Hello from your traveller out of Pakistan

Hi all!

Some more news. In the meantime we arrived in Lahore, near the Paki-Indian border.

This will again be a shorter mail, do not expect any lenghty ballads from me at the momen...

After Karaj in Iran, we drove through parts of Tehran, on our way to Esfahan. The traffic is not nearly as scary as I imagined, just honk! Nobody checks the mirrors, thats what horns are for after all! Esfahan is great, we stayted there for a lazy day off and wandered around. Well, Ludek was, I mainly let the flat tire fix and relaxed in the teahouse above Imam square. Long live the Tea! Then we went on to Kerman, where we could stay in the parking of a good hotel for very cheap, and from there it was off to the deserts. After Bam, which was still a little depressing to drive through, still lots of destruction, we crossed the Dashd-e-Lut. This is a scorching, boring desert, with sand ghosts flying over the roads like the snow drifts in cold winters, just the hot version of them. It was interesting. But then, the mountains limiting the desert proper were very beautiful but also hot and completely dry. We made it to Mirjaveh, right at the border, where we had a pleasant stay, against all odds.

With both tanks full of Diesel (not from Mirjaveh, there we only got 25 L to top our stocks off), we entered Pakistan. I just say the border crossing was interesting, took two hours and gave my stomach about a litre of Tea to digest. Very friendly people.

Then the adventure began. It all went easily, but we heard so many stories about how dangerous the Balochistan desert is, how dangerous it is for foreigners, especially in the night. So we went off, dribing in the desert along the Afghan border. The Southern border, that is, where no law and order is known. Theoretically at least. The road was good for a few hundred kilometres, but then it turned ugly. One lane, broken and shattered, and every few kilometres trucks to pass, or to cross. Someone has to get out of the way, and most of the time its the one that has it easier. Not the weaker one... I read that tou can be happy with an average of 50 kph on this stretch, but we made about 70 or so... The car must have suffered, but we didnt find any problems after inspection. We arrived at Nushki, 10 km from the Afghan border, with lots of Taliban-looking, grim, bearded people. Those people usually get a friendly laugh when you wave, and suddenly they dont look so threatening anymore... Something must be wrong with our picture of this area.

To make a long story short, we stayed at the police post, and yes, it is indeed dangerous in the night for strangers, but we were well protected and felt amongst friends in a frontier town. When we carried on, there were many police check points where we had to sign in, as the day before, and we always had to refuse the tea because of pressing time...

OK, I have to come to an end now, we went through Quetta, then stayed in Ziarat in the mountains, the next day we had another flat tire in the last mountain pass in a coming thunderstorm (comfortable to fix the spare wheel on the roof when the lightinings are nearby, then the road was damaged, lots of trucks on a road not wide enough for one, and then we were not allowed to stay in Dera Ghazi Khan, because this district is off limits for Westerners in the night. So we had to drive out for 50km in the night, which is not very pleasant with our wimpy 70W Swiss shitty light bulbs. Mind you, donkey carts dont have lights, and so do some trucks driving on your side of the road coming against you...

OK, have to go and eat, you hear more from me later.

MMMMMMM

< Coole Sache, 09.06.05 | Mails from the Travellers | Teheran, 24.05.05 >