Richard is feeling delicate, so we miss the walk into the bizarre. Chitteral looks only a tad different to Gilgit so we skip this dose of deprivation. The others return at lunchtime, our late arrival is now here together with the other guide, Jahangir. After lunch things get serious, we are to be escorted by half a dozen armed police - we are heading into Taliban country!
The roadway is equally serious, the full Monty of off road tracks here. Jahangir tells us that last year it impassable, so they walked for 4hours each way to reach the village of the Kallashi people. In places the road is so bad that the police vehicle gets stuck. Not so our driver, dear old Ischad takes the greatest pleasure in showing them how it should be done! At home Ischad would definitely be the king of boy racers, with the most pimped up scooby in town. He is a character and much more of a "bad boy" than the gentlemanly Zachir, who drives the other jeep.
At the end of this pretty hair raising journey, we reach the most delightful village. We are staying in a sort of log cabin. Hot water is delivered at 8am in a bucket. It is lovely. The Kalashi tribe are a matriarchal society. Their costumes are bright and beautiful, their hair which is plaited into four sections comes well below their bottoms and is crowned by headdresses of the most intricate beadwork. The women are not veiled and walk with confidence, their heads held high. Soon word is out that we are here and children start to peep over the wall, giggling. Our guards remain with us at all times. While we sleep, they are on watch in the garden.
Tues 9th Sept
Together with our armed guards in their bullet proof vests we set off on foot to the next village. Having walked about a mile or so, we are stopped by the Pakistan Army. They pull rank on the police and stop us from going any further. It appears that the Taliban have infiltrated the village we were heading to. What happened next was just surreal. There we were, with our armed police, sat in the shade of a walnut tree, under the threat of Taliban insurgents, enjoying glasses of cold lemonade served to us by armed soldiers! Refreshed, we walked back the way we had come!
It is very hot today, so it is not until 4pm that we set off exploring again (in a different direction.) The women of our group are not allowed to go to some places! Why? I thought this was a matriarchal society? It is but not in way I hoped, is it only called matriarchal because the women do ALL the work? I also discover that what first appeared a delightful village, is only delightful where we are, as our later excursions were to prove.
Richard is still feeling unwell, so I go to the inner village and into a typical Kalashi house without him. I suppose that only having used one box of Imodium between us, since our arrival, was too good to be true!
Going to the village and into the house was like going back in time, hundreds of years. The raised walkways are no wider than a plank of wood. How do they manage in the snow and ice? The roof of one house is the veranda of the next, so you have be careful not to trip over a chimney pot! Inside, there are no windows, a dirt floor and a wood burning stove in the middle. The chimney of which goes up through you neighbours veranda. Apart from that, there are just beds.
What a challenge, to maintain the Kalashi way of life and culture and at the same time to improve their living conditions. This tribe is one of the few pagan tribes left.
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