Global Wanderer

10/4/25 – 11/4/25

At 12:30pm KL time, my Pakistan International Airways flight lifted off, bound for Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. Honestly, I’d heard some pretty poor reviews of PIA, but the flight actually wasn’t too bad – it was only 6.5 hours in length, so I couldn’t complain! The only strange thing about the flight was that prior to take-off, there were several announcements reminding passengers that they were not allowed to take photos or videos on board the aircraft – a strange rule in 2025!

Boarding the PIA flight!

On arrival in Islamabad, I headed through immigration (relatively painless, especially that now, you can receive your eVisa in advance, for free, rather than having to wait for it to be actually issued on arrival). InDrive, an app very much like Uber, is the dominant rideshare service in Pakistan, and so I ordered one to my accommodation for that night – the Coyote Den Hostel – stopping off at an Al-Falah ATM along the way (being one of the few Pakistani ATMs that work with foreign cards). Meeting me at the hostel was a friend from the East Coast, Dale, who I had previously met up with on my travels through Iraq – he’d be joining me for the adventure across Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Our accommodation at Coyote Den

We set out almost immediately to explore some of our nearby surrounds in Islamabad, and more importantly, to acquire some kind of sustenance – aloo parathas were located at a small shop about 20 minutes walk away from the hostel, along with cups of piping hot Pakistani milk tea – just what we needed!

Some shots of Islamabad’s streets at night (including the 9/11 Mart), and our wonderfully tasty Aloo Paratha

The next morning, we were unsurprisingly greeted with the notification that our flights to Gilgit had been cancelled due to the weather. This led to a quick rush to decide on an alternative (shared taxi from Rawalpindi), and a quick run to a convenience store down the street for some supplies for the long trip. It was here that I ran into a Pakistani-Australian guy from the same city as me, who was over visiting family – classic Australian thing! Eventually, we were in an InDrive, heading over to Rawalpindi for what would turn in to a hilariously long drive up to Gilgit – stay tuned!