+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Lahore: Qawwali Music and Sufi Trance.

I'm not sure what it is about this polluted megapolis which entices me so and keeps me here. Yet here I am, still in Lahore. Maybe it's the endless Sufi nights, the drumming beats of the Qawwali music, maybe it's the relaxed atmosphere and the even more relaxed people. The heat keeps getting stronger (up to an average of 40 degrees Celsius), making it increasingly difficult to move.

Lahore is the most visited city in Pakistan, and for good reasons. With 7 million inhabitants (unofficially over 10 million), Lahore is Pakistan's second largest city (after Karachi). Those tourists who do make it here are usually the rough tough backpacking overlanding extra poor travellers, who are running out of countries to visit. Being only 30kms from the border with India, Lahore is also a stopping point for travellers entering or leaving the country.

I'm staying in the Regale Inn on Mall road, a crossroads for travellers, and highly recommendable. Those coming from India are very spiritual, and never cease repeating how India will change your life, how you should go to Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world and find enlightenment. Those coming from the North of Pakistan talk of the amazing mountain scenery, the Karakoram Highway, and the Kunjerab pass. Peter left a while back for North Pakistan, a place I will have to come back to on an other occasion.

+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Punjab, the Land of Five Rivers and many canals

Our hotel in Multan was a safe-haven to us after the chaos of illogical confrontations with the Punjab police on the way there. We spent four days nursing our wounds with comfortable beds and cable tv for 100 roupis each a night curry room service. The cheap price was due to the Punjab police accompanying us right to the hotel room, wanting desperately to get rid of us. They even tuned in the channels for Bollywood and American soap operas! So kind.

When they left they instructed the hotel manager to phone them when we left the hotel. Anita and Stefan are still with us and followed much the same routine during our stay, recovering from the outdoors. Multan was the first comfortable bed we had since Quetta, and even then it was pretty basic.

“We’re going to internet and we’ll be back in three hours”, and the manager would pick up the phone to let the police know we were going out for three hours and that we were going to the internet café. We visited the town, went round the bazaar full of its narrow streets, met a few locals, but on the whole Multan was not a very nice town. Very noisy, dusty and hot.

We packed our bags early on departure day, rushed downstairs, paid the bill, put the bags on the bikes and cycled off just as a police car arrived. “We’re going towards Lahore”, I say as we joined the rickshaw traffic heading for a roundabout, and thus losing them. And that was the last of our police escorts, at last! Since Quetta!