Traveler Chris Guillebeau’s Visit to Karachi

By AM | May 25, 2009 | 1,222 views

Chris Guillebeau’s Goal: To visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013

Current Status: 111/197

When I first read about Chris Guillebeau and his unusual goal I was immediately curious and eager to find out if he had visited Pakistan. Hoping, yet not entirely expecting, to see Pakistan on the list of countries he had visited, I felt elated to see Pakistan as an underlined hyperlink on his ‘Places’ page, a link that led me to a post on his visit to our country. And so I decided to include a post on Chris’ unconventional lifestyle and his travel here.

Chris and The Art of Nonconformity

After five quarters and $32,000 of graduate school at the University of Washington, Chris Guillebeau learned one important fact that led him to pursue an unconventional life. While reading something, question the author’s motivations and understand why someone would spend considerable effort and time on one particular topic. “On balance, I think this lesson is probably worth at least $32,000 in the long run, but if you can learn it for free and in less time, good for you,” writes Chris.

Chris decided to start writing and travel the world instead. Chris travels around 25 countries a year and writes about international travel, travel hacking, entrepreneurship and other kinds of unconventional work and most importantly about personal development and life design, stressing on how you should live your life the way you want to and not how others would expect you to. The Art of Nonconformity, Chris’ personal blog, ties up life, work, and travel through a common theme – how to do things without conforming to orthodox beliefs and help people along the way.

Chris comes to Pakistan

Chris visited Karachi in August last year and has two interesting posts on his blog about his experiences here. The first one titled “Getting to Pakistan” describes how Chris decides to land up in Karachi without a visa or a sponsor and successfully convinces the immigration officers to let him enter the country.

For forty minutes they didn’t back down. I would not be allowed into the country, and it would be my problem to figure out how to get out. After a break in the conversation (the immigration guys decided to process some other people before coming back to me), I continued to produce more pieces of paper – a copy of Newsweek that I offered to one official (he declined), proof of my journey to every country in the world, and the visa in my passport for India, Pakistan’s archrival.

“I have already been to India, and I feel sad that I have not been able to visit Pakistan yet,” I say. This is also a bit risky, but I’m running out of options. Thankfully, by this point I’ve made friends with the junior immigration team, who are subtly pleading my case with the senior immigration official.

They all laugh when I mention the visit to India, and the senior official finally says the magic words: “Sir, you are very lucky tonight.”

“Really?” I ask. “How lucky am I?”

“You are too lucky. This is my very first time to give a visa without a sponsor.”

The other post, “Conversations in Karachi”, recounts an interesting and humorous dialogue between Chris and his driver on the way back to the Karachi airport. The driver mentions that Pakistani people like Americans but not Mr. Bush in response to which Chris intimates the driver about the upcoming U.S. elections.

And here is the part of the conversation I did not expect, the one variation in the simultaneous love of America and indictment of post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy that I hear pretty much everywhere.

“Yes! The election!” the driver says, taking his hands off the wheel and looking at me in the back seat as I frantically watch the road in front of us. “You will have Mr. Obama as president!”

I laugh at this unexpected statement. Should I try to explain that Obama has not yet been elected, and there is in fact another candidate in the race? It’s probably too complicated.

“You know of Mr. Obama?” I ask.

“Of course,” he says. “Everyone here is talking about him.”

After careful deliberation, the taxi drivers of Karachi have apparently decided to endorse Obama in the American election. When I finally do ask my driver what he and his friends think of the other candidate, he says, “You mean Mrs. Clinton?”

If you’re looking for inspiration or tips on travelling, there are several other interesting posts you can read on his blog on topics like frequent flyer miles, achieving personal goals and world domination.

Good luck Mr. Guillebeau, in achieving your goals!