night train to rawalpindi

just a couple of minutes before our departure, we learned that the journey would actually take more than 30 hours. thriller. the vibes were surprisingly good pretty much the whole way through, even if we still got passport checks (always including an elaborate photo shoot with us) at every single train stop and there was one policeman accompanying us all the way to the border of belochistan. although we were quite annoyed by all the security ckecks at this point, i still appreciate the fact that the police does all of this for free just to make sure we're safe.

the views were great though, we passed through wildly different parts of the country, from the belochi desert through tiny villages to lush, green farmlands and i realized that i had actually missed the greenery in iran more than i had thought. every now and then, we got off at a train stop to catch some fresh air or buy some 30 cent diarrhea rice.

somehow, we pulled through the 30 hours relatively smoothly. i spent a lot of those hours sitting in the open train door watching the landscape whizz by with my headphones in. it was super nice to be honest, and the four others kept me great company.Read more