On the Rails Again (English)

On the Rails again:

Today we’re on ‘the rails’ again. It was an incredible surprise to see Laiq turning up at 0:30 in the morning to drive us to the Rawalpindi railwaystation. He even toured us around in Rawalpindi, showing us the Saddar Bazaar by night. The bazaar and Muree road are two not-to-be-missed hotspots and he had just treated us on both. Laiq is surely a great man of seldom alloy.

He said he could not catch sleep because he was constantly worried that we would take the wrong taxi-cab, or being ripped-off in the middle of the night by one. So he decided to take his Suzuki mini-van and drive us from Jasmine Gardens to the railwaystation – wow! Due to the sudden show-up of Laiq, just when Henk was sharing a cup of tea with us – we forgot our precious jasmine tea from Dali; we hope that Henk surely enjoys it as a good replacement for the lucious milk chai (tea) of the Pakistani.

Laiq dropped us of at the railway station and he insisted to take us all the way to our compartiment; taking a bunch of our bags along with him. When the train arrived, we discovered that half of the compartiments were actually ‘Pakistan Post’ wagons with post. We are not sure, but this might be the reason that we could have booked the trainticket as swiftly as we did. Normally, if you buy a trainticket in Pakistan, it takes at least two to five days that you have to book in advance.

Now, at Laiq’s office at his General Post Office premises, we had the perfect two person sleaper compartiment reserved for the following morning at a matter of minutes.. ..some Pakistani magic at work I guess.

We had an half hour to board the train, giving us plenty of time to shoot one more picture of Laiq – in front of his ‘own’ Pakistan Post wagon and say goodbye. We installed ourselves in the mid-sixties, somewhat shabby train compartiment (with private toilet!) and quickly fell asleep.. ..at least I did, Lisanne was burdened by my abundant snoaring exercises..

Melody Market Food Treat 1814:

The private toilet on itself proved to be a luxury of course (except for some of its smell) but really came in handy the next morning, when my lunch at Melody Market wanted to parade out of my belly. My body certainly was performing one of my worst food-poisining 1814 symphonies – a not-so very welcome overture from the visit to Melody Market. Luckily I could bring it all down pianissimo by drinking liters of ORS and feasting on my Lakrisal liquorice.. ..the Melody Market food was soon to come to a pauze – or intermezzo, who can tell?..

As mentioned, the Pakistan compartiment was moving us backward, at least twenty years in comparison to our beloved Chinese counterparts. Not only the compartiment, but also the outside scenery soon brought us back to the ages of horse-and-carriage, rotten-tuc-tucs and electricity outcasted houses, or even complete villages. The quality of the Pakistani compartiment allowed us to take a good sleep, but the ironic thing is that the beds in Pakistan – a land with a considerable amount of rather tall people – we a lot smaller in measure than in China. Spooning was a must, not a nice-to-have in this situation.

Additionally we caught ourselves in the Deluxe Airconditioned wagon, which effectively meant that our double-sealed window had a small pool of water in between and a thick mirrage of moist which was impossible to remove. Our view of the Pakistani landscape was literally blurred for us.
Now writing this little text, it’s quite a challenge just not to be shaken from the bed/seat. Granted, at first I thought not to have a small foodpoisening, but to be struck by ocean/motion-sickness (really!). We’re definitely in a sixties’Bond train scene: getting us shaken.. ..not stirred.