back home, 21.-24.08.2001
Salman the supplementary cook, arrived with our luggage last night. He needed only 21 hours on the Karakorum Highway, normally it takes 24-26 hours. And we are lucky not to have go with him.
Lydia, Olaf, Ralf and Christian care for our luggage whereas Markus meets the corresponding officer for the official debriefing at the Ministery Tourism. The degree of bureaucracy is hardly to believe. Dozens of forms has to be filled out with 2 or three copies each. Four assistants of the Secretary and two helpers from our travel agency are occupied for more than one hour.
Finally we go with this huge amount of papers to the State Secretary for the "personl audience". The trial begins, but we have a good conscience because we cared for all rules. (at least officially...:-)...). But the things changed. Our frustrated military officer who did not get any supplementary money from us, tried to make us bad whereever he could. He answered each question of the State Secretary with: "yes, principally they did right, but...". His objectives were clear. If we get a thousand Dollar fee, we would worry about having not paid him some houndret Dollars bribe. But he failed. The State Secretary is a wise man. after having listen Major Tariq Rehman for a while, he asked him if he would enjoy if we would return to Pakistan next year to climb another mountain. He answered with "Yes, of course". And Mr. Afridi, State Secretary for Tourism, asked him to stop with lamenting and behave like a host. 15 minutes later, the Debriefing has been done!
Thereafter, Markus went to Islamabad and pays all resting bills at our agency. Meanwhile, Christian, Lydia, Ralf and Olaf have packed all tons for the aircargo. Seven tons we leave in Islamabad, because Markus has planned another expedition in Pakistan next year. He will do the first ascent of a 7000 peak, that never has been summited (more infos on this topic will be presented on the website www.alpinclub.com). 23 items are sent per Aircargo back to Germany.
22.08.2001
At 0.40 a.m., Christian has to stand up because his home flight departs at 3 in the morning. The other ones search a Cargo-Agency. At 3 p.m., all our luggage is on the way to the airport.
23.08.2001
Ralf and Markus make a sightseeing tour to Peshawar. Olaf and Lydia made it to bring all our luggage through the customs.
24.08.2001
At 8 in the morning, our Boeing 777 of British Airways departs, and eight hours later we arrive at London Heathrow. From there, we fly to Berlin, where we arrive at 7 p.m..
Markus Walter - 25.08.2001, back home
|