Foreigners' trip to Pakistan - 2011

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I would suggest the mods here to make a sticky thread out of this:

Lahore, Pakistan
Thursday, June 2, 2011

From: Dannyandsarah

Pakistani's are some of the friendliest people!:

We're just about to hop on a bus from Lahore up to 'Pindi (Rawalpindi), and in the 20 hours we've been here we've met many friendly people. The person photocopying our passports wouldn't accept money, and even gave us a pen for free. People stop us and offer tea or chai, everyone wants to shake my hand, and Sarah even had people with a flower stand stop her to give her flowers for free! Sarah isn't too into the head scarf and traditional shirt it's best for her to wear, as expected, but overall people are very respectful, friendly, and happy to help us or just say hello as we pass.

The biggest discomfort here is the very different customs. Unfortunately it's a society terribly oppressive to women - there are very few women on the streets compared to men, some who are out are totally covered or at minimum wearing a head scarf over the crown of their head as Sarah is wearing, and everyone addresses me instead of Sarah - to the point that they will ask me a question about her such as her profession. And this of course is just the very surface level things which are an indicator for much deeper things.

It feels very different here than in India - much cleaner, more "developed" for the most part, as in wide streets, decorative trees, terribly large ads and billboards, and "nicer" cars on the roads. English is also much less common here, and in a lot of ways it feels like China did for us 6 months ago - the language is hard, we have NO idea what is going on, and the local customs are much different than at home so we are trying hard not to be offensive. So far we are just in one of the most major cities, so I expect things to change a lot once we get to explore further.

Pakistani's are some of the friendliest people! - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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Photos from 'Pindi, Pakistan:

Saturday, June 4, 2011:

From: Dannyandsarah

Here's a quick photo post before we head up north on an 18 hour bus through the mountains!


We spent today touring through Islamabad with our taxi driver / tour guide Ali. We didn't get to see much, but the highlight was a National Monument and political history museum in Islamabad. I can't really explain how friendly people have been to us here - it's almost as if everyone is trying extra hard to overcome the negative international perception of their country with hospitality, but it really is genuine and it really is very different than someone may think after watching a western newscast. The problems along the western border with Afghanistan and small areas like Waziristan in the North West are something everyone is trying hard to overcome. There are many complex issues - the majority of people are very welcoming to foreigners, but with small areas under Taliban influence, many internal groups struggling for power in the tribal areas, and the US drone attacks killing many civilians and feeding the radicalization of a small group of people, it all seems to overshadow all the great things about the people and country and we only hear the negative in the west.

Tonight we catch our bus at 10pm, and unfortunately we'll miss quite a chunk of the KKH highway as we drive in the dark for 7 hours, but we'll still get to see the majority of the deep mountain valleys during the day on the way to Gilgit deep in the mountains. One place we will pass we're told has a 5km vertical difference between the deep gorge beside the road and the immense vertical face of the mountain on the other side. I sure hope it's light when we get there!

Here are some photos from our experience in Pakistan so far - leaving from Amritsar in crowded noisey India, and crossing the border into Pakistan through Lahore and up to 'Pindi / Islamabad.

Photos from 'Pindi, Pakistan. - Rawalpindi, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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500km in 24 hours. Up the KKH by bus:

Ah yes, the KKH (Karakorum Highway) that I've been dreaming of since we started talking about a big bike trip, and here we are! Seeing a place in photos is one thing, but actually being here is a whole different experience. The mountains here are some of the most inhospitable looking things you can imagine. Enormous piles of crumbling rock and rubble empty of all greenery and anything living. No trees, no berry bushes, no animals, not even grass clinging to the cliff sides.

I’m not sure what type of climate I expected to find here after looking at the photos from home but I should have been able to guess it. Hot, dry and harsh. If anything could live here, then it would be doing it, right? The interesting thing though, is that anywhere there is water everything jumps to life in a big way. After miles of nothing but dead brown rock, there will sometimes be little oasis’s of the most vibrant green you can imagine - beautiful fruit and nut orchards, forests thick with irrigated trees, and terraced fields where the locals are growing crops or grazing animals.

We took a bus into the mountains from 'Pindi up to Gilgit, the capital of the region far in the north of Pakistan and about 400km into the 1200km long KKH. It was supposed to be a 12 – 18 hour ride up the bumpy but beautiful KKH. It took 24! 24 torturous hours bumping along in the upright seats with no chance to sleep, staring out the windows at the mountains kicking ourselves for not being on our bikes instead. Likely it would have been totally fine to bike it, but the road goes through some less than friendly areas and we didn’t like the idea of being alone on the roads and camping somewhere obvious come night time. Probably would have been fine, but oh well here we are now with much more beautiful areas to see still. In Gilgit we spent our time building up the bikes, sorting out equipment that's been in storage the last couple months, and sampling the Pakistani food. We also lucked out and got to see the final Polo match just down the street from our guesthouse.

Polo is a sport played on horseback with a long narrow field with two nets at each end, and the players use sticks somewhat like hockey sticks to hit a ball one handed back and forth like in hockey, except they’re moving at full gallop and leaning off the side of the horse so they can reach! Amazing stuff. There are no referee’s, and essentially there are no rules. Want to grab the reigns of the other guys horse? No problem. Want to nearly tear his shirt off his back dragging him off his horse as you fight for the ball? Go for it! Want to hit the guy over the head with your stick for no reason at all? Well, there’s no rule against it but be ready for a beat down from everyone else if you do. It’s a tough sport played by tough men and tough horses, and we had a great time cheering it along with all the locals.

From Gilgit we had planned to start riding north towards China, but after seeing how incredible the area is we decided we’d better spend more time riding here or we’d never forgive ourselves for missing the opportunity. We decided to follow a side route to Skardu towards K2 (the second highest mountain in the world) by bus to extend the riding by a few days by riding back through the really narrow canyon, and now that we’re here we’ve decided to extend it some more by following some jeep roads deeper into the mountains toward K2 for a few days before heading back out to the KKH and on to our original plan. It’s going to be great!

It was a pretty interesting ride here from Gilgit. 7 hours with one stop, too much heat, not enough open windows, and NO fan inside, and a total of 19, yes, 19 people sardined into a little mini bus not much bigger than a suburban. I could touch my chin to my knee if I leaned forward too far, and I had only two different positions to sit in if I got uncomfortable. One was with my body wedged in place between Sarah and the wall with my foot jammed in to a little gap against the wall, and the other looked exactly the same except I would twist my ankle the other way to let the blood flow again after my foot went numb. Yes, it was that tight. Ugh. Sarah didn’t fair much better despite the shorter legs and is in need of a massage to get her body back into cooperation. I think we’ll be better off on the bikes!

We spent today doing the last of the bike tuning, buying a few days worth of food and packing up our panniers for the first time since leaving South East Asia almost 3 months ago. I’ll write a separate post with the details of our route, but for now here’s some pictures of what we’ve seen so far up the KKH.

Danny

500km in 24 hours. Up the KKH by bus. - Gilgit, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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Some Pakistani's are TOO friendly...

Monday, June 13, 2011

We're just about to roll out of Skardu for a few days ride through the narrow narrow Indus River Valley out to Gilgit and back to the KKH where we'll head north towards China and other adventures. The last 4 days were great, spent riding further out a side valley and eventually up a bumpy jeep road through some villages that have probably never seen some crazy whiteys on bikes (only the crazy whitey's going past in Jeeps on the way to climb K2).

Riding in Pakistan is how riding in rural China was - once we're spotted people stop in their tracks with a wide eyed confused look on their faces trying to figure out what the hell they're seeing. The children run out to the roads shouting hello (or making fun of us in their language we assume) and crowd around for a chance to practice their English or just see the spectacle. Some people give thumbs up or cheer us on, but for the most part they just stare in confusion for the 20 seconds it takes me to pass, and then by the time Sarah comes through they've figured it out and are eager to chat or wave hello. What's different from China is how friendly and welcoming everyone is. Almost every time we stop we are quizzed on all the details - how are you, where are you going, where are you from, what is your name, will you stop and take tea with us? It's been really interesting and I could write a lot about the people and their way of life, but we have to try and beat the heat so I'll keep this post short.

I'll let the pictures show what we saw in 230km of rural Pakistan, but here's one story of our first night camping. After passing through a little village we found a quiet area sheltered from the sun and wind in a large orchard with lots of water running and many children playing cricket in a field. Sarah was exausted (and I was pretty close!) so we decided to ask if we could camp there instead of riding on and finding a hidden spot out in the desert for the night. As could be expected, we were instantly the center of attention and had an audience of 20 wide eyed and giggling youth and 5 adults watching our every move as we setup a tent and started cooking supper. Eventually a drum came out and it turned in to a real party - clapping, dancing, and as much chatting as we could manage with a couple of adults who spoke some english. Poor Sarah just wanted to get to bed and rest, but our friends stayed well after dark and it wasn't until nearly 10pm that the crowd cleared and the men went back to their work of changing the irrigation to other parts of the orchard, working by moonlight. One of the men who should have been working stayed back - 30 year old Abdulsallam - who announced that he was staying to serve as our security guard!

We're in a plenty safe area of Pakistan and surely don't need security, but he explained that once the moon went down and the men left then the foxes would come down to eat the fallen berries..... so? I insisted in broken English that it was no problem - so he stepped up his assistance that he should stay. Wolves he said - lots of wolves around, and sometimes they take men, and with a tent as thin as ours he had to stay to guard us! Another man nearby shrugged it off as ridiculous (as I was thinking), but understanding that he wasn't going to change his mind I started thinking of compromises so we wouldn't be responsible for this super friendly guy staying up all night feeling it's his duty as our 'host'.

We made a deal. He would stand watch while the men worked until midnight while I slept, then he would wake me up and I would stand guard for my 'wife' and he would go home. We didn't sleep. He had taken my headlamp, and every two minutes he would shine it out into the dark, walk around our tent a few times about 3 feet away, dragging his feet and shining the light on us! Finally as I was about to get up and try to send him home, almost at midnight, I heard him shouting and throwing rocks into the darkness - supposedly one of the little foxes was coming down for supper, but he proudly let me know he scared it off. Okay shift change right? Thanks Abdulsallam, but you can go home now and I'll protect Sarah... Nope. He explained that he couldn't go home as it was way too far away - he was spending the night there protecting us. Ugh.

1am, and after another hour or him pacing around our tent and shining the light on us (running out my batteries!) I couldn't stand laying there listening to him anymore and decided I'd try again to get him to go home. Well, he explained, I could, but I'm afraid of the night... I offered to walk him home, I offered to ride him on my bike, I offered to stay watch all night while Sarah slept, but nothing was working. Plan B was to get him to try and rest so I could at least sleep against a tree or something in peace and quiet while I 'stood watch'. After some convincing and compromising I had him on my sleeping mat next to the tent where he had been laying down, and I was watching for wolves instead of sleeping.

2am. He did lay down for a while, but he must not have trusted the job I was doing as every once in a while he would shine his (my) light around, making sure I was still nearby and nothing was coming to eat us. Finally he got up and announced to me that he was cold. Out comes Sarah's jacket and my sleeping bag...

2:30am. A bug bit him and his arm was itchy. Ahhhhh! Out comes my bug net for his head and a sleeping bag liner he can use under my down quilt to keep the bugs out. I sat out against a tree watching the starts and guarding us against the wolves while he lay in my bed, with most of the rest of our kit. Ugh.

3am. He's cold. I try to tell him straight. Go home and sleep! No, too far, too dark, wolves, blah blah blah. I can't even convince him to lay down again and leave me alone! Just when I thought it couldn't possibly get more ridiculous, somewhere in here is where he insisted on giving me a massage for my tired biking muscles as that is the polite thing to do in Pakistan! There I stood exhausted in the middle of an orchard in Northern Pakistan in the middle of the night, not sleeping but instead watching for wolves, and this guy is going up and down my leg and arm squeezing them while I struggle with a polite way to tell him to F off...

3:30, and now I have the pot and stove out because despite wearing all our warm gear he's just getting colder, to the point of violent shivers. Eventually I find out he's had a fever for two days and is feeling too sick to eat, but yet here he is staying up all night trying to guard us! I boiled up some coffee for myself and made a hot water bottle for him to drink from and hold against himself, and then insisted that I was taking him home on my bike. I even got the bike ready and was about to put him on it, but he firmly wasn't going. One more hour, and it would be light he said, then he would go home. Fine, suit yourself. I crawled into the tent (without my sleeping stuff) to try salvaging a couple hours of sleep before it started getting hot and we had to start riding again.

4am, and finally he announced he was going home - the sky was getting light - but he wouldn't accept an escort. We dug out a light we could give him and off he went. Finally.

Some Pakistani's are TOO friendly... - Khapalu, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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Who cares about anything else? I need those sandwiches!

 

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550km Deep:

550km deep now, and only 180km from China! And all it's cost us is 2 very sore , about 7 gallons of sweat, three $85 tires (one with a big BOOM) and one cooked ipod. Luckily we had one spare tire with us (the other is floating down the Mekong River, somewhere near Vietnam by now...) and we managed to half assed patch the other two tires with the one that blew up. That will get us to a few couriered tires in Kashgar at least. As we knew, there is a lot of construction on the KKH right now and there were some pretty rough stretches where we were stuck riding on crushed rock the size of softballs that eats tires up pretty quick. We saw the same thing in China in the Mekong Valley, and all the wounds that the tires endured there are getting finished off here. Luckily the mountain scenery and people have been superb though and in my opinion it's been worth enduring the heat (Sarah might give a different answer, depending on if she's riding or not when you ask her!). Also, it seems we may be through the worst of it now, as we seem to have caught up to where they're tearing out the old surfacing and for the last bit we’ve been riding on the old asphalt.

From Skardu we spent a couple very hot days winding down the narrow canyon of the Indus River on the Skardu road, finishing the last 180km of our detour back to the KKH. We planned to take a rest day in Gilgit after 5 riding days, but by the end of day 4 we were pretty much cooked and sore and decided to stop at an expensive Pakistan Tourist Development Company (PTDC) Hotel. The riding we beautiful, with an slow 600m drop spread over the 180km and a light to medium headwind blowing up the valley and against us to cool us off. A nice perk was that it is apricot season now and we’d often find children selling them fresh off the tree from the side of the road.

Our last day back to the KKH was about 95 km all together, and it left us exhausted. We kept expecting to find a water source near the end of the day so we could camp, but it never seemed to come. Eventually we reached the barren valley of the KKH and were reassured by a local that just 4 km down an alternate road we were planning on taking anyway we’d find a creek. About 15 bumpy dusty km later we found a village just at dusk and were given enough for the night, but as we made our way through the long spread of the village we were stopped by some locals who insisted that we spend the night as their guests – no way to refuse (in the most friendly of persistent ways). Sarah will write out a full post on it tomorrow, but I’ll summarize…. Despite our exhaustion we were up until after midnight dancing, taking photos, eating a special meal they prepared for only us two, meeting about 40 family members and neighbors, etc. etc. It was soo hot in the house and we were so thirsty and tired that we gobbled down litre after litre of cold local water, fully expecting to get sick from it but knowing that it didn’t matter in the moment. Luckily we didn’t (surprisingly) get sick, and we managed to leave by about 10am despite our attempt at a 6am departure. Such friendly people we almost have to avoid them!

The next night almost ended in a similar fashion. Planning to camp, we instead decided to go to a hotel in a town that was recommended at one of the police checkpoints. When we arrived, with just an hour of light left, we found the hotel was full but a friendly (very friendly) police officer eating supper nearby insisted we stay in his home with a few family members and his 10 day old daughter. The process took a good 40 minutes, but we managed to decline his offer over tea and instead got a good nights rest in one of the eating rooms of the restaurant we were at, and I think we only hurt his feelings a little bit….

The generator keeps stalling and cutting the power to the satellite internet cafe I’m at, so I guess I’ll cut this short and let the pictures talk about the biking….

From here we may not see internet again until we are in China, so it may be as long as 10 or 14 days until we make it to Kashgar, China where we’ll have reliable communications again. Try not to worry Family! It’s a very safe last few days in Pakistan and then the roads are wide and smooth all the way to the end of the KKH in China. We’ll try to get in touch if it’s possible, but no news is good news for the next two weeks.

550km Deep. - Karimabad, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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First Impressions:

June 12, 2011

I woke up in the morning not having any idea what time it was, because my cell phone died and there were no clocks in my room. So I went downstairs to see if anyone was awake and was shocked to realize it was only 7:00am. I went back to my air conditioned room, read a book, and tried really hard to fall back asleep (which was unfortunately a fail).

I am staying at my paternal grandma's house with my dad, his brother, and his brother's wife. The maid (is that the correct term?) also stays at this house. My dad and I have our own rooms upstairs and everyone else live downstairs.

After I heard my dad leave his room, I decided to go downstairs. I had breakfast with my dad and was asked if I wanted "slice" for breakfast. I was really confused by this and my dad quickly "translated" by asking me if I wanted toast. So with my toast I had peach jam with mango tang on the side (which was actually quite delicious).

I went upstairs afterwards to take a shower and change into the new shalwar kameez (Pakistani clothes) that my grandma had bought me. The bathrooms in Pakistan are quite different than the ones in America. Thankfully I have a shower but there are no bath tubs here. (I'll upload a picture soon)! Also, in every bathroom, there is a bucket to take a shower with.

I went downstairs, had lunch with the family, and relaxed until 5:00pm at which time I went to visit my maternal grandparents. They live about 20 minutes from my paternal grandma's house but the drive over was insane! The driving here is crazy and there is no way I could manage to learn how to drive here. The roads are shared between cars, trucks, motorcycles, bikes, and your everyday donkey. But the thing that shocks me the most is the family (not one person) on a single bike. I have multiple times seen an entire family of 5 on one motorbike or bike! The father is driving the bike, with one of his kids in the front, his wife at the end, and two kids in between

Going to my grandma's house was really nice, because it was the house my mother lived in. The second I came in, my grandpa gave me the grand tour around the house and showed me my mother's old belongings. He showed me the upstairs room that will be mine when I stay over, but made it clear that it was my older sister's room (because she is the first born grandchild and fortunately for her, everyone's favorite) and I would need to ask permission before staying there! I called her then and she was kind enough to grant me permission! My father and I stayed there for a bit before going back.

I was extremely exhausted when I got back and the lack of sleep was catching up to me. I had dinner with family, afterwards sat in the living room to watch some (boring) TV, and while watching TV, I shared some American candies (Crunch and Reeses) with the family. I went upstairs, finished reading a book that I started on the plane, and quickly fell asleep.

First Impressions of Pakistan
- Beautiful Architecture!
- I will never get used to maids / servants! There are too people that come to clean in the morning, and then there is a girl younger than me that is the maid (so to speak). It's like having a waitress for your every meal! When I first go here, she carried my bags upstairs for me and bought me water .... it was weird.
- It might be because I just got here but the lifestyle does seem a little slower

My room!
. At home, we're constantly rushing around but I don't feel like the same is the case here.
- Food is delicious! Especially the mangos!
- Driving. Is. Insane. (Enough said).
-( I haven't been out much yet, but as soon as I have, I'll update this section!)

(I can tell, I'll be spending a lot of time reading! In this section, I'll update the reader on my lastest novel):

Book: "Confessions of a Shopaholic" by Sophie Kinsella
Before going on the plane, my friend bought this book over for me to keep me busy. It was a quick read and entertaining. But it did put me in the shopping mood! Good thing I'll be heading to the market place soon! : )

First Impressions - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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Experiencing Lahore:

June 15, 2011

The last 5 days in Lahore haven't been too eventful, because I'm still extremely jet lagged and I'm not used to the heat. But today, I was able to finally get a good nights rest and decided to go run some errands with my dad. On his way to work, my uncle dropped us off at the city center and we completely our errands a lot faster than expected. Across the street from where we were was the Lahore Zoo! Even though it was really hot outside, we decided to take a spontaneous day.

The entrance to the zoo only cost 15 rupees which is a LOT cheaper than the Bronx zoo in New York City! The zoo was really well maintained and a lot of fun. We same lions, elephants, giraffs, (sooo manyyy) bird, zebra, a black swan (reminded me of the movie lol), ostrich, monkeys, tigers, etc. When we saw the lepord, the trainer was also there. He literally stuck his hand into the cage and started playing with the cats! He did the same thing to one of the monkeys, and the other monkey behind the monkey the trainer was playing with got so defensive that he ran up to the trainer and began knawing at his hand. The trianer just kept pushing the monkeys and teasing them! The when we saw the cheetahs, the trainer told us how one of the cheetahs was found. Apparently, the cheetah was found in a remote village in Pakistan and came inside a family's house. Thee cheetah attacked one of the women in the house and then went into the kitchen. A little boy came and was succesfully able to lock the cheetah into the kitchen! Also, the trainer explained to us that all the other animals get fans in their cages besides the cheetahs, because when the cheetahs first came to their cage, they attcked the fans!!!

Afterwards, we went to see the lions and tigers but they ALL were fast asleep from the heat! The even had ice blocks in their cages as well as air conditioning! And, at the very end of our trip, I sat on a camel! I wanted to take a ride on the camel, but apparently it was just for kids. Oh, well, at least I got a picture on a camel! : )

It was only half past noon when we left, but the heat was getting so severe, we decided to go home for lunch. I sat on a rickshaw for the first time as we took one back home! I honestly will NEVER understand how drivers survive on Lahore roads! You know how in America there are signs every where asking drivers to "Please share the road with bikes" ... well, in Lahore, those same signs would read "Please share the road with bikes, motorcycles, rickshaw, carts, pedestrians, and your everyday donkey."

After a long day out, I came back and took a nice, long shower. In Pakistan, literally, if you step outside of your house, when you come back, you're going to NEED a shower! I literally take about 2 showers a day here.

Sidenote: some impressions about Pakistan ...
- The Fruit here is delicious! The color of the fruits is beautiful too! Its interesting, because the marketplace (to put it nicely) isn't very clean or pretty. But the market place is filled with beautiful fruit! Its interesting to see such beautiful fruit in a place that looks ...ummmm...very unclean.
- I love that vendors come up and down your street selling stuff, especially fruit!
- Appreciate Electricity!!! To anyone reading this, remember to alwaysss apreciate having electricity! I know I will when I go back! The electricity always goes out for a couple hours everyday but you never know for how long or when. The good thing is, the generator allows some lights and the fans to work. The bad new is, you never know how long the light is going to be gone for, so sometimes the generator dies really fast.
- The following is what everyday conversations consists off for Pakistani people: what's for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacktime; electricity; heat; marketplace; TV. I can completely predict by now what the entire day conversation will consist of! lol

Book: "Something Borrowed" by Emily Giffin
This was another light read / chick lit novel. The book was okay, and I continued it just to know what happened at the end. (It had a really predictable / boring ending, fyi). Advice to everyone: keep novels with you when you travel. So when you're jet lagged at 3 am and have nothing else to do, you have a novel by your side. I think tomorrow my dad and I are going to go to Lahore's popular library and I'll be able to grab some more books to read.

Experiencing Lahore - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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Sometimes my life is ... HARDCORE:

The truth is not good to start. I do not remember how many days have passed since entering Pakistan. It's been too much. I remember in Yazd , Mohammad Mehdi and I parted at the bus station with some good signs "hardcore" (horns) that now they do. After about 14h was in Zahedan, which they say is the most dangerous city in Iran. True, it was very poor. There were many people in the street around bonfires to withstand the cold, with their traditional clothing (pants Anchises, and a huge nightgown that reaches the knees, all the same color, usually light colors in the world saw Pakistan as well ). An hour later was in Mirjaveh, without really knowing what I was waiting to cross into Pakistan. At first it seemed easy, everyone gave her passport, and in less than a minute passed. I was more than 2 hours. I finally returned the passport with the exit stamp from Iran and cross, and once in Taftan fill a role, I put an entry stamp and go.

For a moment it seemed that the "mission" was accomplished. And . A soldier told me to follow him, took me to "headquarters" if you can call it so, it seemed that would fall at any time. Alli told me that no I could not take the bus if it was escorted by an armed soldier. I negotiated for several hours to let me pass without more. I wanted to charge 1500 rupees (15 euros). In the end, as I saw what they could do to come out of balls, finally agreed to pay Rs 1000 (which turned out to be a fair price, was the exact price of the bus and back). They said that if security was not, I would pass on the next control. To get to Quetta, about 1000 km, had to cross the entire Balochistan, one of the really complicated three regions (the others are mostly Pashtun and Kashmir). Com home of a soldier (one of them showed me his rock of "charas", which is like calling the hashish, well suited to, being military), take tea with milk typical first and then me and my bodyguard , we took the bus. The trip was eternal. The road was two lanes (all, inculuso the most important, have only two at most), and completely gutted. It was scary. One of those around me after a few hours, I mean we were going through one of the areas most affected by floods in 2010. I saw thousands of refugees stores.

Many of them were about to warm Hoger. They live in the dust. In the darkness I could not see well, but the road would disappear at times, the water had taken her, as had been their homes. If I remember correctly, were more than 10 million people homeless, many of them still do not have it. The mood was bleak. I had to get off the bus a dozen times, each control to write my data in the records. Every time I had to go through the bus aisle doing acrobatics to get around the bags and people sleeping on the floor. But finally, about 4 am, we were in Quetta. Had not yet dawned, but the bus left open so that anyone who wished would stay asleep. When the sun rose, I set out to the second most dangerous city in the country, after Peshawar (Karachi not far off). I found Abdullah, 19, who was sitting next to me, and I went breakfasted with him. I invite you to Karachi, and I wish to go, but I was too far. Another Bus Multan had invited me. Commission for the first time one of their extremely greasy breakfast (usually oily bread with fried egg) and went downtown to a cheap hotel. It is seen that there are some less than three euros, but everyone told me they were full when it was obvious they were deserted. I understood they do not accept foreigners. End up paying 6 euros for a room, it's cheap, but I'm so used to the prices here, I quite indignant.

I'm not sure that I will make when he returns to Europe. Quetta if it is a chaos, a chaos full of dust. Decoradisimos bus and painted in bright colors, such as India, thousands of "tuc-tucs" (rickshaws, motorcycles with a passenger cabin) and also thousands of bikes, not many cars. Many of the unpaved streets, hundreds of little job of food. Pretty much like I imagine India. And it is a recognized, culturally they have many things in common with the neighboring country, only that they are all Muslims. I was walking downtown, people very friendly, welcomed me. An older man wanted to take me to lunch. Meat and bread, as usual, great. A few hours later, returning to the hotel, a man showed me into his little shop, where to canya sugar juice and sold bus tickets. I brought back to eat. Returned several times to visit. In Pakistan all the light comes and goes. It is for two hours and then come back. I will not elaborate on the details because it would never end. The next day buy a ticket to Multan, the main city in southern Punjab. Neither more nor less than 22h. On the bus I made ​​friends all around me. A few hours and had invitations to Multan, Lahore and a village near Sargodha.

Those in the village were very nice people and I was pretty way, so accept his, and promised also to that of Lahore that he would call when it came to their city. Thus, after 22h, not even 5 minutes to rest, take another bus (which would not let me pay) 5h adding more, a total of 27, terrible. I was invited to eat and then we went to one, Farhat. Here started a craze of more than 3 days. All day eating, drinking tea, refusing invitations to eat and drink more tea. Everyone wanted to take me to bed at home. Usually always went to Farhad, Youssef and Shahid, but knowledge about a hundred people, and I'm not exaggerating. I had been up and down, by the people and surroundings, to visit friends and show their craft. Flip seeing as they did carpet dresses ... I work slow and retailers. Tradarian at least 10 days to finish the dress I saw. But best were the carpets, with these mechanisms of rope and wood, was hypnotic. We went up and down with the bikes through the traffic without law, sometimes 6 people with two bikes, sometimes 4 in one. You could say that I have been part of its chaos. Nor do I dwell on the details, but worthwhile. I shaved with 15 spectators (through a misunderstanding the barber I remove the "beard" that had cost me so much work) and then insisted on making me a photo shoot in a studio and then retouched with Photoshop and printing. So for days. The truth is that they were perhaps "too" nice, they were up all day, and my independence is sacred.

Finish quite overwhelmed. They wanted me to stay longer, and were offended when I left. I had to get angry, but I had not been let go. We said goodbye (not here let me pay the bus) and two hours was in Lahore , just 30km from India. I needed to be alone and severe digestive problems resulting from the endless meals of these days, so instead of calling contact me here, I went to a hotel less than 2 euros, shabby but clean. And here I am, relax and recuperate from the Pakistani hospitality. What a bunch of terrorists. So much has happened that I forget a lot safer, but a rough idea of my first week in Pakistan. "Countries at risk? Ha! know terrorists who invite me to dinner!" (Toteking)

A veces, mi vida es... HARDCORE. - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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The beautiful ruins of Makli Hill:

What one person calls ruins can be called home to someone else. It is amazing how some of these architectural sites are no different from the little towns currently being inhabited by people in towns located in the middle of nowhere. I saw this on my day trip from Multan to Bahawalpur, and today, as I worked my way to Thatta to see Makli Hill and Chaukundi.

The two places are nothing more than necropolises, abandoned and crumbling with time; these tombs were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. It really is amazing that any of them survive; it is easy to tell where these people fell on the economic scale, as the poor just have mounds covered by rocks. While at Makli Hill, there was a group that was being escorted by a security detail consisting of one armed guard. He followed them everywhere; I now understood what Jerry meant when he said the security detail might ruin my visit.

When I was visiting one major tomb, which is gated and locked, the guard wouldn't let another group to enter the grounds until I had finished!

I don’t know how the security detail can stay right with the lead car, as traffic in this city is bad and very aggressive. I really didn’t pay any attention to the security detail until we went to dinner tonight. First stop was a stationary store to buy a cover for a painting I purchased. When I got out of the car, I bumped my head against a low hanging air conditioner. Before I knew it, the two armed guards were there to see if I were okay. When we arrived at the restaurant, they were out of their car and in the ready before we even got out of the our car. While dining out, it is customary to send the driver and detail something. We did that, but I had to battle with Jerry to let me pay. This was a point of contention when we went out for meals – Jerry would want to pay for it, but I would insist it was my role to play. After dinner, it was off to the airport with the security detail behind us. I don’t think I could live a life like this due to security issues, but if it were for having money and being lazy – I’m all for it! Having a car and driver (and a nice car at that!) on demand is really nice, I really enjoyed it.

I came full circle. When I first arrived in Pakistan, my taxi had to be pushed to get started. Here I was on my last day, being chauffeured around with a security detail following me! I just might give Couchsurfing.org another try, they’re definitely on my list of organizations to make donations to.

The beautiful ruins of Makli Hill - Karachi, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

[Leader]

Everyone wanted to take me to bed at home.

I dont know what exactly he meant by that !!!

 

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To read the whole blog:

Aankomst in Lahore - Lahore, Pakistan Travel Blog

 

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From now onwards, I am just posting the pictures & the link to the blog (if anyone is interested in reading).

 

[Pioneerfirst]

Pakistan, one of the most dangerous country to visit in the world VS this post

 

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To read the blog:

The most dangerous place in the World - Chitral, Pakistan Travel Blog