loose ends

Bahawalpur, Pakistan
it all seems a bit more normal now. i was going to write 'not much happening over the last few days' but i guess that is not altogether true. Have been sick, and now better, and spending more time in the hotels than out- i had the train ride from hell the other night, a day and a half of heat and dust, through a desert and out the other side. arrived to bahawalpur, and for the first time the stereotype is true: dark skinned rickshaw wallahs, hello you are beautiful my friend, bloodshot yellow eyes, beggars with any and all parts of the body missing or on display, bright colored fabrics and palm oil greased hair with gold noserings, cows and camels and humans pulling carts and barrows and livestock, children sellingsellingselling sweet ladoos and homemade coconut candies and bananas and chilli pakoras, and of course the heat and the dirt all the time.

now too the trees are palms and mangoes, not green but brown and grey from the dust, i never realized there was a secret agency in the developed world that goes around cleaning the tree leaves like i used to see the maid do in south africa.

the food too is good- curry all all the time- even the eggs for breakfast. oranges and bananas and yoghurt with mint although last night i had a pizza that cost three times as much as the night in the hotel- 'yes sir it is true we are having the only pizza restaurant in the punjab'

today marks more than halfway for this little walkabout- and i havent even got a proper tan yet.

more as it happens
rx