To the Frontier

by Geoffrey Moorehouse

For three months Geoffrey Moorhouse travelled through Sind, Baluchistan and the Punjab to the legendary North-West frontier of Pakistan. The first foreigner for some years to ascend the Khyber Pass as far as the border with Afghanistan, he then climbed in the Hindu Kush before returning to write this vivid and compelling account of a beautiful, turbulent and still little-known region.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Pakistan, Asia, History

345 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Moorhouse travelled extensively in Pakistan over a three month period, through Sind, Baluchistan,the Punjab to the North-West frontier province. Published in 1984, the travel would be expected to be within a year of this. Moorhouse is always a considered writer and this book surpasses even The Fearful Void as my favourite.

He is a likeable man, and a good companion for the reader in his travels. Moorhouse seems to befriend those who spent time with him at will. There were many amusements in the book - his friend Justice; the markhor (screw-horned goat - worth googling to see a picture) which was a regimental mascot in Chitral. The individuality of the various people of Pakistan he comes into contact with are all written about with dignity and regard, and Moorhouse is prepared to share his own misjudgements (like carrying his own pack on his trek through the passes).

At around 340 pages it is longer than most travel books, but well worth seeking out. While Pakistan was just becoming accessible when Moorhouse travelled there, I spent a couple of weeks there in 2003 and loved it - much of what he describes is very familiar. I am not sure how much of Pakistan is readily accessible to tourists right now.

A couple of memorable quotes to finish.

P99 - so reminiscent of many bus trips in Pakistan and India - although this one was a van.

... To provide muscle and lend moral support on such occasions, the driver had his mate, who otherwise rode inside or outside the van more or less as the whim took him, sometimes moving from one stance to the other when we were careering madly around a bend, to occupy or abandon a precarious position hanging onto a ladder clamped too the offside of a vehicle. The six-hour journey from Sibi to Quetta was not a tranquil one.

P187/188 - honest assessment of politics in Pakistan

... My friend Mushtaq writhed more than anyone under my questioning. He was a gentle soul who despised the journalism he was obliged to turn out... Passionately one day, when he had come to the conclusion that I could not be trusted, he cried "I'm not really the man to talk to about the state of Pakistan, I'm too pessimistic about it. He explained then that, although the principles of Islam were not inconsistent with democracy, the traditions were.
His agony was stated in two short sentences.
"We've always been ruled by despots. The best we can hope for is a benevolent one."

5 stars

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my last book of the year. The other book I'm reading right now is a poem that spans early December to mid-January with entries for each day, which I'm reading by the day. I'm taking tomorrow off from reading and then I'll get a fresh start for 2022.

This is not only one of the best books I've read this year, it is one of the best books I've ever read, especially in the "travel" category. Moorhouse was a professional journalist for many years, and although by the time this book was published (1983) and the journey had been made, he'd become a full-time writer on his own, he uses his journalism skills to great effect to meet locals from all walks of life. He covers much of Pakistan in the process, starting from Karachi and ending up in the mountain frontier valleys between that country and Afghanistan (during Soviet occupation) and China. He ends his trip with a trek through famous passes to Gilgit, that far-flung town of legend.

He loves much of this, but doesn't romanticize any of it. He has a soul to feel deeply about beautifully proportioned architecture of many eras, and the nerve to smuggle out a tragic account of torture by the Zia regime. He enjoys some adventure in getting to the Khyber Pass. In Chitral he befriends the upright Chief of Police and a retired Pakistani colonel, who take him to regimental headquarters still stocked with regimental silver, autographed photos of King George V, and tartan-wearing bagpipe corps, as well as to a wild local polo match. Everywhere he visits he is met with kind and generous hospitality to the stranger.

He visits the museum of artifacts at Mohenjo-Daro and explores a Customs warehouse full of seized heroin. He admires the headgear of the many different tribal groups, from the yard-wide pagri of the hill tribes to the colorful caps of the Baluchi to the all-purpose pakol of the frontier. (His description of the pagri led me to YouTube where I found instructional videos in how to wrap one properly; and I visited Flickr many times to find photos of the places he was visiting--these are great tools when reading a book like this. His writing is highly descriptive, but still it's unfamiliar territory and it enhanced the reading.)

When he's ready to come home, he knows it, and his last hours at the airport are spent worrying about the way he's arranged to smuggle out the account of government torture, while chatting up the Customs staff about the England-Pakistan cricket match that happens to be taking place the same day. The famous Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan is not in good form, and England wins. As I'm writing this review not quite 40 years after the fact, Khan is the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and England has been trounced in the cricket this week. I don't think I'll ever visit this fascinating country, but I'm very curious to know how much it has changed since this sharply observed and beautifully written account.

[Christopher Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geoffrey Moorhouse was never anything less than readable; at times, his writing is sublime. In this volume he travels to Pakistan, hoping to reach as close to the border with Afghanistan as possible. Given that these were the years of the mujahideen, that would prove no easy task. His survey of Pakistan in the 1980s is an illuminating read; there are places where Moorhouse, worried by the zealous excesses of the Islamic government, makes dire predictions for the future of the country, and for the most part these have come true. Where they have not, it is simply because Moorhouse was too optimistic.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, pedestrian rather than pacy, not hugely memorable. Moorhouse brings some humour to the task and I am most indebted to this book for introducing me to Eric Newby, whose earlier 'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush' offers a more vividly comic template.

[Wes F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book by a very good, funny, engaging, experienced travel writer. All his travels in this book take place in Pakistan in the 1980s. He traveled by various modes of transportation from Karachi in the south, to Chitral & Gilgit in the far NW of Pakistan.

My favorite quote of the book:
"It was somewhere in the natural order of things that, if one encountered a solitary westerner in such an out of the way place as this (Gilgit Agency in NW Pakistan), he would be an Australian." Classic...I've met a couple of those guys along the journeys I've been on...

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars = Okay. I liked the book. It was worth reading.