in Multan The old city of Multan was among the first places in Pakistan to be converted to Islam by Mohammad bin Qasim. At that time Multan was a center of a Brahmin kingdom, led by a Brahmin king of Darra. Nothing left in Multan of its pre-Islamic history. The city had became a major pilgrimage for the Muslims all around the country as many of the mausoleums of the holy men of the religion are located here. The most famous mausoleum of Multan might be the Mazhar of Sheikh Rukn-i-Alam. The building of the mausoleum was fantastic, reminded me to the Moghul mosques and mausoleums of Uzbekistan (they were all Moghuls anyway). Rukn-i-Alam means pillars of the world. A large number of pilgrims come here everyday, to pray around the tomb inside the mausoleum building. Rukn-i-Alam is a leader of the Suhrawardiya Sufi sect, so both of Sunni and Shiah pilgrims come here. To come to the mausoleum, one should leave the shoes and sandals outside. There was a caretaker who would get money of 2 Rs everytime he returned the shoes. I saw a shoe caretaker of another gate, refused two old [...]

May 2, 2006 // 0 Comments

Multan – Welcome to Multan

It looks like a time machine May 1, 2006 Ali Hotel, Multan, 150 Rs So, at last, I left Lahore, with very deep feeling of sadness. I have felt that Lahore is another home of mine, keep returning back for visiting friends, enjoying the tea and watching the time flows in Anarkali, and…. the food…. Lahore is heaven. But my visa said that I had to keep going, to see more of Pakistan, before it expires in June. So I listened to it. The farewell of Lahore was dramatic. I didnt expect to be that. Two local friends came to visit me for having juice in Hafiz juice stall near Anarkali, then Asad, one of them, decided to go together with me to the bus station, despite of the risk of being slapped by angry father. I departed almost midnight, thinking that I would arrive early in the morning the next day, so I may save one night hotel fee and one day of travelling time. Asad, helped me to get the public bus to the bus station. I didnt let him to share my bags, because I thought I had given him so much trouble, it was no good [...]

May 1, 2006 // 1 Comment

Lahore – A Peshawar boy in Anarkali

April 29, 2006 The culinary capital of Lahore, Anarkali Food Street He was very young, I suggested that he was only 11 years old. His name is Waseed, a Pathan boy from Peshawar. He comes everyday to Anarkali, with his little treasure: a weight scale. Oh, plus some thick papers for him to sit on. “How old are you?” “Between 10 and 15” But it’s a big range. He doesnt know his own age. Waseed didnt know English. Even his Urdu was limited. I tried to communicate with Farsi, but he knew nothing. He was not from Afghanistan anyway, but his homeland was just next to the Farsi speaking country. He sat on the padestrian path of the food street of Anarkali, Lahore, waiting for customers. Every time a curious fellow tried to weigh on his little scale, he get 2 Rs. He was very young. “You dont go to school?” “No” “Where are your parents?” “In Peshawar”. Peshawar is a city 10 hours away from Lahore by the public bus. The Pathans, people from border area, mostly from Peshawar, are famous to be wanderer around the country to work all the hard works. But being a wanderer at such [...]

April 29, 2006 // 0 Comments

Lahore – The Postal System

April 29, 2006 General Post Office (GPO) Lahore I never imagined that sending a CD by mail could be a very labourous work in Pakistan. That day I wanted to send some books and a CD of my photos to Indonesia. The post office system in Pakistan, as in India, curiously work inside and outside the building. Outside the building? Yes, in fact, half of the process of mailing have to pass these counters outside the building. There are a row of men with kiosks offering service of packing, packaging, enveloping, legal mattering, etc etc. The madam on the information desk directed me to an old man to package my books for the posting. The madam told me that this man would know anything I need to know. The book posting is quite cheap for sending books, with one requirement, the packaging should be one side opened for the checking by the post office. Then from outside I went back to the office building. The book post for sending my 1.5 kg books cost me only 166 Rs, but the man of the stamping counter said that I could not send the CD. He said that sending CD is ‘objection’. [...]

April 29, 2006 // 2 Comments

Lahore – Badshahi Masjid

April 27, 2006 Badshahi Mosque Lahore is burning. It was 42 yesterday, and again, 42 degree Celcius today. Walking on the street just resembled being boiled by microwave open, with the invisible waves from any directions. I got emotional. But I was not alone. I am sure that the heat makes impact to everybody’s head. I got irritate easily, and I am sure other people were also. These days were the first time I felt annoyed in Lahore. When I walked on the steet on that Sunday, when all of the shops were closed, there were a bunch of boys playing cricket on the street, seeing me, and yelled “Chinni chinni” resembled a chorus. That day I still had quite a sense of humour, that I replied, “main chini mini nahi hu, main namak hu” (“I am not sugar and stuff, I am salt!”). In Urdu, the word “chini” means “Chinese” and “sugar”. But now, with this heat and harassment, I didnt quite have sense of making fun. Because I felt I was there to fulfill their need of entertainment. When I walked through the labirynth-like small alleys in the alleys of Old City, I could not count anymore how [...]

April 27, 2006 // 0 Comments

Lahore – Heera Mandi

April 26, 2006 It’s just next to this holy mosque “Larki marki dekaun?,” asked a man, when I passed the famous red light area of Heera Mandi on my way to the biggest mosque of Mughal dinasty, the Badshahi Mosque. What he meant was whether to show me the girls. Without me asking, he said that the price was 300 Rs only, very cheap. “Mujhe dilcaspi nahin!” (I am not interested) I said after quite a while he kept following me and trying to “sell” his comodity. “Accha!” he left me alone. The red light district of Heera Mandi, had been the place of dancing women, transexuals, and prostitutes since the era of Mughal kings. And in modern Lahore, the area is still notorious for the similar things. I was interested to learn more about this area and the life behind, but it was too risky to do research here. Heera Mandi itself looks quite normal during the day, old bazaars with small alleys, women in purdah, males wandering along the ways (some are pimps). I was in Badshahi Mosque, just few meters of walking distance. Actually it was bizzare to consider the location of this great mosque just next [...]

April 26, 2006 // 2 Comments

Lahore – Do You Know that ….?

April 26, 2006 Watch out! Some interesting things that make Pakistan differ from Indonesia. Do you know that: 1. It’s better not to plan your shopping day in Pakistan on Sundays Because all shops, hmm, maybe not all, but most, closed on Sundays. It’s bizzare that Sunday is the only holiday in the week, and it’s the chance for office workers to shop. But, eh, all of the shops are closed. Only food maybe is easy to find on Sundays, but not any other things. I am still thinking that the habit of people sleeping and staying at homes on Sundays was made by the closing shops, or it is the other way round. Once I asked a friend, whether it was only on Sundays that people can go shopping, as in other days they busy for works. He answered, “they are not busy at all any other days, hmm…, you know how we Pakistanis work” Sundays are also not good time for shopping in Indonesia, but for contrary reason: the bazaars and malls are too crowded on weekends. 2. Pakistan has six working days Yes, and the only holiday is Sunday. But it was not always like this. Once, [...]

April 26, 2006 // 0 Comments

Lahore – I See India Again

April 25, 2006 Across the border Yes, this is a trip to the Indian border for the famous ridiculous border ceremony of the two enemous brothers: India and Pakistan. Few months ago I attended the ceremony from the Indian side, hardly saw anything due to the huge crowds. Seeing from the different sides of the border is always interesting. It’s just a thin line on the map, some inches of line de jure, but it made the two completely different sides on right and left side. Travelling to the border from Lahore, was passing through dusty areas of uninhabited lands. The area was completely empty since the Partition, and just recently when the relation between India and Pakistan getting better, people started to inhabit the dusty land between Lahore and the border. Equally the same case for Amritsar (Indian city next to the border), but less dusty. It was hot, and dusty. The sweat mixed with the dust to form special ingredients on my wrong-seasoned garment of clothes. The border is exactly between the two cities: Lahore and Amritsar, splitted the distance of 60 kms into two 30 kilometer distances. I was on the public bus (12 Rs ticket for [...]

April 25, 2006 // 0 Comments

Khewra – The Salt Mines

April 21, 2006 The salt mine of Khewra Salt mines? For Indonesians, the concept of salt mines may be difficult to accept, as in our country the salt is produced through the drainage of sea water. But in Pakistan, it does exist the world’s second biggest salt mine on earth (the first one is in Poland). Yes, the salt is produced from the caves in the salt hills in the heart of Punjab. That was the reason led me to Chakwal, the northern gate to the salt range, not far from Rawalpindi. The town itself is not inspiring. Not far from Chakwal, there is ancient Hindu pilgrimage in Katas. Katas can be reached by public buses from Chakwal to Choa Shaden Shah (the name of this town is also interesting, as Choa in Urdu does mean ‘rat’), 25 km to southeast, continued by an easy five kilometre ride to Katas. Katas, once a very important Hindu pilgrimage, now is quite desarted after the partition of India-Pakistan, as almost no Hindus left in this area. The legend said that the holy pool in Katas was formed by one of the two teardrops of Shiva Mahadev. The other teardrop had formed the [...]

April 21, 2006 // 2 Comments

Peshawar – Travelling Alone as a Woman, Travel Experience of Lam Li

April 17, 2006 Purdah “Kenapa mereka selalu hidup dalam ketakutan? Kenapa? Kenapa?” Ini adalah pengalaman dari seorang sahabat lama seorang Malaysia, Lam Li, yang sedang melakukan perjalanan melintasi Asia dan ‘mau tak mau’ singgah di Pakistan. Sebelum masuk Pakistan dia sudah dipenuhi oleh ketakutan tentang betapa ‘seramnya’ laki-laki Paksitan terhadap perempuan. Namun Pakistan memang bukan seperti yang iya bayangkan. Pakistan bukanlah India. Orang-orang Paksitan lebih ramah dan jujur. Dia suka Pakistan, itu tak dapat ia pungkiri. Keramahtamahan Pakistan yang dimulai dari Lahore di mana dia diundang menginap oleh seorang lelaki yang baru saja dia temui di jalan, adalah sebuah sambutan yang ramah dari Pakistan. Dalam waktu lima hari tinggal bersama keluarga Lahore itulah yang mengawali penglihatannya tentang Pakistan. Sebagai perempuan, dia mempunyai akses ke sudut-sudut rumah yang tak bisa saya rengkuh dengan identitas saya sebagai laki-laki. Sebagaimana diketahui, pemisahan seksual di Pakistan sangatlah kental, di mana ruang tamu di rumah pun biasanya masih dipisahkan oleh kelambu sehingga para perempuan tidak bercampur dengan laki-laki. Lam Li, seorang perempuan asing, memperoleh identitas ganda di rumah itu. Sebagai tamu dia boleh berbincang-bincang dengan laki-laki di rumah itu. Sebagai perempuan dia boleh duduk bersama-sama kaum perempuan dalam keluarga. Sebuah posisi yang paling menguntungkan. Apa [...]

April 17, 2006 // 0 Comments

Darra Adam Khel – The Gun Factories

April 16, 2006 They have known bullets and guns since childhood Darra Adam Khel is a village 38 kms south of Peshawar, on the way to Kohat. It looked like a normal village of Pakistan border, but somehow resemble Afghanistan villages also. It looked normal along the way: mud square houses, green field, boys wandering around, shops with their glass windows, and Pathans with their distinctive caps. But the name of Darra has something else to proud about, it’s the gun factory of Pakistan. The people in this area, if may say, all do the same business: gun making and selling. The factories are hidden in the rooms in the small alleys and bazaars, and gun shops are widely open. Pen-shapped pistols It’s obvious that this kind of place was not supposed for tourists to wander around. In fact, before the area was open for tourists, many tourist buses came here to visit the gun shops and ‘check’ the local made AK-47, guns, snippers, pistols, etc etc. Since Benazir Bhutto era, this area was closed for tourists. It was still in Pakistani teritorry, but now the procedure is similar to visiting a tribal area: a permit is needed, and not [...]

April 16, 2006 // 1 Comment

Peshawar – Smuggler Bazaar

April 13, 2006 Refugees children Karkhana Bazaar, or smuggler bazaar, was quite among the most famous time in Peshawar memorabilia, due to its proximity with its infamous border, Afghanistan. But the smuggler bazaar today is no more than row of shops selling daily needs. It was Friday anyway, so the shops were closed. And we were there to buy beauty cosmetics… sigh. The bus we took to smuggler bazaar threw us away two kilometers before the place. But it was good. I had the chance to observe some children working along the river collecting garbage. The garbage collectors, mostly children in the Asia subcontinent, are among the most distinctive life of the grass root of the countries. The children, boys and girls, were happy with photographs. Some even posing with their meaningful garbage sack. Many children end up as garbage pickers Not far from there was the Afghan refugee’s camp. It was a very condensed shanty town, but now, the Pakistani government had given them the deadline and by force sent them home. There were 30,000 Pashtun refugees from Afghanistan, mostly from Jalalabad and surrounding. But now there were not more than 20,000 people. Still a lot. Their living condition [...]

April 13, 2006 // 0 Comments

Peshawar – Afghan Consulate

With guys in Afghan consulate April 13, 2006 Lamli, my Malaysian friend, is prepared to go to Afghanistan. She got the Afghan visa already, quite easily, she said. I thought it should not be a bad idea also to get one before I got back to Pindi. Her visa is for two months, 60 dollars. Afghan visa is like a ticket, for a month it is 30 dollars, for 2 it is 60 dollars. You can buy any number of duration of stay, and the price is 30 dollars per month. The visa procedure is easy and straightforward. Today is Thursday, and Afghan embassy is supposed to open. The consulate stated that it only accepted visa application on Tuesday and Thursday, but apparently it worked everyday. I went early to the consulate, got the application and filled it. When waiting for the interview, there was a fat bodyguard staring at me for quite long time. Then his first sentence, instead of a salaam greeting, was: “kukukukukakakakakikiki….” Three years ago, in 2003, I came to this consulate to apply visa. The bodyguards asked me to show them Indonesian language, I said, ” kuku-kuku kaki kakak-kakak kakekku kaku-kaku, kaku-kaku kuku-kuku kaki kakak-kakak [...]

April 13, 2006 // 0 Comments

Peshawar – Meeting an Old Friend

She is my idol April 12, 2006 Spogmay Hotel 200 Rupees/ double bed room The days of free computer access had finished, so now on the blog might be short and compact. My friend from Malaysia, whom I met in India before, called me for some times, and we were discussing about the opportunity to meet up. Actually I didnt have any plan to go to Peshawar, but because she was going to Afghanistan in a very near future, I decided to ‘sacrifice’ my plan and go to Peshawar instead. I departed quite late from Islamabad, thanks to the driver from our office who didnt come early. The bus to Peshawar, from the Karachi Company, are usually small buses. I took the Flying Coach, which do really ‘fly’, and I hoped that I would reach Peshawar before dark. The atmosphere in the Coach was not quite Pakistan already. I encountered some Hazaran Mongoloid face Hazaran ethnic boys, who also speaked Farsi. He was an Afghan refugee. I reached Peshawar almost dark. Surprising, with my shalwar qamees and waist, despite of my backpack, people misunderstood me as Afghan. When I logged to bus, a Pashto insisted to speak Pashto (one of [...]

April 12, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – Theft

April 11, 2006 Sebuah keluarga terpandang dan religius Saya tinggal di sebuah keluarga di Islamabad. Keluarga ini cukup terpandang dan mempunyai bisnis keluarga yang cukup besar. Secara religius pun sangat dihormati, karena mempunyai nama keluarga Syed, yang berarti keturunan langsung dari Nabi Muhammad. Keluarga Syed Ijaz tinggal di sebuah real estate besar di kawasan orang kaya Islamabad. Islamabad memang dipenuhi oleh orang-orang kaya dengan rumah-rumah raksasa macam istana, macam kompleks Galaxy atau Dharmo di Surabaya. Walaupun modern dan kaya, keluarga Ijaz amatlah sangat religius. Dalam keluarganya, ruang tamu dipisahkan sehelai kelambu, sehingga tamu laki-laki tak bisa melihat penghuni rumah yang perempuan. Hingga beberapa hari tinggal di rumah ini, aku pun tak pernah tahu ada siapa saja perempuan di sana. Yang jelas banyak sekali, namun selain anak-anak dan bari amma, tak satu pun yang pernah aku lihat secara langsung. Aku merasa aman tinggal di rumah ini. Aku disediakan sebuah sofa untuk membaringkan badan. Dan tas ku, yang berisi uang dan paspor, aku biarkan saja tergeletak. Toh dalam tradisi Muslim, jika kita bertamu, kita seharusnya mempercayakan diri kita kepada sang pemilik rumah. Pernah aku ingat seorang tuan rumah Uzbekistan yang marah-marah melihat seorang teman yang diundangnya mengunci pintu kamarnya. Bagi tuan rumah [...]

April 11, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – Wedding in the Capital (2)

April 9, 2006 Membaca Qur’an di rumah dulha Hari ini hari ketiga pernikahan, setelah mehndi kemarin. Acaranya, yang semula kata Ijaz dimulai pukul 12, ternyata terlambat lagi (seperti biasa di Pakistan) hingga pukul 2. Ijaz, sebagai teman terdekat mempelai pria, mengiringi mempelai pria dalam mobilnya. Arak-arakan mobil panjang berjalan dari Islamabad menuju Rawalpindi. Di dalam mobil ada yang bertanya tentang asalku. Aku jawab Pakistani. Mereka manggut-manggut, “Gilgit ya…”, dengan sok tahunya menambahkan, “memang orang Gilgit wajahnya mirip orang Cina ya…” Sebagaimana acara pernikahan lainnya di Pakistan, di sini juga acara mempelai pria menjemput mempelai wanita, istilahnya dulha menjemput dulen. Namun karena ini di kota, acara bukan lagi di rumah masing-masing mempelai, melainkan di sebuah Wedding Hall di pusat kota Rawalpindi, tepatnya di Liaquat Chowk. Wedding hall, bukanlah seperti halnya gedung pernikahan di Indonesia di mana piring-piring makanan membanjiri setiap perut pengunjung. Di sini, kami, para tamu laki-laki pengiring mempelai ditempatkan di sebuah aula bersama sang mempelai pria, sedangkan tamu-tamu perempuan di ruangan sebelah, yang dipisahkan oleh dinding dengan sebuah pintu. Pemisahan kelamin adalah hukum di Pakistan, dan di tempat ini pun hukum harus berjalan. Tak ada makan dan minum. Yang ada hanya menunggu. Aku sendiri tak tahu untuk apa acara [...]

April 9, 2006 // 0 Comments

Islamabad – A Wedding in the Capital

Dancing to celebrate April 8, 2006 Today was supposed to be my last day in Kashmir. Syed Ijaz Gillani offered me to go together to Islamabad where I could stay in his family house. He said that there would be a wedding ceremony that I probably interested to attend. He said that he would pick me very early in that morning, at 8, to go together to Islamabad. But not until 1 pm that he came. This kind of little bit delay of appointment is quite common in Pakistan. Some of my friends in Muzaffarabad would like to meet me for the last time. They came at 8 in the morning. Ali insisted to take me to his house to have breakfast. I refused as I was worrying Ijaz would came early. Ali, the 16 year old boy, said that he knew his countrymen much better than me. And he was right. Waiting, waiting, and waiting. They look so bored The morning was full of waiting. Those little boys of 16-20 years old were also enjoying the sexy gabshab (conversation). One scene I was so surprised to spot, that one guy had erected tool marked very clear behind his tight [...]

April 8, 2006 // 0 Comments

Muzaffarabad – Good Bye Noraseri

April 4, 2006 Time to say goodbye The day to leave Noraseri had come. I had spent quite a month here, and I felt it was already my second home. The people, now I prefer to say, the friends, were so deep in my heart. Farman said that Noraseri had been my second home. He might be right. I would like to return back here to meet again the friends in this village. But now I had to leave to continue the journey. The farewell was not easy. I had such a limited time, because Rashid from the NGO had called earlier in the morning, saying that I had to return to Muzaffarabad before one, so I may copy the photos of the project. He was leaving to Islamabad and brought the computer back from the office. The office was going to be emptied. And I had to rush. It was impossible to say farewell to everybody. I started in Doctor Shahab’s house. Together with Junaid and his cousin, Mubasshar, I went to Mubasshar’s house. Mubasshar father was coming a little bit late, after some work in the dispensary. Like Doctor Shahab, Mubasshar family was quite a rich family before [...]

April 4, 2006 // 0 Comments

Kandar – The Land of Fighters

April 3, 2006 Helicopter bringing aids to Harama. Imagine how those angry fighters hijacked the flying copter First, the rumors. The name of Kandar is full of myth, ask every villager of Noraseri, and his face will be filled by fear. Not only villagers from Noraseri, but the fame of Kandar had reached areas as far as Pattika and Muzaffarabad. The people of Kandar had made their popularity around the hills. Kandar, located on the top of the hill just behind, is visible from Noraseri. Seemed as close it was, the real four kilometer distance was somehow an unreachable gap for the villagers from Noraseri. It was the image of Kandar which put down the people of other villages. I have heard the rumor about Kandar for the first time from Rashid who told me how ‘nonsense’ these people were. Rashid said that no NGO was working there, as the NGOs were afraid of Kandari. Kandar, accidentally the name resembled “Kandahar”, one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan. It was a joke that Kandar was Kandahar of Kashmir. Once upon a time in history, somewhere in a time dimension after the disaster, there happened a helicopter was hijacked by [...]

April 3, 2006 // 0 Comments

Noraseri – The Doctor Shahab Family

April 2, 2006 Doctor Shahab with my Indonesian cap The NGO camp was emptied already today. The scars of the tents left another scars in people in neighborhood. It was Doctor Shahab, born as Khani Zaman, among those who used to come at least one time in a day to our camp area. He was an old man in his sixties, and everybody called him as Mister Doctor, or Doctor Shahab. I believed he was a doctor, until Hafizah told me that he never been a doctor. It turned out to be that he was a pharmacist, and used to be a driver of an ambulance of Edhi Foundation. His work was not that far from doctor anyway. The first time I knew Doctor Shahab was the same date when the Hajji Shahab passed away. The two occasions still made me confusing the two names many of the times. Doctor Shahab was there in the funeral day of Hajji Shahab, claiming that he was a friend of President Soekarno in school time, and asked me to send a dozen of Indonesian caps. He was humorous, he was optimistic, and he was intelligent. He lost his wife in the earthquake, but [...]

April 2, 2006 // 0 Comments

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