rawalpindi

after arriving in pindi, we managed to find an atm and spent our first couple of rupees at a burger joint. after dinner, mathieu and elias went off to find a hotel while dimitri, anna and me opted for couchsurfing. anna had arranged everything with the host, so we were pretty surprised when we found out that our host had a huge villa, including a private chef. the guy was super chill as well.

the very next day, we got straight to preparing our visa applications for india. turns out they need two weeks to issue it and still want 130€ for it. also, they gave us a list of things they wanted for the application: vaccinations, a hotel reservation, a motivation letter and much more bs. there were a lot more reasons than just this bit of bureaucracy, but in the end, i made a split decision and just trusted my gut feeling that india maybe wasn't exactly what i was looking for right now. central asia sounded a lot better. in retrospective, fabulous decision.

now with new found time on my hands, my favourite activity became booking ultra cheap scooter taxis to drive me around the booming streets of rawalpindi. you see no women, the traffic is absolute carnage, traffic rules are regarded more as suggestions and it's super crowded simply because there is no space for that many people to go. slowly, i got adjusted to the spicy food, but my stomach was still far from having a good time. the others weren't better off either, at one point mathieu (the two guys moved in with us after one night in the hotel) took a double dose of imodium and he couldn't shit for days xd

in the train, i had told matthieu about my plans to do a bit of bikepacking myself and he had happily agreed to accompany me for a little tour through the himalayas while his visa was getting processed. fantastic, now, all i had to do was find a bike.Read more