Woke up in a very dark room this morning as the curtains were pulled. Checked for mozzie bites just the one with the possibility of another on my toe. Horrible little things (mozzies not toes).
Out to the poolside for coffee and toast. Following breakfast went for a shower then settled down with my book at the poolside shade for some quality reading time. Read to about 11am before going off to see the guesthouse manager to arrange a taxi for this afternoon trip to the Pakistan/Indian border closing ceremony.
Next on the list of strenuous things to do was......go for a swim in the pool followed by an equally hard eat some lunch. I had that age old Indian delicacy...........grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.
A bit more reading and at 3.30pm we got ready to go out. The taxi arrived at 4pm and we drove the 15 miles to the border. Armed with passports and bottled water we were dropped of at the border entrance and had to walk the half a kilometer to the stadium around the border gates. The driver parked up and would be waiting for us at the end.
We arrived at the foreigner entrance and waved our passports, quick search and metal detectors and we were inside. We made our way round to the stadium and sat in the foreigner section. Unlike my last visit the roadway was covered on blue carpet there was a band and large banks of speakers. A VIP seating area was set up on the roadway and there was banners showing the phrase 'Bollywood to Border'. A male and female DJ were talking to the crowd mostly in Hindi but occasionally breaking into English, they were from a radio show. This appeared to be some kind of promotion or support for the BSF (Border Security Force) a bit like the Americans do for there military personnel. The BSF are the force that occupy all the borders around Indian and are very active protecting Indian Kashmir from terrorists and militants. (Mental note should we do this for our border protection authorities??)
Anyway one of the DJ's came into our section and I had a microphone put in front of me, so live on 104.8 I was asked where I was from and why I was there. I replied 'England and its my second time here at Waggah to see the closing ceremony he translated into Hindi and the crowd cheered. He then moved on to a Korean which must have been been the hardest interview ever with two English words yes and No. During all this Bollywooding a coach appeared in the middle of the events. It was the Delhi-Lahore express (like Eurolines) that drove through the gates into Pakistan and disappeared. The passengers onboard all looked a little shell shocked by the attention.
A while later they introduced some Bolloywood stars, four men and one woman. Needless to say we had no idea who they were but cheered and clapped with the locals. Most of them sang a song and when two of them went into the crowd it was chaos with the locals trying to get photos. We later worked out one of them was AR Rahman (writer/singer of Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire).
At 6.30 the closing ceremony began the road had been cleared the BSF with their neat uniforms and lavish frilled hats marched up and down, stomping, stamping and high kicking like John Cleese from Monty Python. They even managed to kick their own hats. Gestures of strength and power towards the Pakistani Police then flags are descended simultaneously before a quick hand shake and the slamming of the gates shut for the night.
A quick picture of the border gate then the walk back to the taxi who was waiting as promised. A drive back which interrupted by the driver having a full blown domestic in Hindi on the phone whilst driving. Great, doesn't matter what language you can still understand.
Back at the guest house time for a coffee and then bed. But before that I must set all the defences in the mozzie war; Mozzie coil, repellent, bed covers, found two plug in devices one may be an air freshener the other is definitely a mozzie killer, windows secure.
Good nite x
Morning update - no bites
Out to the poolside for coffee and toast. Following breakfast went for a shower then settled down with my book at the poolside shade for some quality reading time. Read to about 11am before going off to see the guesthouse manager to arrange a taxi for this afternoon trip to the Pakistan/Indian border closing ceremony.
Next on the list of strenuous things to do was......go for a swim in the pool followed by an equally hard eat some lunch. I had that age old Indian delicacy...........grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.
A bit more reading and at 3.30pm we got ready to go out. The taxi arrived at 4pm and we drove the 15 miles to the border. Armed with passports and bottled water we were dropped of at the border entrance and had to walk the half a kilometer to the stadium around the border gates. The driver parked up and would be waiting for us at the end.
We arrived at the foreigner entrance and waved our passports, quick search and metal detectors and we were inside. We made our way round to the stadium and sat in the foreigner section. Unlike my last visit the roadway was covered on blue carpet there was a band and large banks of speakers. A VIP seating area was set up on the roadway and there was banners showing the phrase 'Bollywood to Border'. A male and female DJ were talking to the crowd mostly in Hindi but occasionally breaking into English, they were from a radio show. This appeared to be some kind of promotion or support for the BSF (Border Security Force) a bit like the Americans do for there military personnel. The BSF are the force that occupy all the borders around Indian and are very active protecting Indian Kashmir from terrorists and militants. (Mental note should we do this for our border protection authorities??)
Anyway one of the DJ's came into our section and I had a microphone put in front of me, so live on 104.8 I was asked where I was from and why I was there. I replied 'England and its my second time here at Waggah to see the closing ceremony he translated into Hindi and the crowd cheered. He then moved on to a Korean which must have been been the hardest interview ever with two English words yes and No. During all this Bollywooding a coach appeared in the middle of the events. It was the Delhi-Lahore express (like Eurolines) that drove through the gates into Pakistan and disappeared. The passengers onboard all looked a little shell shocked by the attention.
A while later they introduced some Bolloywood stars, four men and one woman. Needless to say we had no idea who they were but cheered and clapped with the locals. Most of them sang a song and when two of them went into the crowd it was chaos with the locals trying to get photos. We later worked out one of them was AR Rahman (writer/singer of Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire).
At 6.30 the closing ceremony began the road had been cleared the BSF with their neat uniforms and lavish frilled hats marched up and down, stomping, stamping and high kicking like John Cleese from Monty Python. They even managed to kick their own hats. Gestures of strength and power towards the Pakistani Police then flags are descended simultaneously before a quick hand shake and the slamming of the gates shut for the night.
A quick picture of the border gate then the walk back to the taxi who was waiting as promised. A drive back which interrupted by the driver having a full blown domestic in Hindi on the phone whilst driving. Great, doesn't matter what language you can still understand.
Back at the guest house time for a coffee and then bed. But before that I must set all the defences in the mozzie war; Mozzie coil, repellent, bed covers, found two plug in devices one may be an air freshener the other is definitely a mozzie killer, windows secure.
Good nite x
Morning update - no bites
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| Radio Interview live on 104.8 |
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| BSF |
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| I remember this guy from last year |
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| Stamping and marching |
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| Flags - The building in the picture are the Pakistani side of the border |
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| Border gates - as close as we can get |
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