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Foreigners' trip to Pakistan - 2011

Enforces my belief in the Hindu Caste System - these people are clearly only good enough for touristing and not for doing any important stuff such as being able to think for themselves.

E.g they say:
"Unfortunately it's a society terribly oppressive to women - there are very few women on the streets compared to men..."

Of course they can't be bothered to think 'alternatively' if you will, such as:

. This society treats women like princesses so they don't have to go out in the sun and the dust i.e. this society is 'terribly oppressive' to men

. This society has different walkways for men and women (as in the Maghreb - low ones for men and elevated ones for women)

. In this society has men as labourers and women at higher posts so they're not milling about like worker ants

. This society has no women and men reproduce among themselves:)

. All the women are on strike today

etc
etc

My advice to the couple: walk the earth, don't talk about it.
 
Pakistan Zindabad- The Lahore Chapter:

January 16, 2011:

Pakistan Zindabad!! Long live Pakistan!! The first words I learned in Urdu upon crossing the border at Wagah. "Asallam alaikum and welcome to Pakistan! You are a very brave man. You aren't scared?" a smiling man greeted me as I walked my first few steps on Pakistani soil. "I'm here right? Not scared, just excited to be here" I replied back. I was ready for whatever Pakistan had in store for me, which ended up being more exciting experiences than I could ever imagine.

The bus dropped me off somewhere in Lahore's noisy, chaotic downtown after asking several locals and finally finding sometime that could speak a bit of English help translate, I had a cab driver drop me off at Regale Chowk, where unknowingly I would spend the next ten days. Although I had no real travel itinerary for my time in Pakistan, my rough estimate of three to five days in Punjab's cultural capital proved not to be sufficient enough and I ended up staying much longer and had many unforgettable experiences.

I made my home the Regale Internet Inn and talked to Malik, the owner, for quite some time and enjoyed his fascinating stories. Malik is
Praying at Thar Thar Thar Bhar Mosque in Front of a Camera For a Pakistani Documentarya very interesting man who is quite well known in Lahore and around Pakistan. A former journalist for a left winged newspaper called "Revolution" opened Pakistan's first internet cafe after quitting his newspaper writing as a result of several controversial articles which forced him into hiding in different mosques around Pakistan for ten years because he feared for his life. "Even my own family wouldn't let me stay with them due to the potential danger it would bring" he explained. Anyway, during this time he and his friend wrote books under false names in order to make ends meet. "The only thing I could do to make money back then was write" he continued. After a while his internet cafe developed into a guesthouse and was Pakistan's first guesthouse open to foreign travelers. Malik, also a self-regarded expert palm reader, told me that I would be very successful due to my intellect, will write a book and will become very famous, especially after I die. Also, I will marry a rich woman and must be careful not to take too many risks like riding motorcycles and traveling on top of buses etc. He also mentioned I have very good luck
Festival
Sufi Festival and should buy a lottery ticket in the near future. Malik also claims to have picked out a murderer who escaped his home country in Europe and fled to Pakistan just by examining the man's hand at a distance for a few minutes. Later the man confessed to Malik that he was on the run for homicide.

My first night in Lahore I went to "food street" only a thirty minute walk from my guesthouse. I conversed for a bit with a university physics lecturer with a very serious demeanor who could not understand why I would want to visit Pakistan with all the negative media and press coverage in the western world. After explaining to him the draw of his home country from a westerner's perspective and all of my very positive experiences with Pakistani people throughout my life we parted ways. After he excused himself and our conversation came to a halt, two more men approached me and offered to take me to a sweet shop for dessert and chai. They gave me their phone number and offered to take me around on their motorcycle on their day off from work that weekend. "Inshallah we will meet
Pray for the Cameraagain" they said as they took off on their bike.

Power cuts are the norm until ten in the evening in Lahore so my next task was to find my way home in the dark in the city I had just arrived at a few hours earlier. I stumbled upon a dark alley that vaguely resembled the one where I was staying and heard dark figures in the distance mention the word "guesthouse." "Bingo" I had found my way again. Now I was hearing a conversation in a different tongue than before "너무 춥네!" one of the women said. "날씨 춥지말고 지금 한국에서 매섭게춥죠" I replied as we were going up stairs together now. We entered the room of a different guesthouse from the one I was staying at but now I was sitting in a candlelit room with three Korean women in their 50s who looked very shaken up and panic stricken. "You speak Korean!" they exclaimed with a surprised look on their face. They explained to me that they were on a city bus earlier in Lahore when some political demonstrations turned violent, rocks were thrown and a stray one hit the bus they were on, shattering
Weapons for Salea window and cutting one of the woman's hands. The women were trying to explain what happened earlier to the guesthouse owner but they were having a hard time with English so I translated back and forth for them. "Tell him we need a cheap bed for tonight, very, very cheap" they said. I gave them an apple that was in a bag with the name of the corner store I shop at in Seoul. "Have an apple from Korea" I told them and they looked very surprised to say the least. Anyway we talked for quite a bit and the owner tried his best sales pitch for me to leave the place where I was staying and make the switch to his guesthouse to no avail.

After returning to my guesthouse, I met Mohamed, a Palestinian college student who has been studying pharmacy in Lahore for three years. We started talking for a long time over tea and he told he so many stories about his life in Lahore. He said he thinks it is the craziest city he has ever been to. Anything goes, he was robbed at gunpoint and got into numerous fights, one time with
Beautiful Mosque in Lahorea guy that had a sword- fighting up to thirty people at once. I remember the first day we were walking around together and he pointed out a building where there was a suicide bombing several years back. "That one over there?" I attempted to confirm by pointing my finger in the direction of the building. "Don't point! They might be suspicious of you" he said referring to the hoards of military and police on alert behind sand bags and barbed wire on the streets of Lahore. Anyway, I was really lucky to meet such a great guy my first night in Pakistan. He took me around to many places I probably would have never found on my own and helped me buy a Shalwar Kameez (Pakistani traditional clothes- always better to blend in as much as possible) as we hung out quite a bit and he showed me around Lahore while he was on vacation from school.

Overall, Lahore provided endless culture and history for anyone with a thirst or curiosity for travel and excitement. Our guesthouse owner Malik once advised many of Pakistan's famous musical talents to take on some more innovative marketing strategies that helped put
Old Lahorethem on the map. As a result, many of these now world renowned musicians help fill Malik in on any performances happening in the area and go out of their way to see to it that Malik's guests get a unique, full on in your face Pakistani musical experience. In particular, sufism, a mystical version of Islam that involves passionate singing and dancing as a result of being fully influenced by the almighty power of Allah. We went to several mosques where there were amazing musical performances (see videos) in a very unique atmosphere.

Also, the people of Lahore were always very kind and hospitable as I ate several meals for free in the old city. Restaurant owners and street food vendors would refuse my money and say that I was "their guest" as they loaded my plate with foods and refilled my cup of chai. Cheers to Pakistani hospitality.

Sufi Festival

One of my most unforgettable experiences in Pakistan was going to Lahore's Sufi Festival. By far the craziest, most energetic festival I have ever seen- music, lights, street dancing, food- it was all there. Upon entering Istanbul Chowk where the streets were blocked off, there were crowds of people waiting to bypass numerous security checks and lines to enter the Tha Tha Thar Bhar mosque to watch Qaawali music. It was pretty chaotic as people were pushing and holding each other in line to enter the mosque. I tried talking to one of the guards for a bit and practice the very minute amount of Urdu I could speak. He was smiling because I was wearing a Shalwar Kameez and liked that I was trying to learn a bit of the local language. "How can we get into the mosque?" I asked. "Go to the end of the line" he pointed to the back of the line that extended beyond my field of vision. We made our way to the back and waited for several minutes with all the people pushing and holding on to each other in order to secure their position in the queue. After a few minutes of trying not to fall and lose my balance the guard came to find us "come with me, I will have someone escort you into the mosque so you don't have to wait in line," he said. He called another large, AK-47 armed guard who
5star hotel in Lahore=Fantasy Landled us past the endless queues of people and took us into the beautifully lit mosque. The guard took us into the main area where we were given beautiful flower necklaces-mine must have been made of at least three hundred flowers all stringed together. We spent the night dancing in the streets and listening to amazing music. It was all good fun until some kids started messing with one of the police officers, which resulted in wild night stick swinging and crowds scattering in order to avoid being caned.

As we hit the streets all night long crowds of Punjabi's circled around us and took us around different places to dance and take pictures with there friends and family. Although I had an amazing time at the festival, now I feel what feels like to be a movie star and I have to admit I was pretty exhausted by the end of the night.

Overall, I had a great time the first night at the festival but felt like it was time to move on and go to Peshawar. The festival would carry on for a few days thereafter but I thought a street party put on by

Electronics Streetone of the more controversial Muslim groups combined with the huge crowds of people could be a potentially dangerous scenario and perhaps a perfect opportunity for a suicide bomber to appear on the scenes. My intuition and gut feeling proved correct as I returned to Lahore to sleep for the night over a week later on my way back to India. "There was a suicide bombing at the Sufi Festival and thirty people were killed the evening after you left, so they ended the festivities early" I heard when I returned back to Lahore. Always follow your gut feeling.

Pakistan Zindabad- The Lahore Chapter
 
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To read the blog:

at work in Pakistan - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog
 
My last entry was a long time ago... but I will make it better for sure ;-)

Whats happened the last week: after I got used to the climate in Pakistan I went out in Lahore to make some sight seen. That was pretty scary to be honest. No, I dont mean the Riksharide to the city. (We nearly hid about 4 different people who wanted to cross the street, when he saw my face in the mirrow he just shouted: "Pakistan, normal")
When you walking on the street as a western you will have so many eyes on every step you ll make.
So after a time, feeling like a filmstar its starts that youre getting used to that attention.
But that doesnt make it easier if you want to make some photos of some people walking through the streets.

Because youll have at least 5 other people watching on your camera screen.

Pakistanis are special!
You cant compare them with indians. First of all: Ive never met so many people who are so into politics. Most of the people I met (I dont speak Urdu- so only people who speak english - probably more educated people) knew everything about first and second world war. That means they knew the date when Germany attacks Poland, about the repression payments after the first WW..... So that is the part which is far away. But they have so much knowledge about politics in whole asia. (including for example the civil war in Cambodia all dates of indian-pakistan wars ...) When I visited a bookshop I realized why... All english books have been about poltics. So the Balochistan conflict, middle east, WW II... I just wanted to have a smoothly love story... There wasnt- in 3 different stores!!!

Bus trips are perfect for longer and deeper conversations. Dont expect you will meet a lot of woman. There are always much more men in the buses

So you just sit down and nearly half of the bus is empty. Than a guy my age came in and sit down next to me. (like I said half of the bus was empty)
Buses only start when they are full- so you can be lucky and wait only 30 minutes

(or... one time I was waiting one hour (there was no aircondition) after that an old man started shouting to the busdriver and all other people have done the same. So finally we drove away but after 10 minutes the bus stoped again. I allready gave the busdriver some extra money... I went out and saw the flat tire.)

So than the during the first minutes sitting next to each other he will start the conversation and after a while it will change very fast to topics like family, religion , afghanistan, girlfriend, plans for live...

Most of my neighbours in the buses (I allready had 7 busrides- each 3 hours) had a big family with at least 3 brother and 2 sister. They were: cricket player and student for taxes, student for media design, student for islamic religion, employee as telecommunication (his mobile was ringing every 10minutes ) and some more..

An european cant imagine the meaning of religion in their lives. The Prophet is more than the own father. When they speak about him you can hear the warm feelings for him. They do love their religion. I think its the biggest thing in their live.

And Of course they asked me: why do you paint our Prophet in facebook? They feel really hurted. I mostly explain in europe most people go once a year in the church. And than you can see how their faces change in a big questioning mark. They just cant understand that. - like I said most of them university students

All of them didnt have sex yet. The one had a girlfriend but it didnt came to that point yet. First of all: they have to marry first. And You wont belive but a lot of them said that if they would have sex and wouldnt marry- the girl would be lost. And of course you dont want to bring the girl in trouble you actually like so much. She would be used... They really had a big compassion with the girl you could hear that.

So one just told me: better he would go to a prostitute. He wouldnt mess up the live of a normal girl and he even told me proudly the price -300rupies (1Euro=100rupies) . But most of them didnt want to have sex in front of their marriage

In average you can earn in pakistan between 70Euro- 200 Euro a month. If you have a income of 500Euro your wife dont have to work anymore because she wouldnt gat more than 100 anyway.

The minimum wage is 30Euro a month. I met a guy my age from Afgahnistan he got 70 per month- he told me proud.

The other backpacker and me agree that there are many people who work only for shelter and food. Just outside of the hotel is a little cafe and snack bar. There are two guys 12 years old. I dont belive that the have school holidays right now- I allready stay here 7 days. and you can see him 7 am and you can also see him 9pm... Im not sure he is getting paid for extra hours very well... But better than to beggar in the streets.

In India you will see much more of those kids to compare with pakistan. ALso I havent seen big slums here.

I will tell you about an incredible rich pakistani I met in an other entry.

I was seriously sick the last 3 days. Of course the stomach. I couldnt eat anymore...

I took antibiotics and yesterday it starts to get a better. Was eating allready 6 slices of bread during the day.

Inshallah everything will be good in a few days. ;-)

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inshallah - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog
 
well, you can still see the guns in these pics, just defines the culture here, but people are friendly, the landscape is beautiful and my friend, if you have a hard time seeing ladies without burqas in pakistan, you should jst go to jinnah super or blue area !!!,,,,or serena hotel or defence!
 
Currently , all tourist should be careful going to remote areas by themselves and only tour city with locals
 
Grateful To Have Lived in Pakistan:

July 1, 2011

By: Seana Smith

How lucky are we all to live in Australia? This post was inspired by watching the SBS series ‘Go Back To Where You Came From.’ I’m very sympathetic to people who want to come to Australia for a better life. Hello? That’s why I came here, isn’t it? I’m even more sympathetic to people who have fled for their lives.

I was fortunate to be born in the west and to find it easy to emigrate here, and now I have two highly prized passports. Nothing clever or wise about it, just a happy accident of birth. Born very, very white in very white Scotland. Very lucky and I don’t take it for granted.

My little family came to Australia, just Intn’l Man of Mystery, first son and myself, via a year in Karachi, Pakistan. We lived a life of expat luxury, of course. I thought I had travelled before, I HAD travelled before, I’d been to Kenya, South-East Asia and even Ghana… but South Asia is totally different.

Living in a country is different too, and having a 3 month old baby makes everything different. So my emotional reactions to all that I saw was much stronger. I’ll never forget those beggar babies and the people who have absolutely NO rights at all, no laws to really protect them.

Here are some of the photos I took there, a little of what we saw.

I was hugely struck and distraught by ‘Go Back To Where You Came From.’ How can people be so unkind to fellow human beings? Can’t they put themselves in the same position?

Don’t they know that ‘there but for the grace of God go I?’ We’ve all got so much to be grateful for here in Oz.

Grateful To Have Lived in Pakistan

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Pakistan should take pride in its pre-Islamic history before Indians steal it from them.
 
^How so typically, typically Indian!

You guys always live DOWN to expectations!

I am not the one who wrote about 3 lions and how nosterdamous predicted the state with 3 lions will go down.

You are the one who referred above about a country whose symbol has 4 lions.

Talk about expectations.

---------- Post added at 02:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:39 PM ----------

You want me to start posting of all the visitors & tourists being killed in India, & foreigners getting raped in Goa & all over India?

The topic is not about how friendly Indians are. Its about how friendly Pakistani's are.

I never said we are a tourist heaven.

GB
 
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