’93年10月、大陸を西から東へ向かっていた僕は、イランとパキスタンの国境で一人の青年と知り合った。
イランは厳格なイスラム教の国だが、出国はトルコからの入国時よりずっと簡単だった。どこの国の人だろうモンゴル系の顔のイスラム教徒の家族も一緒だった。東洋に一歩近づいたようだ。僕のほかにもう一人バックパッカーがいて、英語で話しかけてきた。彼はマレーシア人のロニーで、パキスタンの大都市カラチで医学生をしている。彼は休みを利用してイランとトルコを旅行し、パキスタンに帰ってきたところだ。不思議とうまが合うヤツで、予定外だったが一緒にカラチに行くことにする。国境からクエッタまで砂漠の中をバスで16時間、ホテルで仮眠して更に15時間以上のカラチへの道のり。途中こんな事があった。同じ道で追突事故があり、バスが負傷者を何十キロも先の町の病院まで運ぶことになった。医学生のロニーが懸命に手当にかかっている姿は頼もしかった。
カラチは人口600万人のパキスタン一の大都会。近代的なイランとかなり違う。ど派手なバスとリキシャーの走りまくる道路は正に混沌（カオス）で、人の熱気があふれる。それに10月といえどかなり暑い。ロニーについて彼の学生寮へ行った。彼を迎える友人達。ルームメートはマレーシア人とネパール人、仲良しのトルコ人やイラン人も遊びに来る。会話は基本的に英語（授業も英語らしい）。僕は皆に紹介され難無く受け入れられた。寮には他にも色々な国のやつがいるが欧米人はいない。日本人もいない。やはりイスラム教の者のみということか。それでも北アフリカから西アジア、東南アジアにまでいたる国々の人間がひとつ屋根の下に住んでいる。
マレーシアはパキスタンに大きな援助をしているらしく、マレーシア人街もある。ロニーの友人達に会い、マレーシア料理を食べた。マレーシアのことは何も知らなかった僕にはいい経験になった。それに驚いたのはロニーの持っている音楽カセットだ。僕の趣味とほぼ同じだったのだ。僕はうれしくなり、何本も聞かせてもらった。国は違っても、こうも話の解るやつに出会うとは。しかもここはお互いの国からも離れた地である。アジアの他国の人々のことを我々は知らな過ぎるのだろう。ここで僕は飾らない姿の国際交流の場を体験した。
数日後、僕はロニーに見送られカラチを後にした。モヘンジョ・ダロの遺跡へ。しかし僕には遺跡や風景よりも、いい人間にめぐり会えたことが旅の財産だと思っている。先日ロニーから、中国のカシュガルを旅行中のハガキが来た。いずれ再会することがあるかも知れない。

It was October, 1993. I was travelling the continent from west to east. In the middle of the travel, I met this young man at the border between Iran and Pakistan.

Iran is a strict Islam country, but the departure was much easier than the entry from Turkey. On departure, there was a Muslim family. I was wondering where they came from, because they looked Mongolian. I felt that I was getting close to the East. There was one other backpacker than me, and he started talking to me. He was Malaysian, whose name is Rony. He was a medical student studying in Karachi, a big city in Pakistan. He was coming back to Pakistan from the trip to Iran and Turkey during his vacation. We hit it off very well, so, although it was not my original plan, I decided to go to Karachi. It took 16 hours of driving through desert from the border to Quetta by bus, and another 15 hours to Karachi after staying at a hotel one night. On the way, we ran into an accident, and our bus happened to take the injured to a hospital, which was located very far away. Rony, as a medical student, took care of the injured, and when he was doing that, he looked reliable.

Karachi is the biggest city in Pakistan, whose population is 6 million. It looks a lot different from the modernized Iran. The street is busy with flashy color buses and rikishas, creating a chaos, and it was full of peopleﾕs energy. It was October, but it was still hot. I followed Rony to his dormitory. There were his friends waiting for him. His roommates were Malaysian and Nepalese. A Turk and an Iranian who are good friends with Rony came to his room. All of them talked to each other in English in general. (Classes were even taught in English, they said.) I was introduced to everybody, and welcome. There were many people from different countries in the dormitory except for Europe, America and Japan. I thought there were probably only Muslims. Even so, all kinds of people from North Africa, West Asia to Northeast Asia were living together.

It seemed like Malaysia was a big supporter to Pakistan, and there were Malaysian towns. I met Ronyﾕs friends, and had Malaysian food. Since I did not know anything about Malaysia, it was a very good experience for me. One thing which surprised me was Ronyﾕs taste for music. It was almost the same as mine. This made me happy, and I listened to a lot of Ronyﾕs tapes. Though we were both from different countries, we shared a lot in common. I felt we, Japanese were too ignorant about the people from other counties in Asia. I experienced an international cultural exchange in a very down to earth way.

After a couple days, I said good-bye to Rony and left Karachi to Mohenjo-daro. After all, I believe, not seeing historical sites or sceneries but meeting all these nice people was the true asset from my trip. Rony sent me a postcard from Kashugal in China the other day. We might see each other sometime in the future.

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