Shaking in Islamabad

Kevin, Luke and I have reunited again in Lahore. I spent a day in a Hostel in Lahore before they arrived. The owner of the Hostel was an amazing, he treated us to a tour outside of Lahore. We joined Malik and went to an inauguration ceremony for his cousin who was recently elected to office. They had some amazing drumming after the ceremony followed up by fireworks. I met with several different ministers of Health, Education, Finance... here I am in the middle of the upper brass of the Punjab region my first day in Pakistan, too funny. We later went to a festival outside of Lahore. I always heard about the cannabis culture here and never knew how big it was, you could smell the hashish everywhere you go. We were invited back to a drum tent were we met the big ticket performers for the night. These "ladies" shook my hand, and I was a little baffled because women are not allowed to touch men. I was sitting in a tent with about 40 men and children staring at me and my friends while we talked with the "ladies". Our host told us they were man "ladies" who performed around the country and this is a good blessing/superstition if they dance in your village. Many of them were hermaphrodite some just very effeminate men. This was one part of the Islamic Republics I never thought I would see. After the dancing was over and the weirdness of 100 men watching 12 un-choreographed "ladies" dance we returned to the hostel. When we arrived we heard music upstairs only to find a live Sufi band playing. We danced and had a good time and the day was over. What a crazy day of random events...

We hooked up with a hospitality club member from the US who is now a resident of Pakistan. Bobby hosted us for a couple days while Luke rested from his stomach problems. Bobby and his wife prepared us some amazing Pakistani food that we thoroughly enjoyed. We needed to head towards Islamabad to apply for our Indian Visa's. We have found out the Karakorum Highway is inaccessible to the north due to the devastation of the earthquake. We were really looking forward to conquering the highest paved pass in the world between Pakistan and China called the Kunjerab pass at 4934m. This will have to wait until another trip.

We arrived in Islamabad on Friday, the civil engineers planned a more western approach creating a grid like infrastucture than other Pakistani cities. We have not seen any major signs of the earthquake but the outskirts of the cities look worse due to their more earthquake prone mud brick homes. I was in my room last night in fetal position (another amoebic party in my stomach) when I felt the bed shaking slightly. I thought Kevin snuck in the room and playing games until I said a few choice words and lifted my head from the covers and no one was there. This subtle shaking went on for about a minute or so and stopped. I thought it was just my delusional state from a high fever and the shakes but it was confirmed that two tremors occurred last night.

So we are waiting for 7 days in Islamabad until our Visa is approved. Next stop India!

Until our next post!