PAKISTAN TO IRAN

Greetings Friends, We have finally obtained visas for Iran. We are currently in Quetta, out in the west of Pakistan, about 2 days ride from the Iranian border. We were glad to get out of Islamabad, where we indulged in various types of food that we hadn't seen in ages, like pizza, & steak. It was good to get back on the bikes after 2 weeks of not riding. We had some advice about where not to go, so we changed our planned route. We headed south generally following the Indus, to Mianwali, then down to Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan). We arrived at about 2pm, tired & hot, ready to find a hotel. Then the fun started. A very nice local chap, M. Arshad Khan, owner of a servo, took us to a hotel, (and all we did for him in return was to waste most of his Saturday afternoon) but apparently, foreigners are not allowed to stay in DGK, because of security issues, unless they have permission. We didn't. So we then sought out the local administrative big cheese & threw ourselves on his mercy. He was quite good about the whole thing, but it was too iffy. He ended up suggesting a hotel a good few k's back, & we were ok with that. We were on our way out when we got stopped by a cop next to a major intersection. He wanted to know what we were doing in DGK. Next minute there are people all over us, ogling us & the bikes in a way we had not seen since India. Eventually, a police jeep turned up, & we had an armed police escort out of town. We tried to explain that we wanted a nearby hotel, but we ended up being escorted all the way back to Multan, about 100 km back. Every 25 km or so, there was a new team of cops who picked us up. I was actually quite impressed with the way they put this thing together so quickly. At one stage we even had the local SWAT team as an escort, and they sat on about 80-100 kph, with lights flashing & horn blaring. We just tucked in behind the jeep & it was the easiest bit of riding we have done in Pakistan, only problem was we were heading in the exact opposite direction we needed to go. But it did make one feel important!!! We got taken to the Ramada in Multan. It was great, but it wasn't cheap, & we had to travel all the way back through DGK the following day, again with the police escort.


Out west, we can still pull a crowd, just by stopping!

On the way through a small town, there was a dope on a bicycle wobbling around the centre of the road, not taking much notice of the Swat teams approach. On the way past, a cop leaned out the jeep window, & gave the guy a solid clip around the ear! I spent the next couple of minutes chuckling. In another place, a tuk tuk driver cut Chris off, & a traffic cop appeared from nowhere & gave the driver a real hard belt on the side of the head for ignoring the motorcade. Pity the cops in Australia can't do that anymore, I say.

Anyway, this turned out to be a long day, as we had to get all the way to Lorelai, & had a 100km deficit to make up. Near Fort Munro we were held up while a rockfall was cleared up in the pass. A bit later on, my top box came loose. More delay. I had the brackets modified in Oz before we left, as I anticipated the box would cop a pummeling. The brackets were fine, but I had snapped one of the main mounting bolts. We strapped it up & continued, knowing the real rough stuff still lay ahead. Our enquiries as to the state of the roads had all indicated that the road to Lorelai was good. It wasn't! Almost the whole of it was being worked on, & there were numerous diversions. At one stage, we found ourselves on a sandhill, following a couple of tyre tracks, no sign of a road anywhere. During the next few hours, we copped the lot. Potholes, soft gravel, sand, powdery bulldust, mud, slippery gullies, even a dust storm, as if it wasn't hard enough. We passed through a gully in which a truck & a van were fairly hopelessly bogged, just after I took this photo, as it happens.

Its pretty desolate out here.

Through a small but very bustling town on the way to Lorelai , there was a bloke standing right in the middle of the road with his trousers down, & no underwear on. Dare not stop for a photo, but I'm guessing the guy is not getting the medication he needs!! We finally got to Lorelai & its fair to say it's a hole. We were looking for a guesthouse selected from the Lonely Planet, but couldn't find it. We soon ended up in the police station, and again soon pulled a crowd. Trouble was they were all cops or their kids, & there wasn't much we could do about it, but really we didn't mind, as the police have been terrific.

There is always a bunch of kids whose dads want them to sit on the bike. for a photo op. But I get to keep the photos!

After about 2 hours of being grilled (in a nice way, we were offered a cup of green tea) by the local Special Branch, they took us to the "best hotel in town". I can't imagine what the others must be like!! This joint cost us 300 rupees, thats $4.60, for the night. It had no air conditioning, a squat toilet which had no water trap (& therefore stank to high heaven), a blocked drain in the shower, so we were soon in ankle deep water. The bed linen was dirty. Anyway, we got there at about 8.30pm, showered & crashed, too tired to eat tea. This, after the Ramada! Next morning, as I went out the front door to start loading the bike, there were two cops with the ever popular AK47's waiting for us , to escort us out of town, without breakfast. I was beginning to take the security thing seriously, just call it a hunch.

At this point I want to say a few words about the Pakistani people we have met. From my perspective, they are very welcoming, generous & friendly. A couple of days back, we had people buy us drinks no less than six times, & no one would take any money. One bloke invited us into his shop (he sold mobile phones), sat us down in front of an air conditioner, & brought out two glasses of tea, laced with salt & lemon, different, but quite a tonic. We have learned to say the Pakistani greeting A-salaam alai koom (loosely translated as "go in peace" or something similar), & it goes down really well. Once you say it, you get the double handed shake, & usually a big smile, although that may be due to my Pakistani accent! Sometimes people who had a bit of English would come straight up & ask right out what religion we were, which we found amusing. Out on the road, a bloke came up to us on little scooter, & said how honoured he was that we should choose to visit his country. This been our experience the whole way through Pakistan. But unfortunately, out west we have been attracting some long stares, not all of them friendly, and you just start to feel uneasy, especially when the cops don't want to let us out of their sight. From here, we just want to make Iran asap.

Yesterday, we headed for Quetta, soon entering a mountain pass where it was at least cooler. Before too long, we were back in amongst the roadworks, and we covered at least another 100km of unsealed road, but it was not as bad as the previous day. Nevertheless, I spent a lot of time standing on the pegs, & my legs were getting fairly sore. The Fastway footpegs I fitted are superb, wide & comfortable & very solid. In fact, the bike handled the road conditions beautifully. We had a booking at the Serena Hotel in Quetta, back to our usual standard (9,000 rupees a night), and are resting today. When we leave here, we have two nights at what we expect will be very dodgy accomodation, and two days of hard physical riding to reach Iran. This is the section of road which we expect will be the worst of the whole trip. Then a whole lot of new issues to deal with. For a start, Iran will be the first country on our trip where the traffic drives on the right. There are no ATMs, we have to change US dollars at a bank. Vouchers are required to buy fuel. And our itinerary for Iran is also fairly tough, with some big mileage days. Anyway, we will manage. And just quietly, I am dying for a beer. We have been dry for three weeks, with another two to go. Its a record for me!