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visit Tourists'
heaven
visit By Saeed Ur Rehman After weeks of
dillydallying, Lars Ostermeier, a Berliner friend, had made up his mind to
visit his Thanks to the Schengen visa system, there are no immigration officers to deal with if you are coming from Berlin. Outside, I remembered the general advice to avoid the pricey means of transport set up for tourists but it was difficult to figure out the normal train (S-Bahn) to Mitte (city centre in German-speaking countries) and, somehow, the pricey train service CAT (city-airport train) was readily visible and available. I bought a return ticket. Upon entering the train, the feeling of smooth luxury removes any regrets about splurging in the mind of the tourist. There are sleek flat panels bilingual displays keeping the passengers updated with the latest events in the world of politics mingled with regular doses of advertisements. Outside, the green pastures and fields are dotted with greenhouses but the train moves so fast that soon the buildings of the city dominate the landscape. Within 16 minutes, the journey from the airport terminal to the city centre is over. At around 8 in the morning,
I am out of the central station and standing on a footpath, looking at After placing my rucksack
in the house, Lars and I are roaming around the tourist-packed areas Hofburg
Palace. The palace was the seat of Hasburgs Empire for more than seven
centuries. The architectural style varies from medieval to gothic to art
nouveau, depending on the century in which a specific part of the palace was
added. There are private collections of the imperial family on display. Soon,
I was overwhelmed by the sheer exaggeration of everything around. The
uncountable number of silver spoons from the royal crockery to every
ostentatious bit of the dresses of queens and princesses did not inspire a
lot of emulative desire. Being a post-lapsarian urbanite, I wanted something
cynically self-destructive. After photographing the statues of horses with
kings on them, I asked Lars to MUMOK had everything
post-modern I had been looking for in a modern Western city. An exhibition
was on in which the artist had hung typed paintings on the walls. The typed
words on the paintings were recipes on creating art or enigmatic phrases. One
recipe that stayed in my mind for a very long time involved driving nails
through mirrors. Lars was getting jittery about his presentation to his
research team so he left me with the art pieces. There was a set of
headphones near an installation. I put the headphones on. It was a recording
of the artist describing another recipe to create art in a sleep-inducing
monotone. Soon I was asleep in the middle of two art installations because of
the travel fatigue. I woke up after a while because of the intensity of the
gazes of two old art patrons who were looking at me as if I was part of the
installation. I shuffled out to look for some caffeinated beverage to wake
myself up. I was also The next day was reserved for Freud. His house, where he lived and practiced almost all his life, has been turned into a museum and it is worth a visit. It is interesting to note that Freud's museum is near Turkenstrasse (literally "the street of the Turks") because Freud believed psychoanalysis would not apply to or work for patients outside the West (this has been documented by Slavoj Zizek in his book The Sublime Object of Ideology). I was also relieved to find
out that right opposite to the well-kept Sigmund Freud Museum is a shop
Tourists'
heaven By Saad Tahir The north western landscape
of the country -- Hunza, Astor, Skardu, Khiplo -- is rich in scenic Shigar valley is situated in Baltistan which is fed by the Shigar River. The valley, that has an area of about 170 km from Skardu to Askole, is the gateway to the high mountains of the Karakoram and its height is about 2050 meters above the sea level. Askole also serves as a base camp for mountaineers who have the gumption and the courage to conquer the second loftiest peak of K2. Even though Shigar is not quite accessible like Hazara and Malakand, it has nevertheless due share of the tourists in summer, both local and foreigners. Deliberating for about an hour, I finally decided to venture out to the Shigar valley. It seems pertinent to mention that the unpredictable weather and a relatively dicey route to Skardu from Islamabad add spice to the adventure of travelling through the valleys, guarded capriciously by high peaks like K2 and Nanga Parbat. Skardu airport usually wears a deserted look as the only flight that comes there daily is dependent on the weather. The tourists are likely to get stuck there for two to three days more than the planned stay. Skardu is highly underdeveloped despite the rich potentialities. Shigar valley is located in the outskirts of Skardu, the district headquarter of Baltistan. In fact Indus River segregates the Shigar valley from Skardu. The bridge over Indus presents a marvellous site that provides access to the people from Skardu to Shigar. That bridge was built by Chinese almost a decade ago. No offence to the Balti people inhabiting Skardu proper, Shigar valley is the greenest and the most picturesque part of Baltistan with green pines emerging from the valley which can be seen from a distance of about 2 to 3 kilometres. Almost in the middle of that valley exists the extra ordinary tourist attraction; the Shigar Fort. Hasan Khan Amacha, the 20th ruler of the Amacha family is reputed to have built Fong-Khar (the name of the fort in Balti) in 1634 to mark the repossession of Shigar from Abdal Khan Maqpon, the then ruler of Skardu. This was accomplished with the help of a Mughal army. The Mughal annexation of Kashmir, in 1587, had opened Baltistan to greater cultural and political relations with Delhi. The increased cultural interaction with Kashmir and beyond is vigorously expressed in the architecture and the ornamentation of this building, lending it considerable artistic and historic importance. It is said that when Hasan Khan Amacha returned from his exile in the court of Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor, he brought with him builders and artists from Kashmir. Evidence for this is found in the rich presence of both Persianised Kashmiri and Baltistani idiom in the wooden carving in Fong Khar. The old Fort, Khari-Dong, high above the cliffs, signifies the long and rich history of the area, having been built before the arrival of the Amachas in Shigar under Razi Tham, some 13 generations before Hasan Khan, and well before the advent of Islam. The old site of Khari-Dong is said to be associated with earlier settlements, as is the Buddhist monastery a kilometre to the south. Razi Tham's palace is said to have existed close to the later built mosque of Khlingrong. It was in 1999 that the Shigar Fort was bequeathed to the people of Baltistan by Raja Mohammad Ali Shah Saba of Shigar, enabling the commencement of the conservation projects. In addition to the major financial support of the Government of Norway, financial support for the project also came from the Governments of Germany, Greece and Spain and from American Express. Thus due to a rich historical background, the Shigar Fort was my pick as a holiday spot, this summer. Another fascination was the beautiful stream that flows close to the fort. The manager, Karim Khan, said that Shigar Fort Residence has been open since June 1, 2005, following an intensive six-year restoration work undertaken by Aga Khan Cultural Service, Pakistan (AKCS-P). This 400-year-old fort has been brought back to life by the careful strategy of re-use and restoration. The result is an amalgamation of 17th century architecture and the modern amenities and services of a luxury guest house. The newly constructed Bara Dari is an added attraction for the tourists where they usually sit, gossip and take green tea. Quite adjacent to Bara Dari is a vegetable garden where grow fresh vegetables to be served at lunch and dinner. It was June and the cherry trees were fully laden with fruits. The Shigar Fort Residence has emerged as a new form of cultural tourism in Pakistan that combines guest rooms, facilities, and services of international standard with an intimate first-hand experience of the unique architectural, cultural, and natural heritage of the Shigar Valley. Its setting in the Shigar Valley provides the ideal gateway to explore some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Here, the magnificent Karakoram and Himalayan ranges meet -- an intersection which results in the most extensively glaciated high mountain terrain on the planet. This includes seven of the world's 25 highest peaks, four of which exceed 8000m, including K-2, the second highest mountain peak in the world at 8611m. Baltistan is home to approximately 400,000 people, whose history and culture stretches back to early Tibetan Buddhist origins. This heritage is still evident in much of the local traditions, architecture and language of the area, offering visitors a rich cultural experience unique in Pakistan. Shigar is undoubtedly a heaven on earth. Despite the fact that it has immense potential to attract large number of tourists, little attention has been paid to its uplift and infrastructural development. More importantly, the point that needs to be emphasised is the peaceful nature of common people. Politeness and courtesy is the cultural insignia that every individual epitomises.
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advisor Reinhard Kreissl at the Institute for the Sociology of Law and
Criminology, in Vienna. He said I was also invited by his professor and the
host was expecting that I would cook something Pakistani for them at least
once. I agreed and booked a flight from Tegel Airport, Berlin, to Vienna
International for a Friday.
the grey rooftop of an old building with pigeons matching the colours of the
roof tiles. The shops are still closed and there are not many people around.
Either everybody has gone to their offices or they will all come out in half
an hour and the mass transit system will prove reliable and efficient. I take
another train to Schwedenplatz, which is the nearest station to the
professor's flat. Out of the underground station, I encounter a throng of
trams ready to rumble this way or that. Life is already recovering from the
early morning slumber. I use a phone booth to inform my hosts about my
arrival and hang around to wait for their arrival.
take me to somewhere contemporary. Munching on a traditional horsemeat
Viennese sausage, he thought for a while and then suggested MUMOK (Museum
Moderner Kunst / Museum of Modern Art).
planning to visit the house of Sigmund Freud but I gave up on tourism for the
day.
of second-hand clothes and other items. It was also quite heartening that
Sigmund Freud is earning a good posthumous income and every visit to his
house costs 7 Euros. During his life, his field of study was mocked at as a
Jewish science and he had to run from the Nazis to England. He took the
original psychoanalytical couch to London too. Now the museum in Vienna has a
replica on display. Some personal items are still very intriguing. The halls
and rooms of the house in which Freud used to practice remind the visitors of
the times long gone. I left the museum and walked back to the city centre to
enjoy a lunch of Turkish doner kebabs. After all, the German name of Austria
is Osterreich, the Eastern Empire. After tasting the Turkish doner kebab, I
realised why some conservatives were worried that the traditional Viennese
cuisine (the sausage) was threatened by the kebab. Now it was time to unleash
the Kashmiri Chicken curry on the Viennese too.
beauty. Shigar has joined the cluster of these valleys, offering a feast to
the eyes of the tourists from afar.