Pakistan - crossing of Pakistan / part 2 - March 2008
The pashtuns from the mountains... The moral code of those proud people is based on the hospitality for all visitors, the revenge in case of insults or injustice, the defense of the honour of the family, the women and the clan and finally an absolute submission of the vanquished ... Communication is not easy with them, however you feel that they have a big heart behind their harsh faces!
Still no escort ... until we arrive in front of a kind of burrow from where two policemen are coming out ...They stop us ! Then a chief (?) appears on top of a hill and starts shouting at them ... The two jump on an old motorbike ... but not for long! The track is now quite bad and the motorbike stops suddenly after a big bump. Daniel tries to stop the car but we slide because of the sand on the track ... We stop the car at less than 5 millimeters from the motorbike in the middle of a big cloud of dust. The two policemen seem paralysed when looking at us ... Luckily, we didn't have smashed them ! It would have been diffficult to explain how we eliminated the escort !
He always smiles ... Daniel asks him if he is a taliban ... he and his friends have a lot of fun about it!
We arrive in Quetta as officials escorted from everywhere. We stop in the Bloom Star hotel well known by the overlanders ...
We are surprised by the people who accept to speak quite freely about politics, religions, ... The perceptions due to the message of the media are really biased! Here we drink tea in a tailor house in the center of Quetta...
We just have to fullfil the documents at each checkpoints and of course refuse politely the tea!
The children like it !
Last moments without mandatory scarf for Catherine and Lisa !
We loved Pakistan and we didn't have had the feeling to be in danger ... the pakistani we met are really lovely people ! |