Meet Will Hatton: The 'Broke Backpacker' promoting tourism in Pakistan
For Hatton Pakistan is not what is seen on Facebook, but an incredibly beautiful country with amazing people. Photo: Will Hatton
By Abdullah Zafar
2017 has been a lucky year for Pakistan.
Whether it is the return of international cricket, visit by Ronaldinho and friends, or a ‘gora’ comedian proving the image of the country projected in the western world erroneous, Pakistanis have witnessed it all in. But there’s more.
Meet Will Hatton.
Hatton, a United Kingdom based traveller – popularly known as ‘The Broke Backpacker’ is currently on a four-year long road journey to Papua New Guinea via Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bhutan. Led by Will Hatton, a group of 11 foreigners from around the world visited Pakistan in September, returning just last week.
Having started travelling at the age of 19, Hatton is an entrepreneur and adventurer.
According to Hatton, he is passionate about real adventures, from freezing peaks and steaming jungles to crashing waves and raging rivers.
“If it gets my heart pumping and my blood racing, I’m in.”
Popularly known as ‘The Broke Backpacker’, Hatton is currently on a four-year long road journey to Papua New Guinea via Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bhutan.Photo: Will Hatton
Talking to Dunya News about ‘The Broke Backpacker’ website, Hatton explained how he aims to share his experiences travelling around the world over the last decade.
“My first country 10 years ago was India and I had no money whatsoever. I was hitchhiking everywhere, sleeping rough, and was living like a homeless person. That’s where it all began.”
When asked about how travelling had affected his personal life, Hatton said that it had been really hard at times. ““Travelling has very much affected my personal life but pretty much my whole life is on the road,” says Hatton.Travelling has very much affected my personal life but pretty much my whole life is on the road,” he said.
But he was quick to add that all of it was worth the learning experience, especially the part where he got to acquaint with people. Hatton has befriended people from Turkey, Georgia, and Thailand while proudly claiming that most of his closest friends were actually Pakistanis. His wife is an Iranian.
“Travelling has very much affected my personal life but pretty much my whole life is on the road,” says Hatton. Photo: Will Hatton
Speaking about his trip to Pakistan, Hatton said that it was his third time in the country since his first visit in March 2016.
“When I visited Pakistan for the first time, spending six weeks here I went to India. I was supposed to go to Burma later but I came back to Pakistan for another six weeks and I absolutely loved it even more,” he said.
“After a six-month break, I decided to visit Pakistan again. I had fallen in love with the country, and this time I was completely broke so I decided to bring a group of foreigners making use of my online business. I know Pakistan. My Instagram followers had been saying how they loved Pakistan so I set up an online store and to my surprise it was all sold-out in five days,” Hatton added.
Hatton has travelled to many places that are considered ‘dangerous’ including Venezuela – probably the ‘most dangerous place that he has been to’. So when he received travel warnings regarding his decision to travel to Pakistan, he did what adventurers usually do – ignore.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in Palestine, Israel, Iran and even parts of Myanmar back in the day. You just got to ignore the warnings and not fear what might come your way,” he said. “Before I came to Pakistan I called my friend Masud and asked if Pakistan was safe. He said: ‘Of course man, of course it’s safe,’ so I said to myself that if Masud says Pakistan is safe, Pakistan is safe!”
“After a six-month break, I decided to visit Pakistan again. I had fallen in love with the country.” Photo: Will Hatton
Having spent a year and half in India during his early years of travelling, Hatton said that the trip to India had prepared him for Pakistan. But there was still ‘some shock’.
“I had heard how it (Pakistan) was a dangerous place and people in India had said to me that Pakistan has ‘terror issues’, that obviously... obviously it hasn’t. It just took me one week to realise that it was ridiculous,” he said.
“Funnily enough, on our tour that we’ve just done, most of our participants were women and all of them have said that Pakistan has been the country where they’ve felt the safest, especially because of its people who are so friendly,” said Hatton.
But there’s another thing Hatton felt Pakistan was best for – ‘couch-surfing’, whereon you stay as a guest at someone s home, hosting travellers, and meeting other members.
“People inviting you over to their houses, like my friend Muhammad from Lahore whom I had never met but I stayed at his place for over a week. I have got a hundred more stories like that from Pakistan, about Pakistanis showing me around, paying for everything – they won’t even let me buy a single glass of water,” he said.
"I have got a hundreds of stories to tell from Pakistan, about Pakistanis showing me around, paying for everything.” Photo: Will Hatton
Accompanied by Canadians, Americans, British and Scottish, Hatton said everybody was amazed to see how beautiful Pakistan was and how loving Pakistanis were.
“Every day we used to talk about our best part of the day and our worst part of the day. The worst part of the day for everyone, every day was the cold showers,” Hatton shared amusingly. “But the high point was that somebody every day would’ve had this great interactive experience with someone who would’ve made them feel so welcome.”
His trip had been incredible generally, but specifically for two reasons. “First being all the money that I’ve made here, and second, we were able to visit this really amazing family from Ghulkin with whom I spent a lot of time in my previous trips. We brought tourists to them and tourist dollars to this very poor village up in Hunza. It was great that we took tourist money and directed it where it needs to go.”
Though despite the wonderful memories Hatton takes back with him, there’s one advice he has for Pakistanis. “There’s only one thing that you can do to make tourists experience in Pakistan better: Do not litter. It gives Pakistan a bad reputation. It’s the reputation that India has – of a country that has litter everywhere, and you do not want to be seen with.”
For Hatton, what he wants to accomplish in life is telling people about countries they are unsure of, and to show to the world these countries in a different, more realistic light, away from politics.
“Pakistan is not what we see on Facebook, but Pakistan is an incredibly beautiful country with amazing people,” Hatton said. “All these people are going to go back and tell a hundred people that Pakistan is a great country, and if ten of them come, they’ll tell another hundred people and I’m pretty sure that it will change the perception of Pakistan.”
“I’d love to write ’10 reasons why you want to travel to Pakistan’ – the people, the food, the mountains and what not, or write a story about my time that I spent living with my Pakistani family in Ghulkin which is also one of the many reasons that I am back,” he said.
“To me the Pakistani mountains are the most beautiful that I have ever seen." Photo: Will Hatton
Hatton feels very committed in financially assisting them with the guest house they are trying to build, and to bring in tourism.
“To me the Pakistani mountains are the most beautiful that I have ever seen, and the hospitality here is the best in the world. I love this country and I’ll be back at least twice next year,” he added.
