My next vacation destination… Pakistan
http://blog.uniquepakistan.
Sufia Zamir
A few days ago, an Egyptian based colleague
of mine asked me about my vacation plans this year. I informed her that
my cousins and I were planning an all-Pakistan tour and she attempted to
convince me to come to Egypt instead since it was apparently a hot-cake
item with tourists. I asked her one simple question, “Barring the pyramids,
if you can name one thing that Egypt has that Pakistan doesn’t, I will
change my mind”. I had already made plans and arrangements, which
I was in no mood to change, but I knew I couldn’t lose this argument.
The following conversation ensued:
Colleague: “The Nile” (Longest
river in the world)
Me: Pakistan has five major rivers,
and several off shoots and tributaries.
Colleague: “The home of the Ancient
Egyptian civilization”
Me: The Indus Valley Civilization
was one of the world’s earliest civilizations and is the contemporary
of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, and just as advanced.
Colleague: The desert. Egypt includes
parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert
Me: Pakistan’s landscapes vary from
plains to deserts, forests, hills and plateaus. In fact there is one desert
that is located right next to a beach.
Colleague: The beaches
Me: I live in Karachi; I see the
Arabian Sea beach right from my bedroom window every day of my life.
Colleague (becoming desperate): Mountains?
Me: Pakistan is the meeting point
of the three highest mountain ranges in the world. These include five of
the fourteen eight-thousanders (mountain peaks over 8,000 meters or 26,250
feet), which attract adventurers and mountaineers from all over the world,
notably K2 (8,611 m or 28,251 ft) and Nanga Parbat.
Colleague: The culture.
Me: Can you compare it to the sheer
diversity found in Pakistan, where there are over 60 main languages and
every province has its own distinct culture?
My colleague had by this time run out of
ammunition, so I started to show her pictures of Skardu
where my family went for a vacation
when I was six years old, and I still cannot get the beautiful images out
of my mind. I also showed her some pictures from Pir
Sohawa and Daman e Koh from a
vacation to Islamabad in 2007. This was followed by some sites my cousins
and I hope to cover in this tour, including Saif
ul Muluk which was the only tourist
spot that came to my mind at that point. She mentioned that she had seen
some pictures of this lake earlier but was under the mistaken impression
that this was in Europe. Guess who is now joining our tour with her family?
After this conversation with my colleague,
I realized that there is so much beauty in Pakistan, which we don’t really
appreciate. I once read a feature in the Reader’s Digest which described
how there was so much more to Muslim countries that were known to be centres
of terrorism. The article focused on two countries: Iran and Pakistan,
and shared pictures of the most unforgettable tourist spots in both countries.
While the section on Iran included images of man-made building, the section
on Pakistan was full of images of the natural beauty in the country. There
was also a line in the article, which I don’t remember exactly, but to
the effect that the natural landscape of Pakistan was comparable to that
found in Switzerland – and I can remember my sense of pride on reading
that.
Why don’t we appreciate the natural beauty
of Pakistan, and take out some time to take a round trip of everything
our country has to offer?
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