Sons living abroad rush back home, but you have chosen the slowest possible way to return!” exclaimed Kamran Ali’s mother when he first told her of his plans to cycle from Germany to Pakistan.
Kamran Ali, popularly known as ‘Kamran on Bike
’ on social media platforms, began his journey in 2011 but had to cut it short after a few months after his mother fell ill.
He restarted his journey in 2015 from where he last left off: Sivas, Turkey. The trip might have taken four years to realise, but the actual journey on the bicycle only took about six months, through 28 countries and a whopping 10,000kms.
Travelling can be dangerously addictive. After cycling through Europe and Asia he has, since sometime in 2016, been pedalling his way around the continent of South America. He started with a group of cyclists from different parts of the world and is now cycling solo.
From his travels through Bolivia, Kamran Ali dispatches his first set of photos: those of the fighting Cholitas.
Discriminated and oppressed for centuries by other Bolivians, the Cholo women — Cholos or Cholitas — are a group of indigenous Aymara women who ‘avenge’ themselves by wrestling in a classist and patriarchal society to ‘reclaim’ respect that has always been denied to them.
They fight twice a week in El Alto in front of hundreds of spectators. El Alto is roughly 4,000 meters above sea level and overlooks the capital city of La Paz. Locals pay around one dollar to attend the match, whereas the fee for foreigners is 10 times higher but includes ‘VIP treatment’.
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