Quetta (Capital of Balochistan)

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I got into Quetta at 12:30pm even though the train was supposed to get there at 9:30am.

Once I got out of the station I took an auto and I asked them to take me to a bus that went to Tafton. Earlier, I was going to explore Quetta the whole day but as the train got late I had no choice but to skip it and keep moving.

I was taken to this small shop and was told the bus to Tafton was leaving at 4pm and it costs PKR350/=. Well I felt it was reasonable so bought the ticket. I told them that I will pay PKR200/= now and the balance later just to make sure they were genuine.

I left my backpack at the small shop and had 3 hours to explore Quetta. The shop people told me to take a colourful bus to Jinnah Road which is the Orchard Street of Quetta hahahah…..

The bus to Jinnah road cost PKR7/=. As I got down Jinnah Road the first thing I heard was fighter jets tearing through Quetta skies. I asked the policeman if the American Air Force were conduction flights and he replied no the Pakistan Air Force.

Then I saw 4 jets going behind one another and it was pretty cool. The next thing I see is all this arms and ammunition shops. It’s quite normal to see guns all over the place here. I went inside a arms shop to check out what they have got, then thought it might be a bad idea and hence decided to get out quickly. You never what these guys will get up to especially when they have identified you as a foreigner.

I got to an internet place which was PKR10/= per hour and had the nerve to ask them how much would you charge for half an hour. I mean this is the cheapest internet place I have walked to all my life and here I am trying to bargain that too. I need to get out of this bargaining habit for every little thing. They said sorry we charge by the hour irrespective of you using it less than an hour.

I am on a constant watch out in this place because it is so famous for drugs you never know what will happen. Walked about in Quetta, nothing really to do, the whole place is surrounded by mountains.

Now I realised that I didn’t have any Iranian money to get a taxi from the border to Zahedan. Asked around and I was told by the people at a travel agency to go to the “Buhari Centre” (BC) and that they give a good rate and it is safe. Apparently it is not advisable to do any transactions on the road as there are too many thieves. Well I wonder if they will try to mug me cause they will only get USD10/= cause that is all I have in hard currency. Well I needed to make sure that I don’t loose my USD10/= so decided to go to the BC and change money. I checked on the internet on www.oanda.com the rate for USD / Iranian Rials and it mentioned 9500 per USD. At the BC they however gave me 8850 per USD. Well tried bargaining but nothing changed.

I converted some remaining Pakistani Rupees also to Iranian money which was 150 per PKR. I gave them a PKR500/= note changed 300 of it as I needed the balance to pay for the bus.

I forgot to collect the balance PKR200/= and nicely went back to the Bus shop. At the bus shop when I was trying to pay only I realised that I had not collected the balance. Got into a taxi went to the BC and collected the 200 and came back. Well to go and come the taxi cost me PKR60/= so a nett 140 which was ok.

Came to the bus shop unlocked my backpack and checked it just to make sure that they have not introduced something that will lead to me being hung…..well fortunately it looked all safe and I was ready to go.

Paid the money and on my way to the bus went to a nearby petrol shed toilet. In comparison to China, these petrol shed toilets are much cleaner. At least you can see the hole in the squatting area. (No I’m not kidding in China you can’t see it).

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