May 26

“You’re from Texas?”

“Yeah”

“You know, they say Xinjiang is like the Texas of China”

“How do you mean?”

“Well everything is bigger in Texas, right? That’s pretty much the case here. They also want to become their own country, just like Texas”

“Well this place is a little bit different. I read that the people here are a mix between Chinese, Tajiks, and Turkic groups. I think Texas is still decidedly white”

“Wait, but isn’t there a huge Mexican population there?”

“Oh…right, I can’t believe I forgot about that. You know what? You’re absolutely right then”

...

May 20

“He say why you’re not cold”

(Pointing at shorts)

“I am cold. My clothes are with the laundry man. Even my underwear”

“You need to wear pants in mountain area, you know”

“I only have one pair of pants and they’re with the laundry man. He said they won’t be ready until the morning”

...

May 19

“How did you start this trekking company?”

“I started as a porter to K2 base camp”

“Oh my god, that’s got to be really hard work. How did you wind up being a porter?”

“Well, I was originally hired to just be a driver. But one day, they told me: ‘we have a Japanese guy who wants to climb to the base camp. There’s no one else available right now. You have to take him’”

“That’s…stupid and dangerous. They didn’t even know if you could climb”

“No, they didn’t, neither did I. But they handed me the bags…it was around 60 kilos total I think, and they just told me ‘now start going up’. The first 3 days were absolute torture. But then for the rest of the climb, I eventually got used to it. And that’s how I became a porter”

“You must’ve been like ‘this wasn’t in the job description’”

“No, but they still paid me the same. Eventually I started being a porter full time, and then eventually became a guide for the mountains, and then…I left to start my own trekking company, and now here we are”

.

.

“My son is studying to be a doctor. He moved to the city to go to university a few years ago. But this village is shrinking, I wish my children showed more interest in staying here in the country to help plow the fields...we’re independent here, we don’t need anything else. We’ve sustained ourselves for centuries, and we can continue to do the some for a long long time, but they don’t want that”

“You’re not happy about that? In other villages and countries I’ve been to it’s the opposite. The family generally wants to send their kids to the city to study for a professional job and make more money than they would have otherwise”

“You don’t understand. The knowledge of agriculture is the education in Hunza. Fewer and fewer people know how to properly cultivate land year after year. Soon we won’t have enough people here to properly grow the food and to pass on our customs to the next generation. Even the money that we receive from NGO’s don’t stay here…they get funneled to corrupt bureaucrats in the city for development, and we get nothing. Me and some of the other elders have been trying to instruct the NGO’s to stop giving us money so that our kids will learn to be sufficient and content with what there is here. All that money that’s going to the cities is distracting them from their families and the way of life here”

“You don’t want them to have a better life?”

“This is the better life here. I already told you, we’ve been living this way for centuries and have been perfectly happy. I’ve been to the city, it’s full of noise and pollution and money. Young people would rather make a small impact in the cities for larger benefit for themselves than to make a larger impact in the communities they grew up in. I think it’s a shame. Now the only way we can survive is on tourism, there’s no longer any other industry here other than agriculture, and that’s shrinking too”  

...

May 18

“We just got married”

“Congratulations! Have you figured out where you want to go for your honeymoon?”

“Well, I know where I want to go, but he…he doesn’t quite agree”

“Uh Oh…well where do you want to go?”

“Thailand”

“Very nice! I know a lot of people who went to Thailand, they all love it”

“It’s not that I don’t agree with her…Thailand must be very nice, the problem is the money”

“The problem is not the money, the problem is you don’t want to spend it”

“Well, to be fair, you already live in a beautiful place. Everyone in Pakistan wants to go to Hunza. It has some of the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen”

“We’re sick of Hunza. We grew up here. We want to go someplace that’s completely opposite of mountains and the cold. We want beaches and sun”

“Well, I guess Thailand’s the place to be”

“Ah, but first we have to have the money. Money money money”

“It’s not the money. You’re just afraid”

...

May 17

“First time, I think it was 2003, I led my first expedition with a Polish man to climb the Rupal face of Nanga Parbat mountain. It was not successful”

“I can’t imagine how difficult it must’ve been. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro 3 years ago and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. For real mountaineers like you that must be easy. Nanga Parbat is just on a completely other league”

“Yeah, I don’t climb 6000’ers anymore. I’ve only been attempting 8,000ers since 2004”

“Wait, you mean to say for the last 14 years you’ve only been attempting mountains higher than 8000 meters?”

“Yes. But none were successful”

“What was the longest amount of time you’ve ever spent on a mountain?”

“3 months. It was an expedition up the Demi face of Nanga Parbat. There were 9 of us, it included an American lady, I believe. I’ve attempted that mountain 12 times by now”

“12 times…”

“Yeah. There was an expedition led by another Pakistani just last year, with an Italian and a Scottish man. They successfully reached the summit on their first try”

“No way…when do you think you’ll give it another try?”

“My Polish friend will be returning this year and, inshallah, we’ll reach the top this time”

.

.

(Pointing at a certificate on the wall that reads ‘University of Hawaii’)

“You went to school in the United States?”

“Oh no, that was my cousin. I have 4 cousins living in the United States”

“Have you ever been there yourself?”

“No”

“Would you ever want to?”

“Why would I want to visit the United States when I’m already living in paradise?”

(Points to the Hunza valley and mountains)

“I applied and was approved for a Shenghen visa. I never went. I think it’s expired by now”

.

.

“What would you like? We’re cooking daal or chicken karahi”

“Uhhh…the daal would be nice”

“Ok, one daal”

“Wait wait wait, what’s this?”

“That’s the chicken karahi”

“Ok, I change my mind. I’ll have some of that please”

“I’ll just give you both”

“Oh, haha. Thank you! Aren’t you going to eat some?”

“Today is the beginning of Ramadan so we won’t be eating until tonight. The food that’s being cooked right now are for guests only”

“But you were cooking this food before I even came in. What if there were no guests?’

“No, we saw you and a couple other visitors coming down the road. We always prepare the kitchen in case guests come”

...

May 16

“Would you like some tea?”

“No, thank you”

“Why not?

“I really don’t like the milk that’s brewed into the tea”

“Oh, but it’s amazing”

“Yeah, but it’s just not to my taste”

“I think you may be the only person in the world who does not like milk in their tea”

“Maybe the only person in Pakistan at least. There’s no such thing as tea without milk?”

“No, if you ask for that at a restaurant or even someone’s home, they won’t even know what you’re talking about. Tea is always brewed with milk”

...