July 20 1972: Entering Pakistan and arriving in Lahore: Trouble in a village

 Taken From All About My Hat The Hippy Trail 1972 ISBN ‎ 978-0993210716

(images from on-line)

The next day, July 20 1972, they met up and went to the bus station – there was a bus leaving that afternoon and it was due to arrive in Lahore in the evening. They would stay one night then get a bus to Rawalpindi. They bought tickets.

Al had been in India almost seven weeks.

A few hours later they were back at the bus station with their bags, had boarded the bus and were on their way to the border crossing at Attari – Wagah along the Grand Trunk Road. It was just about 20 miles and they arrived to be told that the bus would stop long enough to see the daily ceremonial lowering of flags at dusk.

This was one of the strangest military displays Al had ever seen. On each side or the border there were troops dressed in costumes and hats.

On the Indian side the troops wore black with black fan-like hats; on the Pakistani side they wore khaki with red fan hats.

It was like some sort of game, a flag-lowering with synchronised shouting and stamping of feet, with soldiers doing fast goose-step marches and high kicks with a waving of flags and shouting of orders, as if a show of one-upmanship, a battle of wits without bullets being fired with a great waving of arms, salutes and gestures. Crowds had gathered to watch this display. The gate was opened and closed and opened again, and the two country flags lowered simultaneously.

 

When the prancing and parading was over, Al and Diane walked through the customs and passport control and re-boarded the bus that took them towards Lahore.

Not long before they arrived, a young Pakistani man asked if they needed somewhere to stay. He had a house in a village just outside the city and they could stay for free.

Al and Diane agreed and got off the bus with the young man. He led them through a small village to a small house. They entered the house. It was completely devoid of furniture. Not even a chair or a bed.

The man explained that he had only just rented the house and was yet to move in, but if they waited then he would bring them blankets and a rug to sleep on and some tea and food. He left and had not come back.

Instead other young men started entering in groups of two and three, saying that they only wanted to speak in English to practice for their school. They were all talking. About half a dozen with Al at one side of the front room and others to Diane at the other side.

Suddenly Al heard Diane shouting - “No, get off of me, leave me alone!”

Al could see that Diane was looking very uncomfortable and up against the wall with about eight young guys in front of her. It reminded him of the similar situation in the Lahore film studio corridor with Miriam. But, he thought, that was in a public place, this is in a village.

He needed to act fast, so he did exactly what he had done before.

He pushed through the small crowd in front of him and crossed the room. He started shouting; “That is enough, stop it and go away!”

Some of the guys backed off.

He shouted again “Fuck off or I'll stab you!”

With that they started pointing at Diane and shouting at each other. Within a minute or so they had all left the house.

“Come on,” said Al, “let's split before it gets dark and they come back.”

As the light was fading, they walked back through the village to where the bus had stopped. People were shouting at them and it sounded like it may have been abuse. A woman threw a bucket of what looked like dirty water into the street in front of them.

“What's up with this fucking place?” asked Al.

“It's really aggressive here isn't it. Let's get into Lahore.”

Just then a bus came along and they jumped aboard.

 

Al knew exactly the place to stay, the Hotel Eden, where he had stayed with Keith a couple of months earlier. But the staff were different so he did not ask for Bhang, the cannabis drink that he had tried last time. After all, he thought, we want to make an early start tomorrow.

So it wasn't long before they had eaten dinner and were in bed.

Diane asked Al if he had brought any hash.

“No,” he said, “did you hear the tale about the customs woman there that is supposed to be psychic?”