on The Way to Gwadar

There were a number of changes at the airport I had noticed. Firstly smoking had been banned in the main lounge and a new non-smoking section was set up. Strange thing was everyone was obeying it. Another change I noticed was that in the toilets air dryers were installed for the hands and glass sinks in the shape of a salad bowl.
Flying to Karachi was exciting as below we could see the vast Punjab plains and then the rugged hills of Sindh before descending on Karachi. From above Karachi just looked and is a sprawling metropolis. I met a friend for Biryani which the people in Karachi made very well and then made my way to Keamari, a residential area in Karachi. Keamari was not the best of places to live in fact it was quite filthy. However, it was safer than most other areas of Karachi.
After resting, the next day I made my way to the Mazar of the Quaid-i-Azam, the father of the nation, Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The mausoleum is the national mausoleum in the country and centred in the heart of the city. It is made of white marble with curved Moorish arches and copper grills resting on an elevated 54 metre square platform. The cool inner sanctum contains a four-tiered chandelier gifted by China. Spotlights at night light up the mausoleum and can be seen for miles. Liaqat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan and Fatima Jinnah, the Quaid’s sister are also buried here. It was an amazing structure indeed looking very pure. How it looked so clean must have been a miracle as Karachi’s pollution levels were higher than most areas. And surprisingly enough the area was peaceful and clam even though it was in the very heart of one of the busiest cities in the world.
Next on the list was The National museum of Pakistan which had an absolutely fascinating and large collection of coins from different eras, sculptures, rare manuscripts of the Quran, items related to Pakistan’s cultural heritage, Islamic art, miniature paintings, an ethnographic gallery depicting different ethnicities within Pakistan and galleries displaying artefacts from Gandharan times, Mughal rule, British rule and even the Indus civilisation.
I sorted out my ticket for Gwadar leaving the following day at 12 noon. The bus station I was going from was on the far north of Karachi. I got there rather early just to make sure I would get a seat but it was not until 1.45pm that the bus would leave. As I waited I realised that a lot of the passengers had African features. These people were known as Mekranis and they lived along the Mekran coast. They were bought here as slaves but eventually attaining freedom and starting their own communities. They spoke Balochi and Mekrani and looked amazing in shalwar kameez.
The bus finally came and we left slowly edging out of Karachi and then into hilly terrain near the Hub Valley. This was the start of Balochistan. Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest, driest, poorest and the least populated province.
The bus made its way through an arid mountainous desert with glimpses of the blue waters of the Arabian ocean to the left at times. Eventually we entered the Hingol National Park an eclectic mix of habitats for wildlife. It is Pakistan’s largest national Park and comprises of marine life, beaches, sand dunes, desert, sand mountains, mud volcanoes, a river and an estuary. Animals include dolphins, crocodiles, sea birds, waterfowl, partridges, falcons, eagles, vultures, larks, wolves, leopards, ibex, urial, chinkara as well as a unique mix of rodents and reptiles some of which are very rare. We passed the Hingol River which had flooded last year considerably displacing the Mugger crocodiles from their zone. Mugger crocodiles could at times attack humans and more so livestock of the already impoverished locals who most often led a nomadic lifestyle. The bus twisted and turned upwards around the hairpin bends. The journey was spectacular. Some of the mountains look like they had been carved out as there appeared to be statues and even buildings. There were strange mountain formations. As we climbed up we could see the deep blue waters of the Arabian ocean right next below. I managed to spot three Sindh Ibex staring down at us curiously. We must have looked a real site a bus stacked with big containers at the top. The containers were used for smuggling cheap diesel which came from Iran and ended up in Karachi and other areas of Sindh. The Mekran highway must have been smugglers dreams come true. It connected Karachi a busy metropolis with Iran, where a number of goods were cheaper. The borders guard were easy to bribe on both sides. It also gave the chance for the transport companies who operated here to make some real money as the buses were expensive and the government did not subsidise services to encourage people to use public transport.
We passed a sand formation on a mountain which looked like a woman raising her hand to the sky and was named “the Princess of Hope”.
The bus twisted and turned. To the right we had mountains of sand and to the left we had cliffs, dunes and a glorious deep blue sea. We saw a number of trucks which had looked like they had come to and end on various spots on the road. Some had lost control and crashed, others had look like they had punctured or had other tyre problems.
It was getting dark and we had just reached Ormara where we dropped off some passengers on the outskirts of the town. The bus was not going as fast as it could have been and I was beginning to think that we may get there when it is dark. I would have nowhere to stay if we got there after 12 midnight. Gwadar was a small town and I doubted the hotels would be open after 12 noon. I contacted a friend of mine from Turbat, which was 3 hours from Gwadar and told him of my fear.