sleepwalking through peshawar with dusty shoes and a grumbling stomach
god my feet hurt. just stumbled into peshawar after what felt like seventeen wrong turns and i'm already sweating through my shirt even though i just checked and it's...like 15 degrees out there right now? feels colder though. hope you like that kind of thing because the weather's drunk - says it might hit 40-something in summer. someone told me last summer it melted a tourist's flip-flop to the sidewalk. not sure i believe them but my shoes are definitely sticking to something.
you see this map? look how close afghanistan is. 50km? that's like...a long walk with snacks, i guess. makes sense why everyone’s got this frontier-town energy. feels like if the mountains decided to host a bazaar. speaking of neighbors - if you get bored, charsadda and nowshera are just a short drive away. or y'know, you could stare at the khyber pass and think about silk road traders sweating through these same hills a thousand years ago.
speaking of traders - someone told me the groundwater here has aquifers 400 feet deep. doesn't help me find decent chai though. spent an hour looking before realizing the best stuff's probably in someone's living room. it’s that kind of city. layers upon layers. looks flat until you notice the hills creeping up north like shy party crashers.
god the traffic. traffic that laughs at your travel plans. streets feel like they’re made of honking and nostalgia. half-expecting to see alexander the great’s lost cavalry unit stuck at a roundabout. winter’s sneaking in - locals say it dips to freezing sometimes, but right now it’s just...damp. humid like a half-hearted apology. 55% humidity but my hair’s already giving up. and yeah, someone definitely told me not to underestimate the river when it gets moody. saw a kid flying a kite near its banks and wondered if he knows about the aquifers under his sneakers.
took a photo of the vale at dusk. looks softer than it should for a place nicknamed ‘land of braves’. maybe the gravel plains are tired too. feels like everyone here’s been holding their breath for centuries between invasions and monsoons that never really come. anyway. my feet still hurt. gonna find those aquifers or at least a chair that doesn’t wobble.
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