Peshawar and Beyond

Peshawar, located in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan is a buzzing city where you will encounter Afghan refugees who have set up local businesses in the city.

It is also home to many kinds of smugglers and you can meet them in the smugglers bazaar just outside the city centre.

For tourists who are there only for a couple of days and do not feel to adventurous, the visit of the old city and its bazaars is a must to get a first impression of an atmospheric frontier town.

- Qissa Khawani Bazaar is probably the most interesting of all: you will see merchandise from all over central Asia there. Oriental rugs, Afghan jewelry , tribal handicrafts, wood carving, spices, and all kinds of fabrics are available in the city. If you want to bring back a burqa for your mother or sister, this is the place to buy one.

- Jewelry bazaar and shoe-makers bazaar are two other bazaars near Qissa Khawani.

The mosque of Mohabat Khan near the city centre bazaars and Bala Hisar Fort, east of the city centre, are also visits not to miss if you are going on the steps of the Mughal emperors.

For those who like to travel off the beaten tracks, going through the famous Khyber Pass towards the Afghan border is an excursion not to miss.

In the evenings, those who are looking for a bit of a mystic adventure will head towards Peshawar suburbs and its sufi mausoleums.

For the extremely adventurous spirits, Darra Adel Khan, a gun factory village 40km from Peshawar is also an option but not recommended to the faint-hearted as you will be crossing the tribal zones and hear gunshots everywhere.

But above all, Peshawar is an experience. Meeting its population is something that will be engraved into your memory forever.

Quick Tips:

- If you are staying in a cheap hostel (Rose Hotel in Shoba Chowk among others), you will be proposed several excursions in and around Peshawar. There is a possible combination of Khyber Pass and Darra Adel Khan on the same day for (a lot of this money is supposedly to pay for your security outside Peshawar). However, if your guide is genuine and friendly, he will certainly propose you other activities in the evening at no extra cost (qawwali music, sufi mausoleums, etc.).

- Women (especially single women travelers) should dress appropriately and cover up their head to avoid further hassle if they get indecent comments from men in the street. However local women will always be there to protect foreign women.

- Peshawar is a great place to taste Afghan food. There are several varieties of chicken served in most restaurants (try Kabuli Pulao, or Chicken Qarai, more spicy).

- If you want to buy an Afghani hat (the same kind Massood used to wear), Peshawar is the place to buy one for almost nothing (it was less than when I was there). Also you will find Pasho and Balutch hats everywhere in the bazaars.

- Also a fun souvenir for your female relatives is a burqa which costs as little as 6 euros for the simplest model. People can show you where to buy one. It is apparently a popular souvenir among Western tourists.

- Some locals will suggest you to buy lapis lazuli knives. Even though these knives are genuine most of the time (and some of them are very nicely carved), the price they ask is excessive (around 1000 rupees, more or less ). They will try to convince you that this transaction is illegal and that you have to pay a lot of money because lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone. You should ignore their comments and not spend more than 250 rupees for such a knife if ever you decide to buy one.

- Many backpackers still think they can smoke joints or opium freely (those are easily found in the bazaars). This is not the case in Peshawar city (maybe less so in the tribal areas). A word of warning: do not accept any drugs from anyone even though I know this advice will be ignored...

Best Way To Get Around:

Getting to Peshawar from other Pakistani cities is very easy. Just jump on a local bus from anywhere (there are speedy buses from Islamabad, Lahore ans Swat, and slower buses from elsewhere). There are also trains from Karachi to Peshawar, but buses from other cities are faster than the trains.

Peshawar city centre and the old town are easy to visit by foot. If you get tired of walking, there are plenty of auto-rickshaws willing to help you for a decent price. Make sure to negotiate prices before every drive.

Hiring a guide is also a good option if you want to go off the beaten tracks in North West Frontier Province or if you want to visit the bazaars without getting lost. Firmly negotiate prices ( per day is the lowest price if you stay in the city, if you need a driver to go outside the city, count at least double the price).

To visit the Khyber Pass, you need a permit that you can get with a guide (you will be approached by one if you stay at a cheap hostel in Peshawar) at the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Normally, they are only delivered in a few minutes only in the morning but with a bribe you can get it in the early afternoon. Also, you will need an Affridi (local tribe) armed guard that you will find at Peshawar Prison, near the Ministry.

Just before entering the Khyber pass in Jamrud, there is a checking point where your permit will be checked. There is also a sign ‘Entrance forbidden to foreigners’. The Khyber Pass entrance is a monumental gate which looks like a mini fort.

The Khyber Pass is not on the Afghan border. It is a 45 kilometres-long road between Jamrud and the border post of Torkham, which cross the Suleiman mountains. Several famous warriors went through this pass (Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the British, etc.). All over the pass, you can see several forts, Buddhist stupas, smugglers villages (Landi Kotal among others). Your driver will stop several times on the way so that you can take great panoramic pictures. Also feel free to request a stop if you want to take a photo. After all, you have paid for it!

You cannot go further than the checking point of Michni (5 kilometres before Torkham) if you do not have a valid Afghan visa, but from there you have a wonderful panoramic view on the Afghan border, just between two hills. If you want to go further, it is possible to get a visa in 48 hours in Peshawar and hire a guide for less than $50 per day to accompany you into Afghanistan.

Also, if the driver stops in Jamrud on the way back to Peshawar (mine did), ask to join him to have a look at the haschich shop. You will see huge amounts of illegal drugs on sale (opium and haschich among others). I am pretty sure there are also other drugs (heroin for instance) but I did not dare ask the retailer. Even though these shops are illegal, the Pakistani army has no power in the tribal regions and drugs are found virtually everywhere west of Peshawar (if you pay attention, you will also see them in the bazaars of Peshawar).

Normally, the visit of the Khyber Pass with a driver, a guide, and an armed guard should not cost you more than $20. Prices are negotiable. Definitely worth the price if you feel adventurous.

If you are staying for a few days in Peshawar, you will probably be proposed to attend a qawwali music evening in a private house in the city centre. If you have used the services of a guide that day or the previous one, he will probably suggest you to attend it for free.

Qawwali is the traditional sufi music. Sufi mysticism is spread throughout Peshawar and you will probably be given an occasion to watch their rituals. Also beware: haschich circulates freely during those evenings and do not be offended if you are offered to have a puff. You are free to refuse, though.

These qawwali evenings are not exactly legal, and people will stand outside and in front of the windows watching for unusual movements outside. If ever the police arrives, music stops and all traces of smoking activity are cleared.

Since I felt adventurous that evening, I decided to join three other European tourists for an evening. Afghans (all Pashtos) welcomed us in a tiny room inside an old house near the city centre bazaar and showed us the music instruments. They started playing some music before letting us try the instruments. There was a rabab, a flute, and two banjos. I was allowed to take as many pictures as I wanted.

The music carried on for about half an hour before stopping for the evening prayer. The less religious Pashtos grabbed the opportunity to start rolling joints.

Then, it became increasingly mystic. The music itself alternate between slow and quick rhythms and the singers entered into a trance. That is when I decided to leave the room because I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the heavy smell of joints.

Before leaving the room, I was offered flowers: it is a local code to show that I attended a qawwali music evening. These flowers have an extremely nice soapy smell.

This kind of evenings can also be seen in Lahore (some legal, some not).

Nowadays is maybe not the right time to go and visit Darra Adam Khel, especially with the terrorist threat. Darra Adam Khel is a gun workshop village 30km south of Peshawar in a tribal zone administrated by the Affridi tribe (Pashtos).

To go there from Peshawar, there are two options: you can go by bus (ask the bus to Kohat and get out at the entrance of the village), but you will risk being sent back by kashadards, the local tribal police. Permits are not delivered anymore by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in Peshawar because of security reasons, and theoretically, you are not allowed to go there. However, there is another option: going there illegally with a guide and a driver (ask for them at your hotel if you are not approached by a guide).

You should go through the checkpoints without problems if you say you are going to Kohat. At first sight, Darra Adam Khel looks like any other village in Pakistan, but if you look closer, you will see gun shops and behind the main street gun workshops. Your guide will give a bribe to khasadars and you will be able to visit the village escorted by two guards.

At first, I was offered delicious tea from a huge samovar and I was shown three different types of guns (Kalashnikovs and pistols) that I could manipulate. It is said that a gun maker in Darra can duplicate a gun that he has never seen previously in ten days (three days for the further copies). 400 to 700 guns are made in Darra every day and sold to smugglers or Afghan warriors.

I was authorized to take as many pictures as I wanted; the gun makers were quite friendly and were proud of their skills. Also I could hear some gunshots near me: guns being tried before being sold.

I was also proposed to try some of the guns for an extra price (not cheap, though; prices are barely negotiable). If you decide to try the guns, you will be taken into a backyard in the village where you will be able to shot on a rocky hill; you will also be given some explanations on how to hold a gun.

Only for the very adventurous, this excursion is not really recommended right now because of the problems in the tribal areas (in 2005, it was safer).

If you are going on the steps of the Mughal emperors, the 17th Century Mahabat Khan's mosque in Peshawar city is worth a visit. Even though it was not built for a Mughal emperor, it is still Mughal in its architecture.

Another Mughal monument nearby is Bala Hisar fort, anterior to Mahabat Khan's mosque and both are worth a visit if you intend to visit Lahore, Delhi, and Agra afterwards. Entrance to Mahabat Khan's mosque is free between prayers (during prayer time, it is off limits to non-Muslims) but remove your shoes like in any mosque.

Mahabat Khan's mosque was named after Mughal governor Nawab Mohabbat Khan who was governor of Peshawar and served Shah Jahan (the one who ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India) and his son Aurangzeb.

Built around 1670 and found in Ander Sher Bazaar in the old city, this mosque will partly remind you of the mausoleums found in Agra with its white marble decoration. The religious Muslims of Peshawar attend this mosque and in a caravanserai nearby, there is a viewing point where you can have a full view of the courtyard (note the ablution pond in the middle of it), and during the prayers, you can take pictures of people praying without disturbing anyone. Some people will try to play guides with you. It is up to you if you want to listen to their comments or not.

If you go inside the mosque between prayers, you will be amazed by the floral and geometrical designs of the paintings. The entry is not easily found: it is merely a gate in the jewelry bazaar. Just get into Ander Sher Bazaar, a narrow street just off Chowk Yadgar (the easily recognizable ovale square with a dome-shaped monument) in Sadaar Bazaar, the entrance is through a small door on your right.

Mahabat Khan's mosque is not the most beautiful and impressive Mughal mosque you will ever see; it is in fact quite small compared to the other Mughal mosques you can see in Lahore, Delhi and Agra but worth a visit if you like Mughal architecture. You can then compare the evolution of Mughal architecture from Akbar to Aurangzeb.