Monday, September 25, 2006

Peshawar

Camping may have been free but it wasn't without cost. It happened that the camping spot was in an area claimed by a jealous stray dog. At 1am he made a move. I was woken by the sense that my tent was being tugged on. I opened the tent to see the dog running away, the bloody creature had ripped one of the edges of the tent with his teeth! It wasn't serious damage & I figured that I'd be able to get it fixed quite cheaply. However the dog wasn't yet done. He let me sleep uninterrupted for the rest of the night but when I left my baggage unattended for a few minutes he had another go, this time ripping my sleeping bag open, munching on my book & tearing the strap on one of my cycling sandals. Again none of the damage was too serious. I was fortunate that he only ate the back cover of the book rather than the all important end, who wants to read a book without being able to finish it!

Though Ramadan was in its second day I was fairly unaffected by it, at least for the morning. I was not bound by its rules as a non-Muslim. Shops but not restaurants were open. I just needed to be circumspect where to eat & drink, not to do so in front of people.

My route took me over the Malakand pass onto a wide flat plain. The mountains were just a memory. It was a lot warmer. The land around was a lush green, so different from the rocky aridness of the North. Population density went up markedly & I had problems to find places to have a quiet drink.

I dropped by the ruins of a Buddhist monastery by the town of Takht-i-Bhai. This area, along with much of Central Asia, had been Buddhist until Mohammed's generals had brought Islam in the 8th C. While they were impressive there wasn't much information on the ruins at the site, I could have done with a guide. The attendants did their best to pocket my entrance fee but I demand a receipt. They didn't provide me with any useful service so I wasn't about to let them steal the 200 Rupees.

From Takht-i-Bhai it was all flat to Peshawar. I arrived in town, the biggest since Kashgar just as the Sun was setting & the daily fast was being broken. The streets were thronged with people, almost exclusively men though a few burka cloaked women could be seen. I had become desperately thirsty as the road into Peshawar didn't offer any possibilities to drink anything. It was such a relief when the fast was broken & I could inhale the contents of a 1.5L softdrink bottle.

I found a hotel on the edge of the old town on Cinema Road, so called because it has a number of cinemas on it. I was glad to have a ceiling fan to move the air around as there were a bunch of rather smelly leather tanning works in the area. Later I went for a walk along the edge of the old town with the crowds enjoying the end of the fast.

I cycled 116 km in 7 hours & 14 minutes
Total so far 11697 km in 183 days

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