Lots of students societies were founded in Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The common thing in all the activities those societies do is organizing a set of lectures and visiting places related to their main topic. The lectures as well al the places are in many times the same every year. When the Geo Group was founded late 1997, its members were thinking of doing something different that no one did before. Therefore, the idea of visiting another country was introduced by the society supervisor; Dr. Tariq Cheema. Funding such an event was not an easy thing. All the attempts to find a destination to sponsor the group failed. Still, the students were willing to go. Dr. cheema is an expert in the northern areas of Pakistan since he has been there many times. The group, under his supervision, contacted the Pakistani Embassy and the Pakistani International Airlines. Those people were so generous and offered very special discounts on visas and airfares.
Since the trip was planned properly long enough before leaving Oman, it ran smoothly as scheduled.
The group arrived in Lahore on the 7th of August. We had the chance to see the city and visit its big bazaars and Punjab university.
The following day, we left to Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, by air. There we were met by officials from the UGC, the University Grand Commission which is a governmental organization responsible for all the universities. There we visited Tarbella Dam; the largest earth filled dam in the world. Two days later, we started driving north along Karakuram Highway KKH. Driving along KKH gives tourists a unique chance to see spectacular views. It also gave us the chance to touch the glacier for the first time in our lives. After long hours of driving, we reached Shugran, a place about 5500 high above sea level. The weather there was marvelous. The following day we went down to Kagan Naran, another spectacular place where we went to a nearby lake called Saif al-muluk lake. It’s a big lake formed due to the melting of the glacier during the summer.
From Shugran we went to join the Punjab University geology students in a place called Abatabad and went to Gilgit.
It was a very tiring trip that lasted for more than 13 hours driving. In Gilgit we had a day rest before going to Hunza.
Hunza was the most special and the most beautiful place. It was very quite. There were lots of things to see and the people were very friendly and they all speak English.
From Hunza, we traced our steps back to Gilgit and from Gilgit to Swat in another tiring long way. After spending one day in Swat we went to Peshawar where we received very warm welcomes from people in Peshawar university and personally from the its Vice Chancellor. From Peshawar we returned to Lahore by air and spent one day there before coming back to Oman.
The objective of this short article is not to describe the fascinating nature we saw in Pakistan or to show that this visit was a glorious thing for us. As a former president of the group I believe that I need to point out some of the important remarks and lessons that we learnt from the trip and to suggest few other things that me be useful if such trips will be organized in the future.
First of all, the key to success in such trips is the good organization of every single step and not leaving anything for coincidence. This will save money, time and energy. Good organization includes contacting people and /or organizations that can offer assistance such as universities.
Second, there is no need to rush as long as the trip meeting the schedule. This implies that the schedule should not be tough or very strict. There must be a place for unexpected emergencies.
Third, the most important difficulties we faced in our trip were the long hours of traveling and the illness that started spreading from one person to another. Therefore, if a similar trip is to be organized I would suggest the following changes:
- the trip should not be more than ten to eleven days maximum.
- skipping Lahore’s and Peshawar’s stops. This will save time and money.
- going directly to Islamabad from Muscat.
- keeping the following places in the program: Kagan Naran, Shugran, Gilgit and Hunza.
-Spending more time in Hunza.
- Going further north towards the Chinese borders and even going to china if possible.
Forth, the students who participated in this trip were so enthusiastic to do it and they were very patient when facing difficulties and this reflects their strong characters. Though money was not available but they managed to provide it. There was no chance for anybody, even the ones who got sick, to give up. Now, everyone has lots of memories about the trip and hope it will be repeated.
Fifth, although the objective of the trip was tourism, Pakistan is very rich in its geology and offers a unique chance for any geologist to learn more and more.
Sixth, in every trip there must be some difficulties and that what makes memories.
Finally, we would like to address very special thanks to the following:
- Dr. Tariq Cheema, Sultan Qaboos University.
- Pakistani Embassy.
- Pakistani International Airlines.
- Punjab University.
- University Grand Commission ( U.G. C.), Islamabad.
- Peshawar University.
- President of Sultan Qaboos University, H.H. Mohammed bin Al-Zubair and the Secretary General H.H. Salim Suwaid.
- Mr. Mohammed Al-Hinai, college of science administrator and his assistance Mrs. Hayyat Saad.
- The participants in the trip fro their enthusiasm.
Yaqoob Al-Hosni
