Day 25 (Karachi)

Farewell Iran..Hello Pakistan!

I was worried about (as my mammy would say) “jumping from the frying pan into the flame”, with today's border cross, but so far so wonderful. We had a 2.5 hour flight from Tehran to Karachi which was pretty much smooth the whole way. Entering Pakistan was a worry for everyone, but after meeting our guide. Amjad and driver Arstad we were immediately feeling less worried. I'm happy to be exploring this country, but a bit displeased about the mode of transport we used to get here..it's supposed to be an overland adventure, but this is the first of three flights that we have to take and the first we heard about this particular one was about a week into the trip. OzBUS need to pull their socks up in the communication department – this is far from the first omission of vital information. Luckily my bag was under the weight restrictions for flights, but it would have been nice to have had a heads up about this flight before we got on the bus.

Anyways, that's something for my feedback to Alastair and Stephen later on, for now lets focus on Pakistan! We arrived in Karachi in the early afternoon and after words of welcome and introduction from Amjad we went to the hotel to check in. Everyone took a few minutes to freshen up and then we headed out to the beach where some of the crew went swimming while others went for camel rides and I took the opportunity to sit down and admire the view (not sure camel riding is my thing...looks particularly uncomfortable). On the way to the beach we went to a mausoleum where Amjad arranged for the changing of the guards ceremony to happed earlier than normal so we could see it, lots of stamping and thrusting guns around. To get up to see it we had to take off our shoes and walk up some steps..easy to do you'd think but when the marble slabs have been in the su all day soaking up the heat it's kinda like having a hot stone massage on the soles of your feet without the movement of the stone or the relaxing massage..it's just a burning sensation that made us all run around like crazy loons!

After the beach we got freshened up and then went for a traditional Pakistani dinner atop a BBQ restaurant overlooking the sea. We had an assortment of dishes that all went down very well even though I thought the spice might kill me..so glad that I've been warming up my spice taste buds with semi-regular visits to Khan's over the last few years. A bit more practise may have been wise :)

The only bad thing about the day was finding out that someone had been in some of the rooms in the hotel while we were out. Nothing appeared to have been taken but it was still an unwelcome invasion of privacy. The manager looked into it while we were at dinner and when we got back he told us that he'd established who it was and had fired the man in question.

So first impression of Pakistan is a very positive one. As Amjad explained the reports in the media isn't necessarily a true impression of Pakistan and it harms it's reputation and the way people view it's inhabitants. Anyone we've met so far has been wonderfully friendly and very welcoming.

For photos from Karachi click here.