Day 30 – Quetta – Sukkur

Monday 15th October 2007

An early breakfast of cold eggs and toast and it was time to re-board our buses and head for our next stop Sukkur. The drive which was supposed to take 10hrs only ended up taking 7 and were checked into our new hotel around 2pm. By no means was this place the lap of luxury but compared to our Quetta hotel it was spot on! 38 people for lunch put a stretch on resources and doing more than 2 peoples laundry proved too much but clean rooms and comfy beds are all I am really looking for these days and this place delivered.

At 4:30 we had another group outing, first to see a dam near our hotel, Sukkur is home to a large canal network and river system, then it was off in to town. Here our guide would show us the way to the local liquor market. After picking up some 12 year old single malt Pakistani Whisky for my Iranian hipflask, my girlfriend, my little sister and my Irish partner in crime decided to leave the group, who were headed off again to see the sunset over a bridge, and see to some essentials. These included toiletries, haircuts and secret santa shopping (we are doing Ede secret santa on the bus). Surprisingly the first pharmacy we found met all our shopping needs, a handy market stall provided my secret santa gift and a sunglass stall replaced my now broken £1.50 Ray Ban’s with some 80p Honda sunglasses, I did not even know they made sunglasses!

By this stage we had again drawn a crowd, little kids were firing pellet guns at us and the men were again trying their best to grab a handful of western flesh. At this moment we spotted what would be our salvation, the barbers! We ducked inside and the kind proprietor locked the door behind us and did his best to cover the windows. By the time me and my Irish counterpart had received our haircuts and I had been given a very good cut-throat shave we handed over the equivalent of £1.50 and headed out. After the haircut I discovered that the side parting the barber had combed in and that caused my girlfriend to decide that she would be unable to fancy me as long as I had it was not easy to get rid of but I am sure a shower and large quantities of gel will fix it later. Most of the people had gone by now but we still had a quite a crowd but managed to escape in a coupe of Tuk Tuks and headed back to the hotel for a quiet dinner, a couple of drinks and an early night.