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.
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.
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