The day seems to start well. The escort stands ready at our door around six-thirty and we can leave immediately. They drive like maniacs and we have trouble keeping up. Driving away is not an option anyway because we are in Punjab now. The police here are no joke, which you can see on their face. We are running out of money so we tell them we have to withdraw some money. But they tell us we have to wait for it and that our next escort would take care of that. Here is it that the trouble started. The ATM’s accept only VISA cards, no Master Card. We try about twenty machines and a few hours later we are still without any money and we are now almost running out of petrol. Here we are, in the dangerous Pakistan, without money and almost any petrol. In the meanwhile, our escort is a Levies again and they refuse to leave the highway. We decide to drive off again, we take the next exit and start looking around for an ATM. Still no luck but then we meet our saviour in distress, he assures us that a petrol station will accept our Master Card and that we can also ask for some extra money then. We already tried this but apparently at the wrong station. Turns out he is right, we talk a little bit and the guy also invites us to his home. In the meanwhile, our escort caught up on us and was waiting to leave so we have to refuse…unfortunately. A short time later we are back on the road, refuelled and with money in our wallet. Again we can drive fast and the changes of escort go very smoothly. A little too smoothly because now we are the ones that have to ask to take a break.

Our Escort

Anyway, the search for money has cost us too much time and we arrive late at night in Lahore, the last town in Pakistan, on the border with India. Here we can continue without escort. After a long search for a hotel, we then decide to drive up to the border. This is a risk, because we are not sure if there is a hotel there and the people in Lahore don’t seem to know. When we see the barrier of the border with army guards we ask them, against all odds, if there is no hotel behind this barrier. To our surprise there is one, and we are allowed to drive to the border hotel. Here, Kitty spends her first night with a gecko. It’s a dirty hotel with bad food but we are happy that the end of Pakistan is in sight. We can already see the immigration office!

The Border Hotel

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