Yazd, Iran (19 Dec 2009)

This is a amazing mud-brick old city, one of the oldest living city in the world. I was impressed by the creative anicent technology to deal with the difficult desert climate.

One of many samples of Iranian hospitality

As many people have said that Iranian hospitality is the top of the world. I truly agree with it. I was invited to an Iranian home for tea and sweet when I asked for a retiree randomly in the street. When I got inside his house, there were his brothers, sister in law and mother in there sitting already. Unfortunately none of them could speak one single English until his friend who taught Farsi came 20 minutes later. After some chatting with the family with his help being translator, he offered to drive me over to the hotel I was looking for. So we hopped on his ancient old car with broken wind shield. I loved this gentlement who drove his car in lightning speed like a 16 years old boy.

The "safest" border crossing journey (17 Dec 2009)

In Pakistan side:

The overnight bus ride to the border town, Taftan, was about 10 hours. There were at least 8 to 10 checkpoints, major and minor ones. Almost half of them I needed to get off the bus to do some paper work as a foreigner. Since I was the only foreigner on board, I became the focal point every time when I got back to the bus after the paper work.

At the first checkpoint, it was the most serious one and took me the longest time. I wrote down all the information they asked for in their registration book. They checked my passport and visas. They contacted other station via walki-talki. They checked my info seriously along with their log book as I was a fugitive. I took a glance of what's on their log book. It was written with the language I didn't understand except a series of number. Bingo! I found my passport number there. I asked myself how the hell they had my number before I even got there. Was I one of the wanted people? Did they just close the route for foreigners? Thought they might send me back to the city where I came from without allowing me crossing the border overland for whatever reasons. After a long haul waiting, they finally allow me to get back to the bus and continue my journey. Thought that was it.

In the next checkpoint, I was asked to get off the bus and did the paper work again but this time was quick. When finished, surprisingly there was a solider coming after me to the bus. Thought he was just checking the passengers. NO. He was sitting next to me with AK47. Then the bus resumed it's journey. Hmm.....well the solider spoke only few words to me. He said I was your body guard. We would change guards from point to point to the border town as they worried foreigner's' safety on this route. That region considered to be relatively unstable. Apparently I was safe to reach border town around 5 in the morning. The last guard found me a hotel. He was gone when I came out of my room few hours later for breakfast before moving on to Iran.

In Iran side:

One of the immigration staffs greeted me as I was a VIP when I reached the Iranian immigration hall. They asked me genially to wait in the sitting area. I didn't need to line up in front of immigration desk like everybody else. They even gave a tourist DVD as gift. After some waiting, an escort police came by with my passport stamped. And yes! There was another escort. They need to escort me to the first city, Zahadan, from the border. It was about a 1 hour drive. Found out from the police that there were some Spanish being kidnapped in that area 6 years. So they didn't want this happened again for safety reason although the situation was fine at the moment. I was totally overwhelmed.

Quetta, Pakistan (16 Dec 2009)

This is a Pakistani frontier city to Afghanistan. It was a must to stop over this city before moving forward to the border to Iran. This city is considered to be unstable because of the tribe conflicts but current status is mostly settled. You could see heavily armed army patrolling the city frequently especially during the night. I was advised not to go out of the hotel after dark.

I met some locals who were Pusto (one of tribes living the area) when I was asking for direction for the hotel. Then they showed me around and talked. I learnt lots from them about this city and tribe issues. They are still having arranged marriage. They would get engaged without even taking a glance of what their future husbands or wives look like. They were curtains in the restaurants to separate women and men. Of course they were shocked when I told them I don't have religous. One of them said to me that it's good for my after life if I believe god.

Pakistan (7 Dec 2009)

Apparently there wasn't many foreigners traveling in this country. I pretty much hadn't seen one single foreigner even I walked miles during the day and night. In the most popular city, Lahore, sometimes there were only 10 people staying in the backpacker beloved hostel in a good day. Sometimes I thought it probably the number of all foreigners in the city, except Clinton and her fellows if she was around.

Personally I felt safe travelling here except some sensitive areas. Basically people were friendly. They said hi to me not because they want to sell me things. They liked to ask you to take pictures of them. Yes there were bombs almost everyday but I'd never felt being threaten by the locals.

Other than chaotic and vibrant traditional local markets, they did have some neat modern shopping centers where probably were for middle class or above people. I am impressed by the organised and well done highway in some part of the country.

The most entertaining border closing ceremony

As everyone knows that there is tension between India and Pakistan, but the border closing ceremony was totally a blast. On one hand they were posting standoff gesture, on the other hand they were well coordinated as a show. People were cheering from both sides of the border for their countries. It was a fun experience.

Finally crossing the border to Pakistan by train

Bounced back from the border to Pakistan (6 Dec, 2009)

He was the man who responsible the security of the train.


The yellow shirt guy was the man in charge. The other two were pilot (below) and co-pilot (above)

I was refused to cross the border on foot to Pakistan from India. The Indian immigration officer politely explained to me that there were 5 countries that were not allowed to cross on foot. China was one of them and Hong Kong......was part of China. I tried to talked through it and explained that I had no more Indian rupee and I was using Hong Kong passport bla bla bla. But it didn't work out. One way I could cross the border was to take a train next day (only two trains per week) from a nearby border town, Attari as suggested by the officer.

So I went to the Attari train station to check out exact schedule and planned to stay in the town for a night. The train station was very small and I hardly found any staff whom I could ask for. Luckily I found one and learnt what I needed to do next day. However I found out that there was no hotel in town. It meant I need to go back to the nearest city, Amritsar, 26km away from Attari. The worst was that there was no train for the day. Then he said there was a cargo train back to Amritsar leaving in probably 30min. I hesitatingly asked if I could jump on. He replied it would have no problem if he said yes because he was in charge of the train. Wow he was my hero. So I was the only passenger sitting on platform waiting.

After two hours delay as it happend all the time in India (which I didn't mind at all since it was a free ride), he finally gave me a gesture to follow him. I walked with a crew of 4 people to the engine. Yes I was riding in the engine. He told me that this was the cargo train from Pakistan, one of the two cargo trains crossing between two countries per day. 20km/hr was the maximum speed since the pakistani cargo train wasn't built for faster speed as explained from the pilot. The train was running slowly across the field. When the train finally arrived Amritsar after slightly more than two hours, the man in charge said "You were just in the mission".

Golden Temple (3 Dec 2009)

Golden Temple, the holliest Sekh temple located in the heart of Amritsar, I was impressed not only the stunning architecture complex but also the free kitchen experience. While I was debating what dinner I was mood for, I followed a crowd in the temple to the free kitchen area. After receiving plate and silverware from an amiable volunteer at the entry, I went into the dinning hall where could hold at least 700-800 people. The dinning hall was arranged with rows of sitting carpet. Each row could sit around 60 people side by side on floor with 5 feet aisle in front of us. People were coming in non-stop and they would sit down next to the end of the line continously. Within a minute, volunteers started scooping food into our plates, one by one. It was so efficient. Food was tasty. I liked the I-don't-know-the-name desert the most. I ate them all but didn't even have a sip of their water since I concerned of diaherra. When finished, I followed the crowd back out again where volunteers were collecting the used plates ready for clean. I'm not sure if the free kitchen was real help to the poor ones but I rarely ran into someone who asked me for money in this city.

A Saree sign

5 days

Udaipur

Johdpur

Puskar

I swept through these three tourist cities in 5 days like a mad truck.