Travel diaries- II
So travel diaries II is here after much procrastination. In part 1 I talked about the initial prep so you didn't miss much, but if you want, you could still go back and give it a read. Now comes the fun part of when the actual travel starts. We opted for the train to get from Karachi to Rawalpindi/Islamabad, because we wanted a nice scenic view. It was almost a 26 hrs ride approximately. Greenline is a nice option if you prefer train over plane. So we started our journey from Karachi Cantt station at 10pm, had dinner around 11 and since we couldn't really see anything outside due to dark we slept around 12. Our inflatable pillows were a blessing right then, also a tip - you might want to get your own pillows (inflatable) and light blankets because otherwise you have a choice to rent them from the train but I mean, my OCD factor kicks in then and I prefer my own bedding.
We woke up for Fajr, prayed in the train, a fun fact or not so fun fact is the washrooms where the noise levels from the train tracks is purely unadultered and don't forget the whole shakiness factor. After breakfast, which again we packed our own, (put bread and jam/butter available in travel friendly jars, or you can order breakfast from the train kitchenette too). We saw rice fields, date palm gardens ,bananas, and a few others that I couldn't really recognise.
A tad bit of unpleasant experience during our train journey was unexpected stops that our train took, because this specific train is never really delayed or late normally, but we later came to know that we were behind this other train, that belonged to this India-Pakistan project or something and had all Sikhs which were visiting some holy place in Lahore, and due to security and defence reasons, they had to improvise a bit. There are a couple of bridges over seas en route Sindh and Punjab, on which the train passes and they are scary as hell, and if you happen to have a vivid imagination. especially one made up of deep seas and untimely faults resulting in accidents- and God do I hate my tendency to read mystery thrillers at times like these!
After all the train journey was about to end, and excitement was peeking obviously, our plan originally was to get off on Islamabad, but then we ended up getting of at Chaklala station, which by the way was a lot of heroics to get off along with our luggage, since the train stops at that particular station for 1 minute, literally!!
We went off to stay at a family friend's place from there, about an hour of a journey to Islamabad and stayed the night. On our way to that place I saw a good 6-8 dental clinics, hospitals and a Dental college and I was a bit amazed too, the good kind ( I'm a dentist in case you were thinking what and why on earth am I blabbing about the dental progress of the area).Now I don't know about others since Karachi has lost a lot of its greenery over the years, this place was a breath of fresh air for me , I was totally envious of the lush greenery and blooming plantation.
We took off in the morning for the journey forward, crossed Faizabad, saw the infamous and controversial Punjab metro station. They have this bus depot, where buses leave for different cities, as frequently as after every 10 mins, got our tickets, boarded the bus to Muzzafarabad.
Next post is about Kashmir, good stuff ahead!
We woke up for Fajr, prayed in the train, a fun fact or not so fun fact is the washrooms where the noise levels from the train tracks is purely unadultered and don't forget the whole shakiness factor. After breakfast, which again we packed our own, (put bread and jam/butter available in travel friendly jars, or you can order breakfast from the train kitchenette too). We saw rice fields, date palm gardens ,bananas, and a few others that I couldn't really recognise.
A tad bit of unpleasant experience during our train journey was unexpected stops that our train took, because this specific train is never really delayed or late normally, but we later came to know that we were behind this other train, that belonged to this India-Pakistan project or something and had all Sikhs which were visiting some holy place in Lahore, and due to security and defence reasons, they had to improvise a bit. There are a couple of bridges over seas en route Sindh and Punjab, on which the train passes and they are scary as hell, and if you happen to have a vivid imagination. especially one made up of deep seas and untimely faults resulting in accidents- and God do I hate my tendency to read mystery thrillers at times like these!
After all the train journey was about to end, and excitement was peeking obviously, our plan originally was to get off on Islamabad, but then we ended up getting of at Chaklala station, which by the way was a lot of heroics to get off along with our luggage, since the train stops at that particular station for 1 minute, literally!!
We went off to stay at a family friend's place from there, about an hour of a journey to Islamabad and stayed the night. On our way to that place I saw a good 6-8 dental clinics, hospitals and a Dental college and I was a bit amazed too, the good kind ( I'm a dentist in case you were thinking what and why on earth am I blabbing about the dental progress of the area).Now I don't know about others since Karachi has lost a lot of its greenery over the years, this place was a breath of fresh air for me , I was totally envious of the lush greenery and blooming plantation.
We took off in the morning for the journey forward, crossed Faizabad, saw the infamous and controversial Punjab metro station. They have this bus depot, where buses leave for different cities, as frequently as after every 10 mins, got our tickets, boarded the bus to Muzzafarabad.
Next post is about Kashmir, good stuff ahead!
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