‘Coloniser to Colonised’: Photojournalist Danial Shah recounts his journey backpacking from London to Quetta

There is a route in Quetta famously called “London Road” because it takes travellers to London via Iran. As the trend of backpacking to Pakistan picks up once again, albeit more towards the northern side of the country, the sight of foreigners going about their business in the bazaars of Quetta is becoming more commonplace. This was not an anomaly before 9/11 — in fact, people like photojournalist Danial Shah grew up getting inspired by the backpackers traversing their city.

In an attempt to recreate that inspiration now that he has access to visas, Shah, who is pursuing his doctorate from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, decided to embark on the journey back home by road to understand the crossing of various borders.

Sharing his route from London to Quetta at an art space called Aahan Kada in Islamabad’s E-11 on Friday evening, Shah spoke about backpacking using mainly public transport and staying at hostels. He cautioned that travelling is not as easy as it is portrayed by those with stronger passports as well as socioeconomic privilege.

“This began a few years ago when I was doing a story for Herald, where I was required to travel via the left bank of the Indus Highway to understand and record the life of people living there,” he explained. “After that we decided to do a story on the migrant/refugee trail, which is basically a route taken by many who wish to enter Europe. But Covid struck so we were unable to follow up on that, and ever since I have been hoping to do something similar. I called this ‘From Coloniser to Colonised’ and hence decided to go through London and not Belgium,” he shared.

Documenting his journey on Instagram, Shah began his travel in the first week of July and reached Pakistan in the first week of September. He arrived in the UK from Belgium and then headed on to France, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Iran and then finally Pakistan.

“I have a Residence Permit from Belgium which allows me to stay out of the country for a total of two months so I only had that time to travel home, and I had to account for any delays owing to my passport or unforeseen circumstances.

“Mobility is very easy in Europe — you can travel to three countries in a matter of hours or days on trains because of how porous the borders are and the passports they carry. In our case, we need to be prepared for anything and everything so bank statements, travel history, degrees, police statements — one needs to have it all or be sent [back] without a visa, which sends your time, effort and money down the drain,” he said.

Shah narrated that given that he had a Belgian residence permit, travelling through the EU was convenient and no one checked his passport or demanded any documentation. However, once he crossed Croatia to enter Serbia, he faced the dreaded interrogation room.

“I was picked out from many others on the bus and taken to the interrogation room. I had all the required legal documents but till they were verified, I was strip-searched and my backpack was also thoroughly checked as if they were waiting to find something,” he recounted.

He faced similar situations while exiting Albania, which Shah has marked on his map as border humiliation in red. Given that Greece is also part of the EU, one would expect that it would be fairly easy to get to Turkey from there, but it was not.

Shah was on the island of Samos from where you can literally see Turkey across the water. “Those who have the privilege can travel to Turkey for lunch and return to Greece because the journey is about just 45 minutes. I went to the same tour company to board the ride and was told that I would have to fly instead because ‘some’ nationalities (Pakistanis and Egyptians) were barred. I persisted calmly, and was finally given the ticket.

“A Greek friend of mine felt angered at the treatment meted out to me and I told him how anger was also a great privilege at these points, because if I dared to show any frustration or anger, chances were I would be put behind bars just because of where I came from,” he shared.

The photojournalist added that the island hosts refugee camps where refugees are allowed to leave the camp once a week. “At the cafe where I could see other people enjoying their drinks and food, a Greek woman who worked there told me I was the first non-refugee Pakistani she had met.”

Once he reached Turkey, the process was smooth again and after spending a few days in the country, he headed to Iran where he spent 17 days exploring 11 cities before reaching the Pakistan-Iran border.

“In Isfahan, I had a wonderful time and I realised that women felt at ease, so much so that when I asked for directions at a restaurant, the women who owned the place offered to drop me and also show me around. This was all well past midnight and families were out having a merry time,” he shared.

Instead of only presenting a rosy picture of his travels, Shah was quite upfront about how while some people he met were fascinating and many places were laden with history, but that fascination or fun could easily be marred by the trauma and distress caused by border control.

Shah aims to do the journey again, perhaps by car if he is able to secure a licence, or by bicycle — he has been inspired by Instagram travel vloggers Kamran On Bike and Abrar Hasan, as well as Shahram Khosravi, the writer of ‘Illegal’ Traveller.