ISLAMABAD: Judith Held, 37, didn’t use Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines or PIA to travel to Pakistan. She came on bicycle.
“I and my friend Robert left Turingen in Germany in August. First we went to Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria in beautiful summer and early autumn weather. Then we continued south to Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, in equally good weather.”
“Now my friend has become tired and wants to go home. But I will continue, and the plan is to go to India, Nepal and possibly Thailand at the end,” Judith says. “It has been a fantastic time, and quite different from my usual life as a tax clerk in Germany. Many friends warned us before we embarked on the ‘travel of our life’. They thought it could be dangerous, especially for traffic accidents and robberies. But we have not had major difficulties save for some cases when we couldn’t find a cheap enough hotel or guest house.”
“In Multan, for example, we slept in a police station, not because we had done anything wrong, just because we thought that was the safest place to be since we reached the city very late at night. We were invited to stay with a very hospitable family after that. It was a great experience,” Judith says.
The daily programme for a cycle-tourist is to get on the bike at about nine in the morning and keep cycling the whole day, with breaks for tea and lunch, up to four or five in the afternoon.
“By then one is quite tired and after supper and TV in the room, I doze off quite fast,” Judith says. “In Islamabad we have stayed at a comfortable guest house called Indus Lodge for over a week while waiting for the processing of the visa for the next country to visit.
“But before leaving Pakistan, there will be a beautiful tour to Lahore and the border with India. I had also wanted to go to Gilgit, but everybody says it is too cold, so that trip will be saved for another time,” Judith Held says.
Tor Nerland is a famous Norwegian activist for peace. He plans to come to Pakistan next spring. Since he is visually impaired, he will have to go together with somebody else.
Ingeborg Breines, who is in her 60s now, and was a Unesco director in Pakistan a decade ago, and a teacher of peace education at Gujrat University, has promised to escort him.
“I have advised against it,” says Dr Anjum Haq, her friend and former colleague. “But knowing Ingeborg, she will probably behave like a strong-willed Norwegian behaves,” says another friend, Jahangir Piara in Lahore.
Internews
