Zahedan Bus Terminal The Zahedan bus terminal is away from the city. No one speaks English and it is a bit of a pain. Fortunately two guys who came with me from the border to Zahedan helped me buy the ticket to Esfahan. It cost Iranian Riyals 65,000/= or they also call it Tumans 6,500/=. Obviously One Tuman is equal to 10 Riyals. There was a dodgy looking guy who came and started asking questions in Farsi. Then another friend I had made while being there came up to me and started talking. Then the dodgy guy went up to him [View Full Entry]

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Quetta - Tafton The bus was supposed to leave at 4pm but it finally did at 5pm. I guess I was a part of the delay as I had to go back to the exchange place and come back. The bus had rice or floor bags on the floor and everyone walked over it. I guess this is how they conserve space in the baggage area. I had sufficient space and since I had an aisle seat I managed to put my legs out, the guy next to me, I am so glad I wasn’t there he was all cramped up. [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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The train left at 11:25am while Shahid Afridi was tearing the Indian bowling attack into pieces at Faisalabad. Everyone at the train station was glued to the TV's. It was quite an effort to get into the train like in India there is no queue and people just don’t give a damn about the people trying to get in. They will bulldoze their way through and get in. After much difficulty I got into the train and wow it looked very clean. Now the Jaffar express I believe is the Rajadhani / Shatabdi equivalent in India. Cannot make a comparison between [View Full Entry]

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Here are some pictures I took of people while walking about in the city.... [View Full Entry]

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These are images of Regal Chowk area....nearby you get Regal Internet the famous guest house where most backpackers stay....the people there are really friendly and the owners two sons are great.....I copied a wide selection (8 CD's full of MP3 world music, buddha bar equivalent) from them. They also speak very good english. [View Full Entry]

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Early morning went to the Lahore train station with the Japanese guys as I was told that foreigners get a 25% discount on trains. Afterward I finished at the railway station I met Amina at 11am and went all over Lahore. We went to Anarkalee Bazaar, a few other bazaars. The Anarkalee bazaar is the Pettah equivalent (Pettah is a large wholesale shopping area in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka). Went to the Mineri Pakistan. This is where the resolution took place to separate Pakistan from India. Lahore Bad Shahi Mosque Lahore Fort Area Masjid Wazir Khan While walking in [View Full Entry]

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Pakistan Railway gives discounts to foreigners and students !!!! To get the discount you got to go to the train station area and take a left turn towards the Railway reservation office. Half way between the reservation office and the train station you get the accounting office also known as the DS office. The people there are extremely friendly. All foreigners get a 25% discount. All students get a 50% discount. So if you are planning to travel that “ISIC” (International Students Identify Card) is a useful thing to have. They will ask you to get a photo copy of the [View Full Entry]

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IMPORTANT !!!!!!!! Sri Lankan’s, Chinese, Bangladeshi’s, Afghan’s and perhaps Nepali’s can cross the India-Pakistan border only twice a week. (Monday and Thursday) I took a train to Amritsar, bus to Atari and then a cycle rickshaw to the Wagah border to find out that Sri Lankan’s cannot cross to Pakistan using the Wagah road border. So I had to take a taxi back as there were no cycle rickshaws to be seen as I had to get to the Atari train station by 11am since the immigration closes at that time. Essentially the Wagah border is closed for the above nationalities [View Full Entry]

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These are some random pictures I took....... [View Full Entry]

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