Hello Pakistan!

(Picture of Trev exiting India)

A late arrival into Amritsar, but luckily we had booked a hotel right by this station so after only 10 minutes of fending off 'wanna rickshaw? Wanna hotel?' type requests we were in bed.

This morning we had our last breakfast in India (a disappointing, but classic, fried egg on toast) and headed to the border. The log book suggested there'd been 6 other foreigners in the last week... we are not alone!

The only other guy trying to cross at the same time as us was a Russian. He didn't seem to have read any kind of 'How to seem inconspicuous to border guards' instructions. He was still being questioned as we left the border, but his answers didn't seem to be making him particularly welcome...
- where are you from?
- Russia
- what is your profession?
- pilot
- what is your purpose in Pakistan?
- flying planes.
Right.

We had organised a car from a guesthouse in Islamabad to be waiting for us on the Pakstani side. We were 90 minutes late after messing up the time difference (who knew Pakistan would be ahead of India?) And then a power cut meaning the immigration computers weren't working. But we found the car easily and the drive was fine; on the Grand Trunk road for the most part. The standard of driving (accelerate towards the vehicle in front and beep manically until it gets out of the way) is confirming our suspician that the biggest risk to us being here is road safety and access to medical care, rather than anything to do with the Taliban.

6 hours later we've arrived into Islamabad. The guesthouse is nice, the people friendly and most women don't have their heads covered (phew!) The roads are in better nick than in India and there seems to be less rubbish around. So far, so good.

Gemma