DAY 108 - ISLAMABAD DAY 2

Chuck at Murree, high in the mountains surrounding Islamabad

With Rhys and Fintan still bedridden, Chuck and Dave departed the guesthouse with Ali to Murree, a town high up in the mountains surrounding Islamabad with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. It was an interesting drive through mountain villages on the way and the boys had lunch up there in a restaurant overlooking the dramatic scenery.

 That evening, with Rhys and Fintan feeling slightly better, we took a drive to see the government buildings. These are all relatively new as Islamabad was only created as a city in the 1950s after Pakistan gained it independence. We had arrived to Pakistan in the aftermath of national elections and while visiting government buildings, we were struck by the intense level of security. Although we never encountered any problems, the overwhelming presence of weapons and checkpoints is a constant reminder of the current security threat.

Pakistan House of Parliament, Islamabad

After sightseeing, we decided to go back to the same hillside restaurant as the food and views were so great that it would be a shame if Fintan and Rhys completely missed it. We had another great evening chatting away, enjoying the views and smoking sheisha afterwards.

Dave and Rhys at the restaurant with Islamabad below in the distance.

DAY 107 - LAHORE TO ISLAMABAD

The view of Islamabad's Faisal Mosque from the hillside restaurant above

This morning, Fintan and Rhys were struck by another severe bout of acute dysentery, vomiting and fever. We were debating the cause of it and narrowed it down to a salad in the hotel the previous day. Whatever it was, it completely hammered them, with both needing trips to the toilet every 15 minutes.

With a pending 4 hour drive to Islamabad, the lads were struggling to keep their composure and last the entire drive without creating a situation uncomfortable for everybody. Luckily the 8 lane motorway from Lahore to Islamabad was probably the best road we’ve encountered on CrazyJourney so far and averaging a speed of 145kms was no problem (India and China eat your heart out!). Rumour has it that when the construction of the motorway was complete, the Pakistani Government landed F16 fighter jets to test it’s durability! We’re sure this was completely unnecessary but interesting none the less.

Arriving that evening in Islamabad, the administrative capital of Pakistan, Ali had arranged accommodation in a Guesthouse and arranged to go for dinner in a restaurant the mountains with a brilliant view of the whole city. Rhys and Fintan, still destroyed from their terrible infliction had no choice but to stay in bed. Dave, Chuck, Ali and his driver headed up for a lovely evening of local Pakistani food and great shisha.

DAY 107 ROUTEMAP

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DAY 106 - LAHORE DAY 3

The sun sets over Lahore Fort

Today we spent most of our time in a nearby hotel trying to organize the car ferry from Iran to the United Arab Emirates. The ferry company we were dealing with didn’t speak much English so we even had to find someone who spoke Persian to talk and translate for us. We established loose dates for the sailing and realized that we had bit more time than we thought so we could stay a bit longer in Pakistan where Ali wanted to bring us to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, a city we hadn’t intended on visiting. There had been a few bombings there in recent weeks and earlier on we jokingly decided that any city whose name contains the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Bad’ couldn’t be too safe!

Our Pakistani Legend Ali

That evening, Ali brought us to a surprisingly chic steakhouse in Lahore where we had a great feed for next to nothing. We’ve been really surprised by what’s available in Lahore and it’s standard of living and relative organisation here in comparison to India. We didn’t really know what to expect in Lahore but we’ve really been pleasantly surprised.

DAY 105 - LAHORE DAY 2

We meet the captain of a local cricket team in Lahore

We were awoken this morning by our escort from the Punjab Government who was in charge of today’s itinerary. We had an invitation to visit Fountain House in Lahore, a charity organisation looking after people with Mental Illness. They’re doing great work here dealing with the Mental Health issues of people from all over Pakistan. Knowing most of the Islamic rules relating to conduct and women we had probably one of the funniest moments of the trip so far. When being introduced to the female manager of Fountain House in front of a crowd of Pakistani Officials, Fintan stuck our his arm to shake her hand, only to be left hanging with her awkwardly replying ‘I can’t do that’! Dave, Rhys and Chuck did their best not ot heighten the awkwardness by bursting out in laughter in front of everybody. Without a doubt, Finto will be copping a lot of abuse over this incident for the rest of the trip.

The TV Cameraman was nuts, going to extremes to get a good shot!

After Fountain House we had a brief stop for lunch in Subway in Lahore. In fact, every Fast Food Chain under the sun seems to have opened shop in Pakistan, all with armed security men outside. The man wielding a pump-action shotgun outside McDonalds was a classic example.

We found it really interesting t see the sign in the pic below, stating that goods made in Denmark are essentially made in Hell! This derives from the cartoons slandering Mohammed published by a Danish Newspaper. This led to huge anti-Danish sentiment in many Muslim countries and this is eveidence of it.

The anti-Danish sign in Lahore!

After lunch we went to Dawn News, the first English speaking TV station in Pakistan, who were keen to do a story on the drive. Their British presenter organized for us to play cricket and have a mess about against a local team. We were all crap at cricket and all the cricket obsessed Pakistani’s couldn’t understand how Ireland could have beaten them in last year’s Cricket World Cup!

Rhys, looking in great form on the crease, Ricky Ponting has nothing!

Next they brought us to a busy market, where we were filmed trying on some traditional Pakistani clothing. Rhys liked his blue number so much, he went ahead and bought one. With his huge amount of facial hair, he looks fairly Middle Eastern anyway so he could pull this off no problem!

Dave and Rhys in the traditional Pakistani kit

Finally, we went to Pakistan’s most famous monument, Minar-I-Pakistan, which commemorates the founding of Pakistan as a separate sovereign entity from India in 1956. We were watched by a huge crowd which was pretty awkward. The reporter explained to us that they thought we were royalty from overseas.

That evening, we met Ali, Dave’s Pakistani mate from Sydney Uni, who took us out to a nice restaurant where to our surprise; you were allowed to drink in if you brought your own booze. After this, we went for some Shisha, which is flavoured tobacco, filtered through water and smoked through a tall pipe. We all found this very enjoyable and relaxing and it will no doubt play a large part during our Middle Eastern leg.

DAY 104 - AMRITSAR TO LAHORE, PAKISTAN

CRAZYJOURNEY HITS PAKISTAN

Rhys reflecting by the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore

We were up early in Amritsar to head west and hit the Pakistan border. This was a relatively painless process. The Indian and Pakistani customs officials were wondering if we had any magazines or DVDs with western women in them, not for confiscation but for their own viewing pleasure, so we gave them a copy of Playboy that was lying in the back of the car. Needless to say they were delighted and let us through without any problems!

The Hummer enters Pakistan

On the Pakistani side we were met by an official from the Punjab Government. Our whole Pakistani itinerary and accommodation had been kindly arranged by Toheed Ahmad, the former Pakistani ambassador to Ireland who is friends with Fintan’s parents. It was a nice to have an escort into Lahore as we were a bit apprehensive coming into Lahore due to recent suicide bombings in the city.

We weren’t really sure what to expect, but were genuinely surprised by the relative organisation and cleanliness of Lahore in comparison to most Indian cities. We were escorted to our accommodation at the Gymkhana club near the citys Canal Road, where we would spend a few days.

Us with Toheed, his wife and some other members of the Punjab Government at Cuccos

That evening, we were brought for dinner by Toheed and his wife Nausheen to Cucco’s Den, a famous rooftop restaurant in the city centre with magnificent views of the Badshahi Mosque. Built by the son of the Taj Mahal’s creator, this remarkable red sandstone and marble structure is one of the world’s largest mosques. After dinner, we took a stroll around the Mosque and went to bed to get some sleep before a busy day in Lahore tomorrow.

The view out of the Badshahi Mosque

DAY 104 ROUTEMAP - Amritsar to Lahore, Pakistan

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CRAZYJOURNEY INDIA HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO

It's been a long time since our last video! Dave has been working like a man possessed to bring you this Indian Highlights Video. Enjoy below...

If you can't see this video please visit
http://crazyjourneyhummer.blogspot.com/

DAY 103: KARNAL TO ATTARI

The high-kicking border ceremony at the Pakistan/India border in Attari.

After a few hours sleep in the abandoned waterpark hotel, we were back on the road at 5am in order to push on to meet Paul and his Dad, ‘The Big Serge’ in Jalandhar where the Sokhis are orinally from. After a much needed breakfast and shower in their hotel, Serge brought us with his cousin to do a fit-job on our broken wing mirror. Using a bathroom mirror, duck-tape, a few pieces of metal and a cordless drill, Sokhi’s uncle did a remarkable MacGyver-style DIY job that should last us until we get to a Hummer garage in Dubai.

Serge and his cousin check out the Hummer's Mirror

With the Pakistan border closing at 4pm, we were in a bit of a dilemma. If we took a trip to the Golden Temple, the glorious home of Sheikh religion and probably one of the most beautiful structures in the world, we would probably miss the border crossing. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to see the Temple as Dave had promised his mate Ish (who’s also Sheikh) that he’d make a trip there.

Paul and Serge at the Golden Temple

After removing our shoes, washing our feet and covering our heads, we caught our first glimpse of the incredible structure. Glistening at the centre of a sacred pool, the marble temple is coated with 750kg of pure gold. Devout Sikhs travel from all over the world to visit this site and we were genuinely moved by its spiritual atmosphere.

The boys at the Golden Temple

From the Golden Temple we hopped back into the Hummer and legged it to Attari in a last-ditch effort to get across the border in time. Attari, only 30 kms from Amritsar is the only border crossing between India and Pakistan. However, we had arrived way too late for the crossing but luckily just in time for the border closing ceremony.

The border closing ceremony at Attari

The extraordinary ceremony is a bizarre battle of bravado as soldiers from both sides engage in a theatrical routine involving marching, stamping, high kicking and even a yelling contest. This daily ritual has become so popular with both locals and tourists that grandstands have been built to watch the ceremony. We headed back to Amritsar after the ceremony and found a hotel for a good rest before heading into Pakistan tomorrow.

DAY 103 Routemap: Click on pointers for details

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DAY 102: LEAVING DELHI TO AMRITSAR

Chuck with the presenter from New Delhi TV

We were up early to get to the Iranian embassy in good time to get our Visas. We’ve come to learn that these things always take longer than expected but this place really took the biscuit. We ended up waiting in the embassy all day for a fax to come from Tehran confirming our 30 day tourist Visas. The fax never came so we ended up just applying for a 7 day transit visa instead. This should be sufficient to get us down to Bandar Abbas in Iran to get the car ferry to U.A.E and on towards Oman.

At one point we had a mad scramble when we were given 15 minutes to locate a certain Indian Bank in order to get a bank draft made for the embassy. If we didn’t get this, the embassy would be closed for a whole week due to Iranian holidays. Chuck managed to find the Branch just time to get it sorted and during all the commotion in Delhi’s busy Connaught place, Dave’s white shoes became a victim of the ‘shit-dropping’ scam! This scam involves a stealthy manouvre by a passer-by who drops a lump of crap on your shoe only to disappear instantly, much like a pick-pocketer. This crap-dropper is in fact an accomplice to a show shiner about 20 metres up the road and this is obviously an attempt to generate business. Refusing to be had like this, Dave went to a different shoe-shiner across the road so that the scammer wouldn’t get the business. It’s amazing the lengths these people go to rip you off!

After finally getting our visas and being the last people to leave the embassy, we got ourselves organized and checked out of our hotel. We had received a phonecall earlier in the day from New Delhi TV who wanted to do a piece on the drive so we headed to meet them at the Shangri-La hotel where they shot all the footage and interviewed us on the drive. After this and a quick dinner, it was 11pm by the time we hit the road en route to Amritsar.

As we’ve learned from our time here, driving in India at night is a nightmare. 3 hours into drive, heading north towards Amritsar, Dave started falling asleep so we decided to get stop and get some kip at some strange abandoned waterpark resort near Karnal with no other guests but ourselves.

DAY 102 Routemap: Click for Details

DAY 101: DAY AFTER PADDY'S IN DELHI!

The two Daves

In bits and as sick as a small hospital, Dave and Fintan woke up in a complete strangers house in the British High Commission complex. We had to get ourselves together to collect our passports from the Pakistani embassy. We both fell asleep in the back of a tuk tuk but managed to get ourselves there eventually.

After collecting our Visas, we tried to make it in time to the Iranian embassy to organize our Visas but unfortunately the place was closed by the time we got there.

That evening, our Irish mate Dave Freeman invited us back to the bar at the British embassy for pints and a few games of pool with Paul, the half Indian version of Steven Hendry showing us how it’s done! Incredibly, there’s an uncanny similarity between the goals and ambitions of the two Daves. Both are obsessed with motorbikes and owning a racing team as well as a huge desire to summit Everest. We all had the craic with Dave Freeman and were sad to see him go but he at least gave us a promise that there might be a possibility of meeting us somewhere along the way home!

Fintan, Rhys and Dave on Boot's beloved and pimped up old Enfield

DAY 100: PADDY'S DAY IN DELHI

A BELATED HAPPY PADDY'S DAY TO EVERYONE!

Us with Eamon O Cuiv, Minister for the Gaelteacht and his wife!

NB (We've gotten a bit behind ourselves with the blogs in the last few weeks. We've had shocking internet lately but we now have our game-faces on and will catch up asap.)

After a late return Delhi the previous night, we woke up exstatic about our favourite day of the year and the party that lay ahead of us that evening at the Irish Ambassador's house. It was bit surreal being in Delhi on Paddy's Day which must be one of the only cities in the world without an Irish Pub.

We enjoyed a lie-in in our hotel before hitting the road to the Pakistani embassy to collect our passports. Realising that we'd lost our slips to redeem our passports, the trip was a waste of time and we needed to come back the following day to collect them again.

After the ordeal at the Pakistani embassy, Dave and Fintan rushed back to the hotel to get ready. Dave had brought his beloved and beer-stained green shamrock waistcoat with him the whole way from Sydney specifically to wear on this day so there was no way it wasnt being worn to the embassy.

Arriving among all the other country's ambassadors chaufeur-driven cars, we pulled the Hummer right up front clad in Irish flags and blaring Damien Dempsey. With awkward and bewildered looks from the security staff, we were allowed to park the car in a spot reserved for a news crew.

Dave and Fintan with a few of the Irish revellers

When we entered, we were greeted by the ambassador and Eamon O Cuiv, The Minister for the Gaelteacht, who was attending the party on behalf of the Irish Government. The garden was packed out with the diplomatic crowd and some prominent Irish expats. Sponsored by Guinness and Jameson and with a Trad Irish Band for entertainment, the night promised to be a classic!

Video of Trad Band Above....If you cant see video go to http://crazyjourneyhummer.blogspot.com

We mixed in with the crowd, and word of CRAZYJOURNEY got around quickly. We met some legends amongst the crowd like Dave Freeman (aka BOOTS), a Mayo Hero who is over working with an oil company in India. We also met Father Finn, an Irish Priest who has been living in India for nearly 50 years setting up schools for disadvantaged kids who had some classic stories and was a constant source of amusement. Fintan randomly bumped into John Doran, a mate he knew from America. Towards the end of the night we were lucky enough to have a chat with Eamon O Cuiv and his wife. They were fascinated by the drive and he was good enough to give a donation and get in a photo with us and the car.

Fintan and Dave with the legend Father Finn!

We had great craic with the trad band and chatting away to loads of Irish people but it’s still tough being away from Dublin and the Baggot Mile on Paddy’s Day!

With the embassy party finishing at around 11pm, as per usual on Paddy’s Day things escalated and our Delhi hero, Dave Freeman organized an after-party for the more rowdy crowd to push on to in the Bar of the British High Commission of all places! The large loud mob headed that way including all members of the trad band. We all had great craic signing into the British Embassy as members of the 1916 Easter Rising. Needless to say the drinking went on late and the craic, ceol agus caint was ninety, with Dave reveling and playing Damien Dempsey’s ‘colony’ song inside the embassy!

Irish Times Articles

Dave and Fintan have been writing a weekly Diary for the Irish Times every Saturday in 'Go' Magazine. Click on some of the pics below and then use the magnifying tool to read some of their recent articles

                                Week 3:                   Week 4:

                                Week 5:                   Week 6:

Go Magazine is a free Irish Times supplement, and is also offered to readers online on Ireland.com. Click on the logo below to view the whole supplement online.

DAY 99: JAIPUR - AGRA - DELHI

Dave and Fintan at the Taj Mahal

With Caroline feeling terrible, we were unsure if we were going to make it all the way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and back to Delhi which would probably be altogether a 10 hour stint in the Hummer. With the logic that coming to India and not seeing the Taj Mahal would be a crime, Caroline decided that she could just about manage, so we hit the road towards Agra.

The Type of Tractor that took our Wing Mirror. Ridiculous Load!

After about 2 hours back on the frantic Indian roads, we had our first damaging blow to the Hummer on CrazyJourney when the side-mirror was swiped off by an oncoming tractor carrying an overloaded trailer of grain. We’ve seen plenty of these trailers which are ridiculously over-loaded and we often see many that are collapsed under their own weight and stuck on the side of the road. As you can imagine, not having a passenger side-mirror on such a wide vehicle was an absolute nightmare, so continuing on with only one rear view mirror made the Indian roads even more dangerous.

The Sun Sets on the Taj Towers

We eventually arrived in the congested and polluted industrial city of Agra. We made the parking area, just in time with only an hour of light left to see the Taj Mahal. After negotiating the masses of hawkers, we finally got to the entrance. Even with an idea of what to expect, we were still blown away at our first glimpse of this magnificent mausoleum. It was built as a memorial to a Mughal Emperor’s wife and took 23 years and 20,000 people to construct. Legend has it that the Mughal emperor cut off the hands of many of the Taj Mahal’s builders so that nothing of it’s beauty could ever be replicated. The wonderful white marble structure is aptly described as ‘the most extravagant monument ever built for love’. After the hectic driving today, a walk around the grounds chilled us all out before another mad drive back to Delhi for Caroline and Layla’s flight home.

DAY 99 Route Map

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