Rawalpindi - Pakistan day 70

After 29 hours in the train we arrived yesterday evening in Rawalpinda. The train crossed Pakistan from east to west. I had the feeling of Michael Palin crossing a whole country by train. Along the ride we saw small villages without paved roads, people in mudhouse. We saw trucks crawling trough the mountains looking like works of art. With musical horns, poetry, dangling chains, decorated windows etc. We saw Afghans living in shacks, tents. We saw children playing in mud, dust and dirt. We saw waterbuffalows in dirty water. We saw dustie but impressive mountains near Quetta and green fields coming closer to Multan. The train made a kind of u track covering Multan and Lahore on the same trainride. During the ride we drunk chai, had lunch and we looked at the amazing landscape unfolding to us. We played some boardgames with Pakistanis. Talked about the differences between Pakistan and Europe. The people we met are very friendly and hospitable. I will only still 14 days in Pakistan but that is truly not enough. I'm sure I will be back. This afternoon I will take a night bus to Gilgit and Karimabad in the north of Pakistan.

Quetta, Pakistan

I Crossed the border between Iran and Pakistan in the morning of 25 of Augustus. On
the 24 of Augustus I took a 14 hours night bus from Yaazd to Zehadan.

Zehadan is near the border with Pakistan from there a took a shared
taxi to the border. I crossed the border around 9:30 AM. The border is
not realy a very modern place, passport control in Pakistan is in a
little building looking like "shitty" building. Welcome to Pakistan.

The people were very friendly and helped me on the way. After the border I had to wait 2 hours for the next bus to Quetta. In the bus I met Choi Jae-hoon. A Korean who I met in Esfahan in Amir Kabir Hostel.

The bus Quetta left at 12:30 in the afternoon. The road to
Quetta is very small and very bumpy. I mean very very bumpy. The road
crossed a big desert and in between there is nothing but sand and
stones, part of the crossing was throught a sand storm. Luckely the
sand storm did not last long. At around 4 am we arrived in Quetta. Because Quetta is not very safe at 4 am we stayed at moslim shrine/mosque with guards
with guns. They allowed us to sleep at the roof near the entrance of the mosque. At
6 am we were asked to leave.

I stay now at Azad Muslim Hotel. In this hotel I also met Ryuta I met him in Esfahan in the Amir kabit hotel. We shared a room.

Quetta is a very dusty frontier town, but it has something.

Tomorrow in the afternoon I will take the train to Rawalpindi and then
on to Gilgit. The train takes about 29 hours. Just imagine 29 hours to cross the country from west to east.

Meinoud Rijnen
http://www.rijnentravel.blogspot.com
India overland by bus and train

Imam Square

Imam Square,
originally uploaded by mjrijnen.

I uploaded a few pictures from Esfahan Iran. I hope you like them.

Yazd Iran

Since two nights I'm in Yazd in the south of Iran. Yazd is a very nice and relaxing town. I stay in hotel called kohane kashane in the old city and it is a restored old house. From the outsides it looks like nothing but from the inside it is a realy nice place. The best part it is quite and there is a smal garden. In Iran is so much noice from all the cars, so most of the times you hear cars.

I will stay in Yazd for a couple of days to relax before I move to Pakistan. Before tis friday I have to leave Iran.

Since the 10 of augustus I could'nt update my site, most of the internet places were extremely slow. The other reason was there is so much to see in Iran I just did not have time to update my site. The last message was from Theran, I stayed there 2 nights and from there on I went to Kashan and Esfahan ( Isfahan ). In Isfahan I stayed 6 days and had a great time over there. In Kashan I only stayed one night. From Esfahan I moved to Shiraz to see Persepolis and now I'm in Yazd. Hopefully in the next items I will tell something more about Isfahan and Kashan

Iran Theran

Since the 5 of August i'm in Iran. It is a strange country, with many people who wants to practice there English. A country were you can buys coca cola and Pepsi. Here in Iran is still a coca cola company. The food so much better then in Turkey. There are more possibilties then in Turkey. In Iran they keep the meet in the fridge which the Turkies dont do on many occassion. The last couple of days I travelled from Tabriz (the best ice cream and the best mellon juices)to Qazvin and then on to Theran. What also strange is that my mobile phone is still working. I heard and read that it was not possible. In Qazvin I rented together with Max, Sandrine and Thierry a taxi to see Alamut and the castles of the assassins. These castles hid the followers of the Hasan a sabbah. His followers were dispatched to murder or kidnap leading political or relegiouse figures. It was a long way from Qazvin but it was a nice ride trough the mountains and see something else like little mud villages. Mud villages are quite common here in Iran. The next day I took a savari ( shared taxi) to Soltaniyeh to see the Oljeitu mauseleum. This time together with Sandrine and Tierry. The mausoleum was worth to see. Getting back to Qazvim was a bit of a challenge because they (taxi peole) wanted us to charge way to much money. At the and we took a local bus to Zanjan and from there a safari back to Qazvim. Again we paid to much but 2 hours in a kia (175 km) for 3 euro is not that much. We at in Eghbali a very nice restaurant we at something called khoresht. Today i had here in Theran Dizi this is a kind of soup stew with chikpeas, potatoes, onions and lamb. The dish was not very cheap because I at this in one of Theran finest reastaurant called Khayyam Traditional Restaurant. You can also get alcohol free beer. They called it beer but is more like lemenade. I tried few local brews, they were not great. But I can also buy Bavaria apple or Bavaria lemmon or just the original one. Tomrrow I go to Kashan.

Iran Tabriz Qazvin

Since last friday I`m in Iran.

 

Crossing the border between Turkey and Iran was an easy experience I just walked over. In Turkey I got my passport stamped and Iranian customs opens the fence , take our passport. Within 1 minute we got our passport back and we could enter Iran. We didn't need to wait in line with the other local people. We changed 100 us dollar at the bank (this bank is also open on Friday in Iran all banks are closed on friday) and they change also Euros and Pounds. For 100 us you get about 40 banknotes wich is a large bundle of money. In Bazargan we took a Savari (Shared taxi) to Tabriz a ride from app 300 km. This was per person 5 euro.   
 

In Tabriz I tasted some honey dew melllon juice this is realy very nice to drink. We walked around in Tabriz most of the shops were closed because it was friday. But we met a lot of Iranian peopel who wanted tp practice there English. They realy want to know were we came from etc.. I just see that it is nearly 6:45 pm I will meet some french people for dinner.

 

Tomorrow I will go to Theran where I will stay 2 nights. I'm now in Qazvin.

 

--
Meinoud Rijnen
Qazvim Iran

uploading new pictures

I'm uploadıng some new pictures of Turkey. I found here in dogubayizit a very fast internet cafe. Just klick on all pictures 2005 Set: Nemrut dagi and set: Urfa

Set Urfa Set Nemrut dagi

just arrıved ın Dogubayazıt

I Have just arrıved ın Dogubayazıt ın the east of Turkey. Tomorrow I wıll go to Iran. Expected route wıll be Tabrız, Zanjan, Qazvın, Tehran, Kashan, Esfahan, Shıraz, Yazd, Kerman, Zahedan, Mırjaveh and then ınto Pakıstan. I haven only a 21 day vısa so ıt wıll fast and short.

I have my visa for India

Yeahhhh I have my visa for India. So tomorrow evening I take a nightbus from Ankara to Dogubayazit which is very close to the Iranian border. I will stay one night in Dogobayazit and then move to Iran.