Monday 15th October. SUKKER AND BLOW.

Waking from my sleeping bag I get my pack ready. Today we have an estimated 10 hours for the 420 Km (260 miles) drive to Sukkar. We are all very happy when it only takes us 7, the scenary starts to change, things start to become much greener as we leave the mountains and the arid lands behind. We start to pass palm trees and paddy fields, so much different from Quetta and its many brick kilns belching black smoke throughout the day.
We stop for one of our toilet breaks at a petrol station, this is good for me as I am running very low on cigarettes. I look around but they dont sell the, I try to talk to the man that works there and he claps his hands, shouts something at a young boy who then runs away. Five minutes later the boy runs back with a packet of cigarettes, I thank the man and the boy and turn to get back on the bus, the man calls me back he is offering me something (our guide had already told me it is taken as rudeness to refuse a gift), So I accept with a smile and a thank-you and get back on the bus. This man had just given me something of a local delicacy, a small but not unusable lump of hashish. I talk to our guide who informs me it is legal to have upto 10 grams in Pakistan, this is classed as personal use. How civilised. Continuing on our route we pass camels, donkeys, goats and water buffalo.
Still daylight and we arrive at our hotel 'The Hotel Pak-Inn', I chase the lizards out of my room and meet everyone in the dining room for lunch.
As a group we take the buses into Sukker where we still need to find an Internet cafe and others want to get haircuts and do a little shopping. As soon as we step from the bus we start to get mobbed again, some say they feel like pop stars and there are references made to Posh and Backs. We quickly get back on the buses and go on our tour. Our police escort stops the traffic as we sit in the middle of Sukkers 'famous' bridge and watch the sun set before we return to our hotel.
I am now sat in my room updating my diary and have a smoke with others, its 2:30am before I go to sleep.

I apologise for neglecting this blog, I will try harder in future