day 361 – in the morning i checked email, then sat with sandra and shinji (a japanese guy at our hotel) downstairs drinking chai. then sandra and i went to the old city to look around. we met a woman who works as part of the old city restoration society. she showed us around and also took us into a building that was being restored. it was nice to see and we talked to another guy who explained the restoration process.
after that we visited the fort and saw some mausoleums. i took some photos and talked to local pakistani people about life and cricket. i spent the afternoon at the hotel relaxing, talking and playing guitar.
day 362- we three (me, sandra, shinji) settled in for a morning of chatting and chai. after that i walked to the ‘camera street’ to look around. i was thinking of buying a camera bag and looked through the stores. they had nothing i liked, but i did find a repair store who said they’d be able to repair the crack in my camera’s casing. i left the camera, put some photos in for developing, and returned to the hotel.
after lunch i picked up the camera and met the others to go and see some singing. in lahore, every thursday, there are numerous events. one such event is kwalli singing in one of the main mosques. heaps of different groups take turns singing for their audience. each group gets to do one song and people throw money. it was a lot of fun and the singing was very good. they mixed singing with drums, accordians and clapping.
i took some photos and we all returned to the hotel. we had shawarmas for dinner (and beer) and waited for the late sufi performance to begin. i recorded shinji singing a funny japanese song and at nearly midnight, despite being tired, we all headed off to see the sufis. when we arrived we were given seats at the front (the advantage of being foreign) and i got to take some good photos.
before the performance began there was a delay and a power blackout. so i talked to a couple of local guys about the mosque and the sufis. then when the show began i returned to the central area and took pictures. the performance was long and we didn’t stay for the whole thing. we left at about 2am, returning to the hotel, dog tired, to sleep.
oh, on the way out, one of the japanese guys who’d arrived in pakistan that day (there were about five japanese guys at our hotel, including shinji), said that he was robbed by corrupt police outside the sufi place. the pakistani guys looked around for the policemen, but they were gone. it was a strange thing to have happen … especially on his first day in pakistan.
day 363 – despite still being tired from the late night, i packed, had some chai and said my goodbyes. i got a rickshaw to the train station, had mcdonalds for lunch (bad, i know!) and caught my train to karachi. on the train, just like in india, people seem to sit wherever they please (regardless of seating numbers) and there were about fifteen people in my compartment, which was designed for nine people. i complained to the conductor and he made a few of them move, making me happy and giving everyone more space.
then i got talking to the guy in the seat next to me. he was an orthodox muslim and a sailor for the navy. he, dahill, and i spent the majority of the trip talking, drinking tea and eating dates which he’d brought. we had some good conversations about islam, religion, pakistan and traveling.
day 364 – in the morning, dahill and i picked up where we left off and continued talking all the way to karachi. he was staying at a mosque for two days before returning to his ship, so i promised to meet him the following day. i got into a taxi and went to my hotel. upon arriving, i thought that the hotel seemed too luxurious and soon discovered that it was the wrong hotel. so, with the manager’s help, i got another taxi into the centre of karachi and found a much cheaper hotel.
after having a shower i wandered the streets. the entire town was shut down due to it being the prophet mohammad’s birthday. there was really nothing to do. i returned to the hotel, had some dinner, watched bbc and slept.
day 365 – one year on the road – everything was open again today (yay!) so i wandered the streets and markets. i took some photos and ended up having chai with some bus drivers. i had been photographing their buses (which were amazingly colourful) and they invited me to drink tea.
i had to prepare my exit from pakistan so i went to a travel agent to get a flight into iran. there were no direct flights so i took a flight to shiraz via manama (bahrain). there was an eight hour stopover between flights which would give me a few hours to look around manama city. it was better than nothing and i headed back towards my hotel. near my hotel were a few camera stores. walking past, a camera caught my eye that i’d been looking at online. a few shops had the canon d10 (waterproof) which i’d been tempted to buy. i had the olympus, but i was unhappy with the image quality. the shops offered to take the olympus on trade for the canon, which was too tempting, and fifteen minutes later i walked out with a new camera.
happy, i remembered my promise to meet dahill and made my way to makki mosque where dahill told me he would be. dahill and i spent the afternoon at the mosque. the other muslims who work there were very welcoming. they brought food and tea, we talked, and i listened to a islamic sermon (which a visiting muslim from mauritius translated for me). we took a break while they went for prayers and then talked some more. it was a fun afternoon and a nice experience. in the early evening dahill and i walked back into town and he dropped me off at my hotel. the next day’s start was early so i packed and slept.
