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![]() Overland to Asia
Pakistan |
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Home | Czech Republic and Hungary | Romania | Turkey | Iran | Pakistan | India part 1 | India part 2 | India part 3 | India part 4 | India part 5 | Nepal | Contact Me/Links
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I’ve now been in Pakistan for a few days. It's very similar to the madness, dirt and chaos of India. So you don't
have many dull moments while walking the streets. But I have the feeling you can trust the people more (I hope this feeling
doesn't vanish), although we (me + Rob, a Dutch guy I'm travelling with) have already had a bad experience with a "donkeyhorse-taxidriver"
(he tried to charge us double the price we had agreed). When I crossed the border, I found out that the Pakistan mentality is very similar to the Indian mentality. The customs
officer had his "office" outside. Sitting comfortably on a chair under the pleasantly warm sun he was more interested in a
chat than what was in my luggage. A few Pakistanis entered his "office" trying to sell us bus tickets and to change money,
of course for inflated rates. After a long journey (28 hours) with a lot of unnecessary stops, we reached the first town in
Pakistan: Quetta. A lot of bearded men, many Chriet Titulaer/Kabouter Plop look-a-likes (beards around the face, so without
moustaches). The (often-dyed red) beards and the clothes (brownish MC Hammer style pyjamas) made me sometimes feel as if I
was walking on the set of Planet of the Apes. From Multan we took the train to Islamabad, cutting through the landscape. The train gives you a good insight of the country:
you can see the people working the fields, the children playing and waving or throwing things at the passing train. I also
saw a shantytown, with a golf course behind it (it's a clich้, but a very powerful one). During one stop, I saw a guy
in another train sticking his tongue out to me and making weird faces (this strengthened my belief that Pakistanis are crazy),
and of course you see the garbage spread out over the country, although Islamabad is a remarkable clean city (for Pakistan
standards anyway), probably because of all the embassies. Let me also tell you about the Pakistani trucks and buses. They are amazing. If you think Indian trucks are well decorated,
you haven't seen the Pakistani ones. All covered up in detailed paintings, mirrors, reflectors and shinning metal figures,
they look like mobile temples. They are truly a treat to the eye. Too bad that most of the time, they rush by very fast. Although the Pakistani are very welcoming, friendly people, things are not so relaxed everywhere; tribal rivalries and
religious uprisings are still going on, some parts of the country you cannot visit without a permit and/or an armed guard,
and you see a lot of policemen guarding hotels, shopping areas and other places of interest. We just found out that Quetta,
the town we first visited, had been disturbed by a bomb explosion (probably planted by a Kabouter Plop look a like) the day
we left (don't worry mom, I'm all right). Now we are in a much safer area, so I don't expect to get blown up - of course you
can never be sure :-). The hustle, heavy traffic, noise, claxons used at least 15 times a minute, getting lost in the too crowded streets with
too curious people asking too much the same questions, the dirt, the amazed gazing of people who just stop doing what they
do when you walk by and just stare at you like you're from another planet (this happened a lot in Quetta and Multan), beggars
almost poking their mutilated body parts in your face. Things you have to get used to again, but not a culture shock - the
real culture shock you get when you get home again, faced with all the stupid rules and regulations, people living in their
own shell, not even daring to look in the other persons eye on the street or in the train, and when you start talking to them,
they think you're mad. So, which society is advanced and normal and which is not? Last time I mailed I was somewhere in Pakistan. I had a superb time there; went up the Karakoram highway, which connects
Pakistan with China. It's always hard to describe landscapes, but I will try it anyway: greyish, light-brown and green valleys
filled with terraces with huge leafless poplars looking like toothpicks surrounded by peaks which reach 8000 metres. Apart
from "the Veluwe" in Holland, I didn't see such a beautiful, rough and impressive landscape before. Some people living here
are of European descent, their skin more white than mine. On the way back to Islamabad, we had, at least we think, a terrorist on the bus. He was a big European-looking man in a
camouflaged army jacket wearing "LTS" glasses (the ones Ivor always wore before he became "fashionably aware") in a diagonal
position. The strange thing is that he wore a different turban than anyone else in this region and that, despite his young
age, he was leading all the prayers during the prayer-stops (we had 2 very shortly after each other). I had never seen anybody
leading prayers. Since I never trust a religious leader, especially when he is wearing combat fatique, we can clearly state
that he was a Chechnyan rebel recruiting people in Pakistan. Well we will never know. It was strange anyway and I wonder what
he thought of me when I said to a fellow passenger that I don't believe in God - he turned his head and looked at me, the
unbelieving kafir. Lahore was the last stop in Pakistan: it was here that I witnessed the sufinight. Imagine yourself going to a church or
graveyard, with your friends and many bottles of beer, and starting a party there. Only here, the beer is replaced by hashish
(I even saw a guy with a carved out apple with about 15 joints sticking out of it) and the church is not a church but a Sufishrine
(graveyard of Sufi's; Sufism is the mystical sect of Islam, they are the Pakistani equivalent of the Indian sadhu’s:
holy man who smoke a lot). Three weeks in Pakistan was surely not enough; I could stay for months in the north. I was, having travelled in India,
surprised by the honesty and hospitality of the people. I hope this doesn't change in the future. Maybe it has to do with
the religion. I don't know what the reason is for this difference. Of course, the fact that tourism is not as developed as
in India has something to do with it.
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