Lazy Email from Quetta

(Email sent December 9, 2005)

Dear All,

The lazy emails are coming thick and fast, and our time in Pakistan is just racing by. Today quite literally as we ran through the desert with scarves flying to hail and old ford milk truck. A day trip to the stunning Hanna Lake, a blue green lake surrounded by craggy mountains, took a turn for the surreal as we got a mini bus who drove us through the most enormous military training ground, then dropped us in the desert beside a sign that pointed to Hanna Lake. No evidence of water or people about!! After a good hike up a track we found the most hilarious puddle of murky water, with a fake island in the middle and two peddel-os! Oh well. We ran back to that road and then got a lift with our Milko!

Quetta has been fantastic. It is a small city, with a very laid back feel in the west of Pakistan near the Afghan boarder, so the influence of the Afghanis is quite strong. Susan and I have both fallen in love with the divine shoe maker from Kabul who sells shoes opposite our hotel with his little brother. His easily the most devastatingly handsome man we have seen in Pakistan! I even bought some of his shoes, so Jamie and Robert have a pressie when I come home! I hope they like pom poms!

The frontier feel is definitely there, with loads of traders and carpets and woolen wraps and silks everywhere. Just gorgeous. Lots of hairy men, bit turbans, bushy beards, and all walking around in wraps! The weather has gotten chilly, and we are struggling to wear sandals, our feet are blue even through the dust! Tomorrow we have a train out to Lahore, its a massive 30 hour train trip, going on the dodgiest train and an economy sleeper, with six other women, so as you all wriggle down in your lovely beds tonight, think of Susan and I !!! We have invested in Valium that got us through the 18 hour bus rid to Quetta. We needed something as the windows had been shot up, some had smashed completely, others had cracked and tape was around the bullet holes. Try being the only two women on that bus and sleeping! The train may be step up!

Last night we had a private dinner with the Premier of Bolochistan, the province we are in. Turns out his nephew owns our hotel, so we were whipped out under cover of darkness to visit the uncle who produced cold beer for us, despite this being a dry country! He then got paranoid that we were foreign journalists and that we were going to expose him for a bottle of beer!! Nothing like playing it cool! We were then made to sit through a massive meal of curry and rice at midnight. Random! Tammy has suggested I sell the photos when I get home to supplement my PhD earnings!

Would love to arrive in Lahore with a full inbox!

Love to All,

Dion

PS It looks like we will start working with UNICEF in Muzaffrabad next week!