Upon leaving Iran we were warned of an eighteen hour drive across rebel desert territory where our bus would not stop. We arrived at the Iran/Pakistan border ready to take up this challenge and prepared for the worst. We exchanged our Iranian bus for 2 Toyota buses and split the group. I was in the cool bus where old Irish songs, rugby songs and silly games were the order of the day. The journey was going great right up until we were half an hour from our destination. A police car pulled alongside our bus, distracted our driver and our bus started to veer towards the left of the road. The next thing we knew, the bus was falling down a ditch and ended up hanging at an angle. My favourite Irish squaddie took control of the situation and turned the engine off, climbed out of the window and began attaching ropes to the bus to secure us. Then the other bus (who hadn’t noticed our accident) arrived at the scene and my favourite Australian squaddie jumped out and helped the Irish squaddie out. Before we knew it the bus was secured and we were climbing out of the windows (not before I attempted to save the rugby ball – I don’t know what I was thinking). The squaddies (with the help of some locals and others) got the bus back on the road, in my head they pulled it back up onto the road with their bare hands and that is the way I will leave it in your imaginations too. I would also like to think these guys saved my and my fellow travellers lives, I know I am exaggerating the crash but it sounds better like that! Anyway, thanks to the squaddies we were back on the road and arrived in Pakistan safely with no serious injuries!
I have no idea what I thought Pakistan was going to be like. It was not a country I listed in my memorised itinerary when people asked me where I was going so I can only guess I wasn’t at all fazed by it.
My image of Pakistan is of girls from home, from Pakistani families being brought back here to be married off in an arranged marriage. In one way this image is correct. Arranged marriages are the norm however, to only see this side of Pakistan would be wrong. Our guide Khalid, the best guide we have had so far on this journey, would answer any of our questions and told us of his own family. He married his wife when he was thirty and she was twenty three. Neither saw each other until the wedding day out of choice and their union was in no way forced. Eight years on they have four children and he is now considering a vasectomy (something I did not think would ever enter the mind of an Pakistani man). Khalid has two unmarried sisters and there is no pressure on them to get married. The image I had of girls being forced into marriage at a young age is clearly wrong, the average age for girls to marry is twenty three.
This is a very poor country and it is obvious everywhere you go. When walking along the streets you are asked for money constantly, in the first place we visited, Quetta, we saw children picking through large areas of rubbish to try and forage for food. People here are so poor their mode of transport is normally a camel or donkey. Five people fit on one motorbike and mothers carry small babies (as young as six months) with them on the bikes.
Western people are a massive novelty here, especially women. In both Quetta and our second stop, Sukkur, we immediately drew a crowd of people. The crowd grows to around 100 people and men begin to grope the women if they feel the crowd has grown big enough they will not be seen. The strange thing about the groping is that it is not aggressive, not like being in a crowded pub at home where drunken men attempt to surreptitiously grab a feel, these men are curious and think Western women will not mind. That’s not to say that they got away with it, a few of the men got some pretty hard slaps!
Our third stop was Multan, which is the oldest surviving town in the world along with Damascus. While here we visited a shrine and were amazed by the positive reception we again were greeted with. In the areas around the shrine people would stop wanting to talk to us, to shake our hands and take our pictures. An older women came over to one of the beautiful Australians in our group and gave her a ring as a gift, as she has a beautiful smile. The hospitality of these people is amazing and puts many Westerners to shame.
Inside the shrine, we saw people praying openly and those who were deep in thought. The shrine itself was very crowded and amazingly, the men seemed to think it was again ok to grope the western women! I think it is something we will just have to get used to.
Our final stop was Lahore. This city was the biggest surprise of all. Just as we had got used to crowds of people gathering to see us and being groped left right and centre, it all stopped. These people are used to seeing Westerners, as business people come here often and we were largely treated just as one of the crowd. We saw the changing of the guards which is a big ceremony with Pakistan and India competing to put on the best show, wandered around the bazaar, ate wonderful food and went to a drumming ceremony. The drumming ceremony was a surprise to say the least, this is clearly how Pakistani men spend their Friday night. In Pakistan alcohol is illegal unless you have a permit, so Friday night here is spent smoking marijuana, which is freely handed around and listening to drums. Not my thing, but interesting all the same (many of our group did partake in the marijuana smoking but I steered clear of the stuff).
Although alcohol is illegal here, being Westerners we are allowed to drink and out guide managed to obtain some for us so, finally we have alcohol again (with Iran being a dry country we were all dying for a drink). The Irish contingency have been given life back with my favourite Irish squaddie staying up for about 3 days straight drinking whisky and talking shite. Ahh well, he deserves it after saving us from our earlier crash!
Would I recommend Pakistan? Yes! If you want to experience a different culture and somewhere not touristy, this is the place to come. This is not a strict Muslim country as it is often potrayed and the people here are friendly, welcoming and curious about Westerners mainly because they never see any!
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