Yunnan Travel & Beyond

A Once-in-a-Lifetime Trek in Awakening Tibet
In the early 1980s, after trekking Nepal's Himalayas ( https://www.instagram.com/p/CaSEkW4LbxF/ ), I crossed the newly opened Kodari Bridge into a recently awakened Tibet. The Cultural Revolution had devastated the region, but a sense of renewal was rising. Monasteries stood in ruin, yet monks began to return.
Traversing the vast plateau, I witnessed remote monasteries coming back to life. Unrestricted by permits, I trekked freely, encountering stoic villagers and monks rebuilding their way of life.
This unique freedom wouldn't last. As tourism boomed, restrictions tightened. By 1989, a time of immense change and cultural revival in Tibet, my experience became impossible to replicate.
This trek marked the beginning of my incredible adventures across undiscovered China and beyond. It was a time of exploration before mass travel, a chance to witness history in the making.
Full post: https://footloosetravelguides.com/roaming-the-newly.../

Exploring Chitral and the Kalash Valleys (Part 2)

The road from Hunza to Chitral was a test of endurance. Winding through rugged terrain, it challenged both passengers and drivers alike. Jeep tracks, the lifeline of isolated communities, led towards the Afghan border and the remote Wakhan Corridor. River crossings often caused delays, with stuck vehicles a common sight.

Venturing deeper into the Hindu Kush, I reached the Chitral Valley, where the landscape transformed once again. Amidst Sunni communities, the Kalash thrived, preserving their ancient polytheistic faith and unique culture.

The Kalash villages, with their distinctive architecture and elaborate headdresses and garments worn by their women, captivated me. As I delved into their history, I learned of their roots in Kafiristan, now part of Afghanistan, where they once shared a similar culture until Kafiristan’s conversion to Islam.

Crossing paths with Afghan fighters seeking respite from the fight against the invading Soviets, their war in its fourth year then (continuing for six more years), I witnessed a moment frozen in time. The Afghans I encountered in Bumburet valley, for the time oblivious to the turmoil in their country on the other side of the tall peaks of Hindu Kush, left an indelible mark on my journey.

Days later, as I continued towards Peshawar and glimpsed a sign toward the Khyber Pass, memories of my past travels in this region ten years earlier resurfaced. The Khyber Pass, an ancient gateway to Afghanistan, stirred a sense of nostalgia.

Reflecting on my journey through the Karakoram and Hindu Kush, I’m reminded of the timeless beauty and resilience of this region. Despite the improvements in infrastructure, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the challenges of traversing these mountains. While the roads may have changed, the spirit of adventure still beckons. For those willing to explore, the Karakoram and Hindu Kush offer an unforgettable experience.

Journey Through Karakoram and Hindu Kush (Part 1)

Having traversed Tibet and Chinese Turkestan in the early 1980s, I approached Khunjerab Pass, a gateway to the Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains of Northern Pakistan. The pass and the Karakoram highway beyond it were still more of a “goat track” than a highway, as it was called. It was prone to constant landslides, and carried just a trickle of traffic, most of which got often stuck for hours en route out of the mountains to the plains. The border crossing was an isolated outpost, but allowed for a new exit point from China. By crossing into Pakistan, the route offered to explore the remote region of the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands deep inside the Hindu Kush mountains, a fascinating melting pot of cultures, a crossroads of the Tajiks and the Wakhi of the Wakhan Corridor, the Nuristanis, the Pashtuns, and the Yidgha, the Kho, and the Kalasha of Chitral. The mountain Hunza people, also known as Burusho, settled the valleys below the Khunjerab, with the Shina and the Balti further south and east in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of the Karakoram. After exploring Hunza, and trekking to the snow line of Nanga Parbat, Rakaposhi, and to the impressive Baltoro glacier, instead of heading south to Gilgit and Baltistan, I continued west. Gilgit-Baltistan, a Shia-majority region of the otherwise Sunni-dominated rest of the country, suffered frequent bouts of sectarian violence. My primary destination was the Kalash valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir against the Afghan border, a remote region in the mountains beyond Chitral Bazar.

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