The whole football-crew in Pakistani outfits in the Western Saloon, Lahore..



OzBus vs. FC Modeltown

Everybody wants icecream!




Heat makes sleepy..

Pakistani family in the Mosque
Badshahi Mosque







Red Fort

Badshahi Mosque

Lowering the flag
...and the women´s side!
The men´s side..
Jeevay Pakistan .. flag lowering ceremony at the border to Amrotsar, India.
Chatting to the armed guards

Bread baking

Whats going on on the road!

Andy, our tourguide at the site, me, Amjad and Tony

means of transport

this is how hot it was...

our escort

pipi break

snake charming and mongoose attack

tea break

We left Karachi with aching heads, there was just a bit too much beer going down the night before...

We drove from Karachi to Hyderabad, to Sukkur, to Multan and then to Lahore. On our third day we were joined by armed guards. Everyone has got more than a handfull of photos with longbearded, very evil looking men holding AK-47s in their hands (or ours..?!) It got VERY hot. At some point the air condition of the bus failed, and we got the full impact of 50 degree C on the bus and outside. Open the window and a hot breeze hits you, just like blow-drying your hair. A few stops to distract us from the heat were a visit to a mausoleum with a snake-charmer sitting in front of it, who gave us also a demonstration of a mongus killing a snake by biting its head off. A settlement of the ancient Indus Civilisation from about 4000 years ago (where some ant bit me in the foot at 50 degree) and several tea and photo stops of the incredibly hilarious trucks. We tested our stomachs at local eateries, having Dahl and Mutton, and we failed. Everyone got sick (that is, everyone except for our fellow passenger who swims in the sea all year round). Our best First-Aid stop was when the security guards escorted us to a well where we could bathe poor heatstruck Emma. Especially they were very happy to assist us dipping into the water and getting out quite wet.

We never left our hotels at night, we would have drawn too much attention otherwise. Bless HBO and international movie channels and we had some quite relaxing evenings that way.

On day 5 in Pakistan we reached Lahore, where we could finally go out on the streets by ourselves (we were only being followed by an armed guard then). We even saw two Westerners there, highlight in 2 weeks travelling off the tourist tracks.

We visited the Red Fort and the Badshahi Mosque and went to the Indian border for the Flag lowering Ceremony. This was one of the highlits of the trip so far, very funny and great way to see some Pakistani national pride!

Jeevay Pakistan, Pakistan Sindhabad!

Our last night topped it all, we had an incredibly bad football match against the FC Model Town of Lahore. We had proper self-made T-shirts, a trophy, and 11 players, mixed together with the OzBus crew and our hotel staff, plus Amjad, our wonderful tourguide. We lost anyways, no wonder, there were maybe two players in our team who were really able to play. I definately did not count. But it was great fun and they gave us a shirt and shorts of their team each!

After this glorious day we had our last meal at the Pakistani Western Saloon across the road and said our goodbyes to Pakistan and Amjad.

We had a great time here. It was a very strenuous experience, we were sick, it was hot, people stared at us and we were celebrities everywhere. Too much skin would draw too much attention, so we were still wrapped up in long trousers. Most of the women in Pakistan wear Burkas, so it is even stricter there than in India. We did not leave the hotels much and still did not drink much alcohol. But there was so much to see during the day, driving through the villages, seeing all the hustle bustle on the streets. It was surely a country we would not want to have missed out on on this trip and driving through on a bus was certainly the best way to see it!