INDIA!!!

Dear All,

Any of you worried about our safety in Pakistan can breathe a sigh of relief; we crossed into India two days ago. Driving through Pakistan was a tense experience. When we last wrote we were in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. The day we arrived the education minister had been killed by terrorists in Quetta itself and the security, as you can imagine, was tight. We were not allowed to go out at night as there were concerns for our safety. This was a real shame as Quetta is a buzzing city. However, we went out the next day and had a look around. Most shops were closed. We found out later that there had been an impromptu strike over the killing of the minister.

The hotel owners also informed us that the universities, colleges and schools had been shut for three days  as the government was concerned about terrorist attacks. This, however was the official line. The other reason behind the closure was that the government was concerned about an uprising against themselves. Pakistan, we were informed from all areas, was on the edge. When we went to the National Bank of Pakistan to change money the banker asked why we had had come to Pakistan and did we not care for our lives? Hmmm, food for thought.

In the evening back at the hotel we cooked our own dinner and were told that we should not be sat in the front courtyard as we could be a target. The police also turned up and said the same thing. We should not be visible to the road.

The next day we were headed to Sukkur which is through the Bolan Pass, an ancient route for trade. We had to wait for our escort out of Quetta in the morning, but then we were on our way. The Bolan Pass was a real picturesque mountain and valley pass. We travelled alongside a beautifully coloured river - turquoise and deep and light blues. It was so nice to see water and greenery after the desert landscape of Balochistan.  We noticed the legacy of the British empire in many places in Pakistan, especially the railway along the Bolan Pass whose tunnels had names like Windy Corner and Cascade all built in 1894.

Pakistan is beautifully green and fertile in the Eastern most part of Balolchistan and coming into the Sindh and the Punjab. We had no idea of the crops Pakistan grew; rice, corn, cotton, sugar cane, bananas etc. We drove through endless rice fields that looked beautiful as the rice plants moved with the wind in the sun - green and golden. The cotton fields were a surprise - so many of them. The lily pads and flowers growing in ponds at the ends of fields - results of the irrigation system - and in the middle of all these crops bright bursts of colour from the women's sari's. I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to describe all their different colours.

We emerged out of this picturesque drive into a town called Sukkur and then to a police station. We had to stay there the night. We were all starting to get tired as the days were just relentless driving, so we decided the next day to only do a half day driving. We arrived with our escort into Rahin Yar Khan and were taken to - surprise, surprise - another police station. We needed to go out and get food, but were told we weren't allowed to go out. A young man was sent to get our food and on his return we started cooking. At was at this point that we realised we were in a police station that had cells and prisoners.  We had managed to avoid this in Dalbandin, but here we were fairly powerless.

There was a young man being questioned the night we were there whom we saw being walked across the yard by a police officer with a wooden bat and pole in his hand. We knew at that point that he was likely to be beaten. We all fell rather quiet and our stomachs turned at the thought of what was going to happen. We heard it later that night and all of us found sleeping very difficult. The worse thing was not being able to do anything about it. We felt quite sick.

The next morning we saw the young man in the cells and gave him biscuits and cigarettes. He looked ok, but that night deepened our growing feelings that Pakistan was not the place to be at this moment in time.

We drove through to Multan the next day phoning as many hotels as possible to try and get somewhere to stay. The story was the same everywhere - no-one wanted us sleeping in the van on their patch. The security situation was too bad and unstable, so after trying in the city we were once again driven to a police station - we stressed this time - no prisoners. We slept better that night, but the next day after realising that more and more bombings were taking place in the North and that to get to the Karakoram Highway we were going to be driving 45km East of the Swat Valley, we decided that the writing was on the wall: time to go to India.

We went through Lahore that day and then to Wagah, the border town. We were in time to watch the border crossing ceremony - pictures to follow - a theatrical set piece if ever I saw one!

We were disappointed that we weren't able to see more of Pakistan, but the difference between the two sides of the Punjab is remarkable and telling in itself. After we had dealt with all the customs and passport stuff, we managed to buy some beer in duty free. We were still with Mark and Brigitta and had been travelling with them for over two weeks now. We decided that to just go our separate ways without a beer together in our new found freedom would be wrong, so we drove 200 metres up the Attari Road, pulled into a disused field opposite a lovely view of trees and rice fields and cracked open a beer. It was great to be able to relax again and camp without four walls and lots of police around us.

We didn't make it to Amristar that day, but the next! We said our goodbyes to Mark and Brigitta. We had all appreciated each others company through Pakistan and never thought at the beginning that we would be together so long. When we write up Iran, which will be soon, we'll be able to show you some of the pics of our time in the desert, it was such good fun.

We drove the 30km to Amritsar and got ourselves a hotel. It isn't just the relaxation we need but to do laundry, clean out the van and just get ourselves ready for the next stage of our trip. The Grand Hotel has a lovely jungle garden out the back and is cool and peaceful. It's pretty cheap, hey, this is India, has a restaurant attached and we've met fellow travellers from the UK already!!

We'll keep in touch with our movements but plans so far are to head towards the Himalaya at Manali. Manali is in the state of Himchal Pradesh and is the gateway to Leh, in Ladakh. We're here too late to cross that mountain pass, unless we want to get stuck there for Winter! After Manali we'll head to Agra to see the Taj and then  back West through Rajasthan.