Dark Nights and Mad Drivers

Slowly I'm venturing into the wilds of Pakistan, back to the places where I spent most of my time here as a kid. Islamabad seemed messy and loud to my placated mind, but I forgot what it's like once your off the grid of streets under the Marghalla Hills.

The first stage of the journey was a taxi ride of Islamabad's twin Rawalpindi. They're unidentical twins. Rawalpindi is an ancient web of streets and a confusion of houses ringed by slums. Off we drove. You could see the city hovering in the smog, shimmering in the setting sun. I had hired a taxi together with an older woman who did not where the customary scarf on her head. She knew English well and we had both missed the shuttle from the bus station in Islamabad to the central station in Pindi. The first question she asked was: "Do you feel safe as a foreigner in light of developments since September 11?" I said I felt quite safe. She went on to tell me about her work as a peace activist in Pakistan - gutsy woman. Her organization is working for peace in South Asia, particularly between India and Pakistan. I commend her for that.

The bus ride was uneventful. Pakistan has a new bus network featuring clean, spacious, air-conditioned coaches. The network takes bookings and issues tickets (I'm sure this has never been the case for a bus service in Pakistan before). It's great, though the seats are a bit close together for me (did I mention I have a problem with that).

We made our way up to the town where my parents lived for 10+years, Abottabad. As we neared the town night set it. I tried to orient myself based on lighted shops and intersections I recognized. The town is overflowing its bounds, it seems to me. We careened by the lights forcing smaller vehicles off onto the shoulders as we pushed back into our lane just in time to avoid an on-coming transport truck. I saw an amazing manouver. I've seen a lot of crazy stuff on Pakistani roads, but never two large vehicles (our bus was one) passing a slow-moving transport simultaneously on a single lane road around a blind corner. The other vehicle took the shoulder and we the on-coming lane. Fabulous!