Weekly travel reads: Pakistan’s remote Ishkoman Valley

[The Travel Wire #109] Karl Bushby’s incredible 28-year walk home, lost & found in Tokyo, The travel advice I used to give that I take back, and more travel reads.

Travel reads

• A stay in Pakistan’s remote Ishkoman Valley, where humans still consult fairies (archive) [BBC Travel]
“I took a 650km motorcycle ride to this traveller’s hostel, where activities include lazing with sheep, enjoying Pakistani hospitality and visiting shamans who can learn your fate.”

• ‘Some things are worth dying for’: Karl Bushby’s incredible 28-year walk home, through deserts, kidnappers and polar bears [The Guardian]

• Lost & found in Tokyo: a first-timer’s adventure [A Whole Lotta Nothing]

• The travel advice I used to give that I take back [The Nomad Dossier]
“I said these things with confidence. I was wrong about most of them.”

• Japan’s smallest and least-populated major island is a world of pilgrimages, delicious food and plenty of forest bathing [Smithsonian Magazine]
“Each year, more than 100,000 people hike at least part of a 750-mile route on Shikoku that connects 88 Buddhist temples and other sacred sites.”

• Some places don’t need explaining [Never Quite a Local]
“What Beijing taught me about travel, attention, and getting out of the way.”

• Ottawa to Boston, no phone [The Cycle Touring Life]
“In 1988 nobody knew where I was for eleven days. I’ve never felt that free since.”

• India in three rare and special hotels: Part One [Marklands]
“Away from the grand palaces and western brands, a more intimate and historic experience awaits. In the first part of my journey, I head from Old Delhi to a famous and notorious battle site.”

• Still on its way to Cleveland [Longreads]
“Nine months, 25,000 miles, one phone cord, and the kindness of strangers.”

• There’s a hidden world behind Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar that hasn’t changed in centuries [CNN Travel]

• Controra, or walking through the history of a Baroque Italian town [Wander, Wonder, Write]
“On Nardò, stone, beauty, rulers, olive trees, and pigeons.”