Too cold...!

We have finally returned to Islamabad after a very hard few days on the bike venturing through the Swat Valley and down the Karakoram Highway.  I have no doubt that if it were a warmer season that my experience would have been more of a positive one, however due to my lack of enthusiasm for cold weather especially whilst a passenger on a motorbike,  I found it intolerable.  Hours were spent in a frozen, fearful lock as we slid through mud and slime thick roads that had previously been wiped out by the floods.  I can only imagine the incomprehensible force as a massive sheet of water made its way through the valley cleaning out everything in it's path.  I was pleased to see UNHCR emergency tents set up along the banks of the river where aid had been supplied to those who had barley anything left.

A night was spent in hell as we slept without power, hot water or heat in the world's worst hotel to finally hit the road again in a wind storm.  Due to the tight security of the region we were required to ride with a police escort for over 200km at only 40km hour... grrr.... this was a very long day, till we finally reached Islamabad.  A perfect night at the Marriott Hotel was much appreciated as we sat and feasted drinking ourselves silly, the hotel being one of the only drinking holes in the entire country we didn't hold back.

Please see my recent interview with Prince Mahir Ullah, Pakistani journalist and humanitarian worker, as we visit a Afghan Refugee Village now uploaded on this site.