{"id":529,"date":"2012-03-30T00:03:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T00:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/?p=529"},"modified":"2020-08-23T02:17:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T02:17:52","slug":"some-days-are-diamonds-some-days-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/?p=529","title":{"rendered":"Some days are diamonds, some days are&#8230;&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/?p=529\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>It sounds strange I know but it&#8217;s a lonely journey despite always being surrounded by crowds of people. And then there\u2019s the things I miss\u2026like a good cup of real coffee, fish &amp; chips, a meat pie, and a familiar accent. So when Tahir &amp; Tina invited me to dinner in Lahore &amp; meet with a couple of Kiwi expats I was only too happy.<\/p>\n<p>Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve met many wonderful people, still there\u2019s something about hearing a voice from back home that stirs those feelings of all things familiar. It\u2019s why people create new communities when they move overseas. Our tribe, whatever it is, is important and I\u2019ve noticed it more on this journey than in the past, because this time I\u2019m traveling mostly without my other half.<\/p>\n<p>I enjoy sharing what I\u2019m doing with other people, especially showing them the workings of the bike, as it\u2019s a fascinating machine. Just start her up and everyone is as amazed as I still am. She sounds great. But it does get kind of old hat repeating the same thing to everyone. Still, that\u2019s part of the experience. When Lynne &amp; I meet up every now and again there\u2019s plenty of stories to share but there\u2019s something else. I\u2019m not the Old Bloke on the Bike, I\u2019m just me.<\/p>\n<p>So for the next few weeks I&#8217;m on my tod til Lynne meets me in Iran.\u00a0 Despite only covering relatively short distances a day it still gets tiring. Not just because of the discomfort, but the concentration. The traffic in Pakistan isn\u2019t nearly as challenging as India, except in areas where people congregate, but it\u2019s all relative. When you ask directions anywhere in the world you have this expectation that what you\u2019ll be told is correct. And you\u2019re willing to believe it every time from the next half dozen people you ask. \u00a0And of course chances are they\u2019re all wrong! This can get pretty frustrating despite knowing everyone only wants to help.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve just wasted a whole day in Multan after having traveled a total of 250kms searching for an address I&#8217;d been given in Australia. I finally had to give up as I wasn\u2019t getting anywhere and it was nearing the end of the day. I\u2019d had no luck finding a hotel the night before as each one I tried was full, but a young guy offered me his place for the night. This turned out to be a 4&#215;4 room with only one bed. I wasn\u2019t about to have him sleep on the floor, so spent the night stretched out on a pile of sugar cane!<\/p>\n<p>Seems things weren\u2019t destined to get any better the next morning. Battling through the market on my way to Bah\u00e5walpur Effie hit a pothole resulting in broken spokes. From then on things turned to crap. Everyone wanted to help &amp; despite my insistence I could manage they carried on regardless. The result \u2013 3 ruined tubes!! Finding replacements &amp; getting the spokes replaced in a strange place with a language barrier soon became farcical.<\/p>\n<p>By now with a pounding headache I was totally pissed. Having a policeman tell me I would offend people if I refused their help didn\u2019t improve matters. He also insisted I couldn\u2019t stop where I was but with the bike in pieces it was obvious I wasn\u2019t going to be riding anywhere in a hurry.\u00a0 The FN was loaded on a truck and with no-one speaking English it was getting increasingly frustrating trying to make myself understood that I just needed to get to a hotel. After my experience the night before, I didn\u2019t like my chances. Fortunately about that time Lynne called from Oz. Within minutes she found me a hotel close by &amp; booked a room. Thank god for modern technology! The bike was stowed away safely &amp; I was dropped off at the Sindbad Hotel. The hot water was now working after the usual power daily cut. A refreshing shower made all the difference and although the bed looked enticing, getting a meal was a top priority.<\/p>\n<p>So what did I fancy? Fish and chips perhaps? The one page menu didn\u2019t include that, but there were milkshakes. Well at least that\u2019s what it said.\u00a0 \u201cWhat flavours do you have?\u201d I asked. \u201cSorry sir, no milkshakes\u201d. \u201cBut it says milkshakes.\u201d \u201cYes, but no milkshakes.\u201d \u201cWhat about the iced coffee?&#8221; &#8220;Will take 15 mins to get the milk cold,&#8221; was the reply. Well, do you have the chips?\u201d \u201cYes sir, we have chips.\u201d Hooray, so a big plate of chips it was. Jamie Oliver wouldn\u2019t approve, but then he\u2019s not in Pakistan or had the day I\u2019ve had!<\/p>\n<p>So just where could I find a good meat pie\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It sounds strange I know but it&#8217;s a lonely journey despite always being surrounded by crowds of people. And then there\u2019s the things I miss\u2026like a good cup of real coffee, fish &amp; chips, a meat pie, and a familiar accent. So when Tahir &amp; Tina invited me to dinner in Lahore &amp; meet with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,56,110,112,99],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan","tag-bahawalpur","tag-food","tag-multan","tag-spokes","tag-tyres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/1240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}