As we entered the first bus in Pakistan we realized that we enter a new world. The woman's are sitting in the front and the men's in the back separated through a door. There were also more changes, Chapatis (Flat bread made in a oven) replaced rice as side order and at sunrise we get wakened up by Islamic prayers. The biggest difference was the relationship between women and men. The dominance of the men's is so strong, Silvia started to cover itself more than usual and we both felt not so comfortable anymore. In Pakistan everything is organized by the men's and the women has nothing to say, how far we witnessed it. This was for emancipated women's like Silvia and talking lazy men's like Allon difficult to accept and to life.
At the moment the situation in Pakistan is also very unstable, attacks occur and they organize protests. So we left Pakistan very quickly. At the border to Iran we had one of our most curious border crossing on our trip, this because in this area are coming the three country's Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan together and the whole region is be reckoned as relatively unsafe. After a night in the bus we arrived tired at the border and got at the Iranian side a military guard which brought us to the next city. Here starts the real adventure part. As we arrived in the city they squeezed us in a police car and were driving us to the bus terminal. On the way there we had to change the car three times and once the car stopped and the police men bought petrol on the black market, because the tank was empty. As we arrived after 38 hours at 22.00 o'clock in the so called safe city welcomed us an other police escort. At this point we thought were are we landed!!
Soon we realized that it is a concern of the Irani people that their guests feel safe and comfortable and they use for that sometimes unconventional methods. Most of the travelers we met were mention the extraordinary hospitality of this Persian community. We totally agree with that. But us impressed more the friendly and respectful handling with each other, independent of the sex. With that we cannot compete in our western world anymore.
There are clothing rules and every woman has to wear a head scarf, but that was it. Iran is probably one of the most liberal Muslim country and in their daily life very close to our. We really appreciated it because we have now seen enough of the chaos in Asia ;-))
The actual intermediate result of the Yatzy championship.
Aargau 140 : Graubuenden 136