Peshawar - North West Frontier Province

Return to Mango Grove | Table of Contents
Cities : Lahore | Rawalpindi | Gilgit

Peshawar was my favorite city to spend time in. An old city, it has been the trade center below the Khyber Pass since the Buddha's time. There has been major development to the west of the old city, with a large British era cantonment, and the recent huge `suburbs' of Afghani refugees in Kharkhana and other towns. These trickle off heading up the Khyber Pass, containing vast amounts of people whose temporary homes have become a new [and sadly permanent] city.

View from my hotel window in the Khyber Bazaar, Old City.

I loved staying here to watch the city come alive in the morning, the people, animals, and materials moving in and out of the city until late in the evening. While I would later find a cheaper place to stay in the Cantonment [newer, Colonial Era part of the city], all my pictures come from during my stay here.

It was nice to be able to walk five minutes to the central bazaar area of Peshawar, lost within fifteen minutes.

On one of my trips I was taking an evening bus to Lahore that would arrive there in the early morning. As the bus was leaving at 9PM, I had the full day to spend in the city, checked out of my hotel. This proved to be a blast, I took tea across the old city every few blocks at a shop.

We would sip sugared green tea, they would ask me about myself. I could ask about their shop, their merchandise, and about the city. This was an excellent time to practice my Urdu and be able to people watch without being the center of attention. Hospitality and curiosity are so strong here that it was hard to get a block without an offer of tea.

After the afternoon crossing the old city, I got to a large park near a major bus transit hub. There I saw people selling most everything found on this earth, including this guy who tried to sell me a disposable camera or a knife. Every street merchant concentrates on handy items like this, though the correlation of the two had me concerned until he smiled.

Here is a sugarcane vendor. These guys are everywhere in Pakistan - stripping and cubing sugar cane to sell in small plastic bags.

It is a very yummy, juicy, and sweet snack - also one of questionable sanitary standards. Sometimes the best treats are that way - the acceptance of unknown bacteria make the taste much better.

View of alleyway off of the `Street of the Storytellers' in Peshawar. This large street leads through the Khyber Bazaar from where I stayed into the heart of the old city bazaars.

This verticality is important, allowing the first floor of all buildings to be used for shops. Thus a dense bazaar is home to both commerce and the population.