(Daniel) I got a call from Dart Asia this morning.  The Wolf would require an open top container, which would be at least three times more expensive than a normal one.  On top of this, they would have to transport one from Karachi, another cost, and worst still a delay of three more days.  This meant that at least one of us (yes, me) would have to miss their flight and wait in Lahore with the vehicle.  I ran up to Rowan and Gabbies room, knocked on the door and told them that I was heading down to the Dart office. 

The traffic was manic as all sorts of preparations are going on for the Bazant (kite) Festival coming up tomorrow. I arrived at Desmond Fernando’s office in time to meet ‘The Captain’, a retired freighter captain, who spoke excellent English and had a very calming demeanor.  The Captain is employed by Dart Asia in special cases that require some innovative solutions.  A bit like Harvey Keitel’s character “The Wolf” in Pulp Fiction!

The three of us walked out to measure the vehicle again, I mentioned that I could let the tyres down to lower the vehicle slightly, so we let one down to check the difference that it made to the wheel height.  It only made about 5cm even at a very low pressure.  I filled the tyre up again with the Wolf’s built in ARB 24V compressor.

The only other option that I thought possible was to remove the expedition roof rack which holds the light bank, rooftent and some empty jerrycans.  I would then ratchet-strap the rack on top of the trailertent for shipping.  The Captain agreed that this would make the difference.  And so it was that I found myself driving off with one of Dart Asia’s staff as a translator to find some helpful mechanics.

Fortunately for me just around the corner was a busy bodyshop, I pulled up outside and went in to see the manager.  Now, last time I had the roof rack removed it was by TBR in Harwich.  They charged me a fortune at the time and told me that it had taken many hours because of the location of the bolts etc.  With this in mind I spoke to the boss of the bodyshop, and was not surprised when he said the same thing, that it would be around 4-5 hours.

I discussed the price and agreed on 2500 rupees, (Around £17)  This was a bit expensive for Pakistan in my opinion, but I wanted the job done now, and this guy was able to oblige, so I agreed and started to help the two workers which he sent out to start.  To our surprise the bolts were not so hard to get at with a couple of spanners, I could see that this would not be the hard job that we thought, and tried to talk to the Boss again through my translator.

The Translator for all of the things that I was saying, just seemed to laugh and joke, and kept trying to engage me in small talk, in the end I turned around to him and said  “no more laughing, no more smiling, this is serious, I need you to explain that this is not a 5 hour job, it’s not even a one hour job, and before it’s finished we need to agree a new price.”  This is what a few weeks in Pakistan has done to me.  I pride myself on being able to get around without getting angry in these countries.  But with all the false peaks that this country has, even Gandhi would end up loosing his rag!

My translator’s efforts didn’t improve and within 30 minutes we had finished unbolting the roof rack. The workers tried to say that we had to hire a crane to lift the rack, but I jumped up on the spare wheel, and slid half of the rack off to one side, at that, the bystanders all grabbed the side and carried the rack off the top and placed it onto the trailertent.

I turned back from strapping the roofrack down to see the Boss again, this time the tea was waiting, and seats were brought out.  The Dart Asia guy who was with me tried to ask if we could have a discount again which was continually dismissed. He used a strange gesture where he stroked the other mans beard!  But this time I stopped him, and asked him to translate exactly my words.

I spoke with a smile and directly to the man; “Sir, you have quoted me a price for four hours of work.  I accepted your quote, but now the work has been completed in less than one hour, because neither you nor I knew how long it would take.  I suggest that the price should be 700, but I am prepared to pay you 1000 for the good work which you have done.  Now you can stand there and ask me to pay 2500 in full, and I will pay it, because I am a gentleman.  But if you do, then you will know that you have overcharged me, and so will all of these people, but more importantly God will know about your treatment of other people.”

By the time the translator had finished, a large crowd had gathered and all of them were nodding and giving approving looks.  I had noticed that at this last comment, the bosses head had gone up, and he looked at the sky for a second.  For the benefit of Mr Khan, this is how you play the game, not as you did a few days previously.  The man agreed to take the 1000 rupees, and was very keen for me to take his picture for the site, obviously now feeling absolved!

After leaving the bodyshop I dropped off the Dart Asia guy, and drove down to a carwash, where I had the Wolf and trailer cleaned by about ten boys of different ages, who clambered and climbed all over the vehicle, working one after the other in a set system.  While they worked, I sat and had the usual political conversations with the other men having their cars cleaned.  One man kept coming up to me and telling me that he was Christian and how we had that in common. There is no point in trying to explain a modern view on religion to very religious people, so you are always best to just go with Christian, that way you can drink!

After a while the Christian man went from chatting to begging, and was ushered away by the others. When the vehicle was finished, one man came and gave me his ring, he said that I was not to sell it, and that it made us brothers.  I didn’t have anything to give him.  But was not convinced by him in any case, however I had to take the ring so as not to cause offence.   

With the vehicle now cleaned I drove back to Dart Asia to wait for the Captain.  While I waited I cleaned the kitchen, which had a bottle of soy and a bottle of balsamic emptied all over it. There was a lovely smell like a nice salad or something from Japanese cuisine.  While I cleaned, people came up and spoke to me, including some kids.  When I had finished, I walked back into the Dart Asia office and went to use my mobile phone realising then that it was gone.

I had been pick pocketed whilst cleaning the trailer!  I couldn’t believe it, but somehow now remembered when it happened. Desmond was devastated, and made me look all over the place, he even got his staff searching the office but to no avail.  I tried to be ok about it, but it really got to me. That phone was my so many things, my contact with the outside world, Music, Camera, currency converter, and so many more things.

I had lost all of my recent numbers and all of my recent photos. I kept swinging between feeling ok, and saying that it was just a phone, to anger again with myself for letting this happen.  While all this was going on the Captain arrived.  He said that we could go to the container yard now and put the Wolf in a container for overnight transport to the dry dock ready for tomorrow.  Now I had another dilemma, I hadn’t spoken to Rowan and Gabby since telling them that I was popping out this morning.  So I had no idea what they wanted from the back of the Wolf.  Also here I was suddenly driving out to some container yard in the dark to put my truck in a box amongst 500 other boxes that looked just like it.

I could really do with a second brain just to make me feel better about doing this so suddenly.  I knew in my mind that this feeling of mistrust was coming from my just having been robbed.  You suddenly feel like you can’t trust anyone anymore.  To make matters worse, as we pulled away from the offices towards the container yard the traffic was in full rush hour mode, Lahore style.  I had the roofrack weighing down my trailer, and they had given me as a co-pilot, the same guy from the bodyshop, who was getting right back into the swing of his laughing and small talk.

It didn’t take long for me to start ranting again.  I was really pissed at the fact that I have come out here to prove that people are generally good and that we can all live together. But here I was in Pakistan getting conned and robbed at every opportunity.  Then back to the fact that I knew that it was pretty much all my fault for putting these valuable items in front of people who are desperate.  But that didn’t take away the fact that these things were really important to me.

I tried to console myself that karma would sort this out, although the thief was probably screwed anyway, and maybe this was karma sorting me out for something, I racked my brain. So many things that I could feel bad about, but none of them done with any ill intention.  Thinking in circles.  I apologised to the guy sitting next to me, and tried to get over the bad feeling as we pulled up at the container yard. 

When we arrived the Captain went to make the arrangements while I waited with Desmond and two of his staff in the yard.  After a while, Desmond broke.  He was really angry about the phone, but this came from the fact that he had been living here for three years.  He told me that my theory about people all being generally good was not true, He went on to tell me his story, that he had asked over and over for a transfer, but the powers that be had extended his contract for another year, and he would have to wait until 2008 to know if he could come back to an office in Sri Lanka.

He told me about the wonderful people there, and there would be no need to worry about theft or underhandedness there. I really felt for him.  Here was I struggling after three weeks, and this man had endured three years of it.  We spoke about these things for a bit longer before my sickness caused me to have to find a toilet in the office building.

When I returned, the yard manager was looking for me, the crane was ready and I needed to drive the vehicle into the container.  As we drove round the corner, I saw that they were not using a container mover but a standard crane to stack the containers.  The operator was putting a container in place, and it was taking a long time, knocking into another container as they were just off target.  A man stood on top of the hanging container directing the driver. This is Pakistan.

The yard boss opened up the container and I carefully drove the Wolf inside.  As I got out I could see that the vehicle would have gone in without removing the roofrack or lowering the tyres.  This is Pakistan. I ratchet strapped the trailer to the floor and we locked up the container with our own padlocks which I took the keys to.  Then we took notes of the numbers etc. and jumped in Desmond’s car and drove back out into the donkeys, cars and buses of the rush hour traffic.  This is Pakistan.

After Desmond dropped me and we had arranged for them to pick us up early tomorrow, I went upstairs in the Guesthouse to see Rowan and Gabby.  They have got used to me disappearing for the whole day, remember, this is Pakistan!  I brought them up to date, and ranted for a while about my phone.  Over a cold beer, we ordered a take away pizza, they tried to console me with the fact that I would be in Bangkok in a few days and would be able to replace my phone then. I realised that this was true.  If all went well tomorrow I would be in the MBK Shopping Centre in two days, getting a haircut, a new phone, some new clothes, and some decent food.  Hope at last!  If all went well tomorrow… but then what are the chances of that!?  This is….

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