Dusharin: "Officially we were registered as an international expedition. The leader
and the manager of the expedition was Carlos Buhler - the owner of the permit, i.e. the
one through whom the climbing fee was paid. That's why the official organizations
acknowledged him as a manager, and he really was the manager, but in the mountains we were
the Russian expedition because there was only one American out of eight people.
Nevertheless he had the leading role. We were solving many organizational problems
together. |
Carlos Buhler, Ali Madat and Ivan Dusharin at the Ministry of Tourism
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Carlos was the only one the Ministry of Tourism wanted to deal with. They explained that
he was the leader of the expedition and they would not talk with us. And here he had a
hard time of it. He was doing his best using his remarkable, incredible organizational
skills to set the expedition machine going. He decided to join us even though his mother
was about to die. I think it was clear to him that if he stayed home, there most likely
would not have been any expedition. For us it would have been extremely hard to go over
the formal routine. |
The way all these formalities in Pakistan can be overcome is still a mystery to me. The
way they do it in Pakistan is very different from Nepal. I can't find any logic in these
complicated actions. There is no way to explain this. It is nothing but the actions of one
particular official. There are rules and
requirements, but we often ran into situations beyong them.
At the same time Pakistani officials are very nice and hospitable with guests, but there
is no way to keep the things going. They talk about everything but business or
continuously postpone the most important things. They've been playing the same game with
Carlos even though he has powerful friends and good references.
If you want to organize an expedition to Pakistan, you should think about sending a person
who is fluent in English there one-two weeks before the expedition. He could be solving
the organizational problems orderly and calmly. The team should start the expedition only
after all problems are solved and all questions are answered.
The relationships between the Ministry of Tourism and the Agency are obviously tense.
There is a kind of competition between them. Carlos had friends in both, so he found
himself caught between the two. They used him as a weapon against each other. It didn't
just irritate; it was a real deadlock.
Carlos couldn't understand what was going on. His friend from the Ministry of Tourism, was
nice and promised to help, but he didn't do anything to replace the liaison officer (it
was clear that Carlos wasn't content with the one we were to work with). The official
courteously smiled, promised to do everything - but the only thing he was doing was
solving his personal problems. Another of Carlos' friends from the Agency of Tourism also
tried to use him to protect his own interests in the Ministry. The exclusive circle!
All these relationships... Now I understand the reason why Russian expeditions are not
eager to come here. There were no Russians before. Maybe that can explain the way people
treated us, or maybe the reason was that we were the Russian-American expedition. I don't
really know the answer. I can just try to guess."
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