Pre trip planning
On 20th of April 2010 we decided to go to Gawadar by some means . The problem we had was that we any one of us didn’t have any car available to go to Gawadar. So we had two options , one was to take a rent car and the other was to go by bus. The cheapest rent car we could get was a corolla xli for Rs2500 each day we wanted it for fro 3 days , so it was costing us about Rs.7500 just for the rent and the fuel we estimated be costing about Rs.10,000. So this was making our total cost of traveling Rs.17000. While the other option was to travel by bus and as far as we knew the bus fare was Rs.1000 per head one way. So this was making our cost Rs.2000 two way per head and since we were 4 people so this would have made our total cost Rs.8000.
We had no booking of hotel or any other thing. We finally decided to take bus to Gawadar. I called the Saedabad bus terminal fro the bus to Gawadar they told that no bus will go before 7pm. The air-conditioned busses leave at night after 7 pm till about 11 pm max. And a non a/c hi-ace goes to Gawadar in the morning at 10 am. This is about the transportation from the Saedabad bus terminal, near Baldia town which is about 20kms and 45 mins drive from Hasan-square. We have also heard that busses also leave from Lee market, Liari and Purani Subzi mandi.
The bus arrangement
We were four people me Nabeel, Haris, Uzair and Talha. We left from my home at 6.30pm for Saedabad, Yousuf Goth bus terminal. We reached there at about in an hour. I went to the offices of the transporters to get the ticket. One transport told me about two types of busses he had, which were about to leave for Gawadar. One’s fare was Rs.900 per head and the other’s fare was Rs.1200 per head. Both of these busses were air conditioned but the first one also had to carry some commercial luggage so it would reach late, that is the reason for which the fare of the first one was less.
There was another type of bus in which there were only 25 seats, all of which were very spacious and this type of bus was known as a luxurious bus. The fare was Rs.1400. We decided to select the bus which had Rs.1200 of fare. In the negotiation, the bus office personal said that he can reduce the price of the ticket because of the transporters union’s restriction however he said he will make 3 tickets for four of us and will give a free pass to the fourth person of us. This way we bought 3 tickets for Rs.3600 and so the per head cost was Rs.900.
The bus Journey
We had to wait about half an hour for the bus to leave and then the bus left at 9pm . The interior of the bus was pretty fine with 4 seats in a row .We had bought water bottles and goodies from the bus terminal. The bus then stopped at Hub for about 15 mins then the journey started. Since we had no booking at any hotel in Gawadar, so as a backup I called my brother who was in Karachi to do some arrangement for us. He contacted some one and a place was arranged for us which was told to be not good , so that we don’t expect any good things out of that place where we were going to live. However I did this arrangement because we were to reach Gawadar at about 6am(at the time of Fajar), so finding a hotel at 6am in a city where we were going for the first time was looking to be a hectic job. So we arranged for a backup.
In the meanwhile I called hotel in Gawadar whose number was searched by my friend Talha , I called the hotel and asked for rooms availability . he said the air-conditioned rooms are all filled however there is one non a/c room with four single beds and TV. The fare was Rs.1500 per day. I tried to bargain on the price but could do it , so we confirmed the booking of that room when we were about 100 kms away from Karachi and about 550 kms away from Gawadar.
Zero Point and food arrangement
We reached zero point at about 10.40 i.e. in about 1 hour and 40 min. Zero point is a about 85 kms from hub chowki it is a point at which there is a division of road for two cities. The straight road goes to Khuzdar and then Quetta where as the road on the left of zero point takes you on the Makran coastal highway(MCH) which will lead you to Ormara, Pasni and then Gawadar. The took the MCH and then at about 11.30 the bus stopped at a place where people had food from a dhaba. The dhaba was pretty expensive unlike hat it looked like. Since we were not that much hungry so we ordered a plate of some chicken curry and a plate of dal and then tea. The bill was around Rs.300. This food and prayer break was of about half an hour and then the bus again started heading towards Gawadar.
We reached Ormara at about 2 am i.e. in 5 hours from the bus terminal , it took about 2 hours more to reach Pasni and again 2 hours more to reach Gawadar from Pasni. We were in Gawadar at about 6.30 am. Each of us had a good sleep of about 3 hours in the bus although the music in bus was quite disturbing . The road on which we traveled from Karachi to Gawadar was good with a fair number of trucks, busses and cars visible on the highway. i.e. the highway was not very busy one but also not an empty one that is to say that when traveling in that highway at least one vehicle is visible in every 10 seconds.
Security
I felts no security issues in this whole journey, there were a number of check posts in the highway and according to the frequent travelers I have talked to said that now there are no security problems at this highway. They said that it has been a very long time when they last heard about any thieves or any other such people creating problem for travelers on the highway. After traveling through this highway and after getting reviews from a number of frequent travelers at least I am quite satisfied about the security of the highway. Most of the people in Karachi think that the highway to Gawadar is not secure n all. I also heard a lot of such things from the people who had never traveled to Gawadar , these security problems are more of a myth than a reality.
First Day
The bus dropped us at main market road of Gawadar early morning. I was told by the contact we arranged the accommodation to be dropped at Bilal masjid. When planning for the trip I went to Gawadar on google maps, on which saw Bilal masjid on west bay. This was wrongly labeled on the map. So contrary to the label on the google map we found Bilal masjid on the main market road of Gawadar . Then I called the person who was going to arrange a place for us to live. We went to that place, just in front of Bilal masjid. The owner of that place Shahid welcomed us. Upon entering that place we found a dustbin which had a couple of cans of imported bear in that. We got refreshed there, it look like an Otaq/drawing rooms sort of place. And then we had a cup of tea there. The place was not reasonable enough to stay for the whole day so we decided to move to the Bakhsi hotel where we had already made our booking for our room(we made this booking when we were on the highway via cell phone).
We then had a brief chat session with Mr.Shahid and took a brief about the city and transport scene in the city. We also wanted a rent-a-car and since we were already on the main market road of Gawadar so we decided to take the rent-a-car first and then go to our hotel.
The main Market road
We then put up our bags and started walking on the main market road to find the rent-a-car. After a walk of about 15 mins and integration with the locals we got to know that we can get the rent-a-car either from the bazil chowk which is at the south end of that road or the other place for rent-a-car is near Islamabad hotel.
We then took a chinqchi, a motorcycle with a four seat carrier, to go to the bazil chowk. We asked a couple of mehran drivers for the car and the other available transport was the four wheeler double cabin. The double cabin people were demanding Rs.2500 for a day city trip of Gawadar and the mehran person was asking Rs.1000. We wanted an air conditioned car not double cabin so we decided to go to other place to look for rent-a-car. We went the other place again by chinqchi and then found that finding a car that we wanted (corolla) was not that easy. So we then finally went to our hotel.
First look at Bakhsi hotel
We were dropped by the chinqchi driver on the road , of which on the left there was the sea and on the right it was the Bakhsi hotel . Bakhsi hotel has a fantastic location, I see it(location) better than PC’s location. At that time we didn’t realize the beauty of the location of that hotel and so we went into the hotel towards our room. This hotel looks like a guest house with pretty good open air place to sit for breakfasts, tea and food also. Since we were too tired so we directly went to our room, a carpeted room with four single beds and one 14 inch TV and a normal washroom and wardrobe. We ordered the breakfast to be served in the room although we had an option to have it in the dining hall. The breakfast was not that cheap as we were expecting it to be however we had eggs and toasts and rested for about an hour or so . We asked the hotel manager Mr. Bablu to arrange some rent-a-car which he was unable to. After refreshing again Mr. Bablu arranged a car for us to find the rent-a-car, we sat in that car and upon interrogating the person driving the car we found out that he was the owner of that hotel; son of late Mr.Bakhsi.
The rent-a-car search and baloch hospitality
He dropped us at rent a car who had a corolla available for rent; the rent a car person quoted Rs.4000 excluding fuel till night for that car, which we were not ready to pay then we went to different estate offices and mechanics in search of the rent car . When two of us went to one car repair shop and asked for rent a car, the owner of that workshop welcomed us into the garage and offered us to be seated, he then started doing something in mobile phone and then in a matter of five minutes called three-four people to ask for availability of car for us to be rented out. One of them came into that garage in just 5 minutes in a brand new car the rent of which again was Rs.4000 which we were not ready to pay. The workshop owner helped us as much as he could , then we went out of the garage and joined our other two friends who were sitting in an estate agency with an agent who was trying to help us out to get the rent a car. He , Mr.Sami, also called many people to check the availability of car and finally got a person who had a double cabin available with him . He was a little busy and not willing to go with us however Mr.Sami pressurized him and asked him to pick us from our hotel at 3pm. Mr.Sami putting pressure on him also convinced him to take the rent of just Rs.1500 which was very cheap as compared to the market survey we did. Mr.Sami then after briefing us about Gawadar city and about places to visit in Gawadar went off from the estate agency .
We were surprised to see this hospitable altitude of people of Gawadar. We were meeting that workshop owner and Mr.Sami for the first time in our life and they were helping us as if we have known them for a long time. The hospitable attitude of these people was really impressive.
The driver- Noor chacha took us from our hotel to the hammer head of Gawadar. The way to hammer head is worth looking once; the driver also told us that you can climb on the hammer head mountain by rope, the rope which is already available there for tourists to climb on the mountain. However we went on to the hammer head on to the hammer head to hotel named Jawed hotel . From the ground of that hotel you can have a view of whole of the Gawadar city, this view from the top of the mountain is really very very beautiful. This place worth sitting there calmly and seeing Gawadar and the mouth of the ocean touching it with a port standing on the edge of that mouth…. Very beautiful.. Then we went to PC Gawadar, from there also you can have a great view of the city, we spent about half an hour at PC discussing things about the next trip we were planning for more people .
The driver then took us to the last point of the hammer head, at this point there are ladders going down to the beach known as Gurab beach. This beach is so beautiful that it just cannot be explained in words you need to see it to enjoy it … Green and blue color both clearly visible in the same pool of water.. We dived in to the sea there and then came back to our car to go back to the hotel. The driver drove us through the west bay of Gawadar, he took us to the CM house and other such offices and places there… the rest of the bay is under development. The Gawadar development authority has plan to build an amusement park, a museum, a water park, a formal water sport place etc… Gawadar is really going to be a major tourist place in future.
Back to the hotel
We came back to our hotel and rested for one or two hours and then at sunset we had our cup of tea in the hut of the hotel. The sea breeze going through us and the cup of tea after a tiring day was so relaxing that we felt like sitting there for hours. And in fact we did this.. We stopped talking to each other for quite a long time looking into the see which was reflecting the moonlight coming through space between the could; the sight was really beautiful and enjoying…
After some time kamber bhai came in and we had quite a long chat session with him about people, place and culture of Gawadar. We got to know a lot of things about Gawadar through this session. He told us about Gawadar eye , about the skeleton of whale which was there at his hotel , about the history of Gawadar, about people who go to Iran from Gawadar, about the fortress of Muscat that they have in Gawadar, about the beautiful sunset of Jiwani and many other things In the man while we had order the dinner which was served then after some time. It was a pair of fried fishes and daal chawal, this menu was prescribed by the Bengali chef of the hotel who was supposed to master such dish. The food was very tasty and we had it as much as we could. We had our food at the same place where we had our tea and we remain seated there for about 1 am after which we went to out room and then slept for a new day.
2nd day
We got to know at night that the buses leave only after 7 pm from Gawadar to Karachi so our plan to leave for Karachi in the morning was disturbed. However we got up by 11 am and had our breakfast again in the hut in open air with wide sea open to our eyes reflecting two colors of itself. After having our breakfast we remain seated at the same place and relaxed for two hours in which we finalized the itinerary of next trip we were planning to have. In the mean while we contacted out friends father to have a casual meeting to know about speed boat, jet ski etc arrangement at Gawadar.
We then left for that meeting and after having a half an hour meting we walked int o the city. We walked for quite a long time to explore the city, to know about water sports arrangement there and to know about other different things like Gawadar eye etc. We came back to our hotel by evening took a bath and a cup of tea and so packed our bags to leave for Karachi.
Back to Karachi
We called a transportation person to book our seats for the bus which was about to leave at 7 pm. So we prepared but some how we went late for the bus, Kamber bhai dropped us to the bus which was already waiting for us for last 20 minutes with all passengers seated there. We were given the last four seats of the bus . The bus started on to the highway ; and we got to learn one more thing about traveling by bus that never take a back seat on the long route in the bus. Although the bus was quite luxuries with a total of 25 seats in the whole bus but the back of our seats were continuously jumping so we couldn’t sleep on that. The bus then in the way stopped over at a place where we had food , a person was playing baloch music there which was again something to listen. After had an hour break we then again took the highway towards Karachi. After talking to some people traveling with us we got to know that some of the people were coming from Iran .We got reviews from them about Iran and how to go there and all. After all we reached Karachi, Saedabad bus terminal at about 6 am and then took a taxi and went to our homes. The trip was very learning and enjoying experience in which we got to know that Pakistan has really got so beautiful places that those people(specially people of Karachi) who haven’t seen these places are just unlucky… you just need two to three days, some money and keenness to see Pakistan to experience these scenes, sights, culture etc…
The natural sphinx of Pakistan
The Sphinx are mainly associated with Egypt, which were sculpted figures as Egyptian deities. These Sphinx like the Great Sphinx of Giza were constructed on the order of the Pharaohs to depict the pharaoh being the son of God. These have many religious and cultural symbolisms.
People will not believe if it is said that a Sphinx existed in any country other than Egypt. But in fact there is a naturally curved shape like sphinx in the world, at about 250 kilometers from Karachi, Pakistan on the Makran coastal highway.
As you travel on the makran coastal highway from karachi eastwards to Gawadar, just after you pass the kund malir beach and enter into the twisting and turning road of the ‘Buzzi Pass’ you start see unique formations of mountains at the place. Just travelling about 20 mins from kund malir you see a very finely carved structure of sphinx waiting for your sight on the top of a mountain.
This structure is naturally carved by winds and rains however on seeing it one will not trust his eyes that this is a naturally carved structure. This sphinx is obviously not as sharply carved as the sphinx in Egypt however this is worth seeing once in a lifetime. Very less people know about this world class structure even in Pakistan. But people really need to see it to believe it.