As I mentioned in the duck-it thread, I was there in 2001 pre-9/11 so way too long ago chronologically and politically for much relevance today.
We hired a jeep and driver and drove the Karakoram up to the Chinese border, across to Skardu, and over the Shandur pass to Chitral. There was lots of backtracking and lots of checkpoints at bridges where we had to sign log book things and have tea and halwa with the guards. Often the only words spoken were cricketers names. It was pretty slow going. Interestingly, there were several cyclists on the KKH and we could track their path via the log books.
The middle is also excellent, with the spectacular ruins at Bahawalpur the highlight but the 50 degree days makes it pretty hard going. The train up to Quetta over the Bolan Pass was just fantastic too.
I made the trip to Dara Adam Khel which is the smugglers village where the firearms are made and sold openly, together with heroi_ and hashish. They'd prefer tourists didn't visit there and I was greeted by the police within minutes of stepping off the bus. After tea and halwa, and politely-declined offers to shoot some guns or throw grenades, I got escorted around the town for about an hour and put back on the bus. I purposely didn't take a camera or much money which turned out to be wise. I got the impression if I'd had either I would have been put straight back on the bus to Peshawar.
Quetta had the best food (Sajji!) and had these little shops in Peshawar sold these incredible banana or mango smoothies made fresh with ice chipped from big blocks on a table on the footpath. We were invited into homes often and I played a lot of cricket too, at least until I showed my form, when I transitioned to umpire.
The cities were largely unremarkable, aside from seething masses of humanity in the bazaars and fascinating mosques/forts. It's more a people-watching kind of place. We stayed in very cheap hotels, as cheapskate backpackers do, rarely paying more than 2 or 3 quid a night.
Without trying to sound pretentious, there was an "edge" to travelling there. The LP was full of warnings, it is very remote and socially conservative, and there were guns everywhere (we often picked up "hitch-hikers" carrying AK-47s - as every man in NWFP does - in our jeep). But none of it did manifest itself as anything approaching dangerous and I have nothing but fond memories.
I left with the impression that if the government could only unite the regions and their people, it would be a tourism mecca (well maybe the beach bums will worship elsewhere). I'll be reading the more recent accounts with great interest.
