With Alex gone I decided that I would stay at the ‘campsite’ to watch things despite there being the 20 or so guards milling around. You never know.

We had found out that all the guys last night were military and that this was their base. They were here to make sure the area and surrounding area was secure. With one of them behind a pile of sandbags manning a huge machine gun I guess we may be safe! Anyhow I still wanted to ‘suss things out plus I had quite a few things to do during the day.

Simon and Nico went off to the Indian High Commission to start the visa process. Halfway thought the morning Simon came back in a taxi and running up said that the embassy is only giving a single entry 3 month visa…. (Usually for Brits is a 6 month multiple entry)…but they would consider 6 months multi if we were on some kind of expedition…he had come back for all of our info that we had done for the issue of our PAK visa. Unable to find it I remembered that they guy from the Pak embassy had kept it all. I spent the rest of the day doing odd jobs and reading up and notes etc…..whilst getting colder and colder.

The chief security organizer guy had come for tea as he’d seen the water boiling…however I was having coffee which he had but threw half away …don’t think he liked my coffee as no sugar! So after trying to warm myself up with hot drinks I finally got fed up of being cold. The last few days had been warmer but now we were a little more north again. By 4:30pm I had given up and gone into the tent and got into the 2 sleeping bags!

With a lie in and some TV watched between the power cuts –today was just another normal day.

A stroll around the market (within walking distance) turned out to be a good day for me with Simon remembering that he said he would buy me some material once we were here so I could have something made up.

Amongst the throng of fabric sellers we found some wonderful rust/orange/gold material that comes in the standard lengths cut for the traditional Pakistani dress – shalwar kameez – that is the 3-piece dress for women – 2 metres for trousers – 2.5 metres for the shirt and 2.5 metres for the shawl. All for 1200 Pak rupees.

Clutching my beautiful new material we followed the beaming shop owner across the street to the tiniest shop we've seen in years. Two men frantically stitching away in a space nothing bigger than a telephone kiosk. After my measurements are taken and a price fo 450 Pak rupees agreed they confirmed they'll make up my clothes in a matter of hours.

Now I need some shoes– some low –heeled glitter for 300. Simon during all of this ‘taking tea’ with some of the other stall holders whilst taking their photos – he even had one stall holder come up and specifically request photos to be taken!
After this Simon decided that the day was only going to get more expensive for him and called it a day.

We’d heard of a bike shop that had parts for larger machines but after an hour of semi-conversation in chopped and broken English it was sadly clear that they had none of what we needed.

Back in Islamabad we dropped by the Nikon service centre only to find out it was just a store front and the shop hadn’t opened yet.ah well.

With the day seemingly wasted we were back at Aspen Lodge by 6:00pm and tinkering with Nico bikes and adjusting the valves on his Africa Twin.

We were dropped off at the shuttle service area where we picked up the bus and after 20 mins we arrived at the embassy. The queue was small and after a few mins we had our Indian visas!! Hooray!

After Simon had been told (during application) that they were only providing a 3 month single entry visa – we had provided additional information i.e. letters about our trip and charities, aims etc and had been granted a 6 month visa but still only single entry. Not a huge problem though – it was the duration that was more important for us. So, a good New Years prezzie. Nico (we think as we applied at the same time) also got 6 months – though he was a bit peeved at only getting single entry.

Heading back to the guest house Simon and I jumped out of the taxi and walked to into the luxurious Serena hotel. Its grand entrance and sophsitcated western style décor all adding to it’s 5-star status. We treated ourselves to lunch as a celebration. We decided that beef would be a good idea as once we are in India it’s not going to be an option.

Back at the hotel we spent the afternoon with odd jobs, diary etc and then celebrated our New Year eve 5-hours before the UK. The USA are still in last year- so we will celebrate it again!

Oh boy – this is so different to last year’s celebrations. We decided that due to ‘gatherings-parties’ being targeted by suicide bombers we would have another quiet night in – much to Nicos disappointment. We had hoped that we would be going to a local camel race but the guy who had invited us was ill and so we were unable to attend.

As Simon was still recovering from his illness a few days ago we once again went to bed early and tried to watch some TV – loosing the plot of most of the movies as they were interspersed with the all too frequent power cuts.

 Happy New Year!

Nico left at around lunch time today, and so after he went off we wandered out to the market and ordered two small number plates for the bikes. We've wanted to change the large road legal UK plates that we still have; they're looking pretty battered.

It's still really very cold and so we went back and carried on working in the room for most of the day. Simon is still feeling a little ‘off’ anyway.

OK – so another lie in – but this morning was the first morning on our own since we were in Bam, Iran. After being so long on the road on our ‘own’ it is often difficult to be around other people day in and day out. We have found that we have become rather insular- which we suppose is a good thing in a way as we have to rely on each other so much for all types of things….it’s a good job we ‘get on’ ok after so many years together!

Simon went back to the small workshop in the market to pick up the two number plates. The price to get them made and then both fitted was a ludicrous 100 Pak rupees each around $1.

Taking his bike into the small market bought the whole palce to a standstill as eveyone came out to look at his bike. Returning with my bike a little later caused even more fuss as onlookers stood in disbelief that the 650GS was ridden by me...a mere women!

We had planned to leave today but after sleeping through both alarms we eventually woke up at 9am. Mmmm. So checking on the FedEx web site we see that our parcel is still in Dubai sorting office!? We can’t call as today all offices are closed. However, now the morning is fast disappearing and we have decided to get everything done that we can before leaving here, rather than do it all in Lahore– wash the bikes properly, use some polish on them (first time since the new paint so about time!) replace the missing bolts etc.

It’s also been nice to get back into the swing of it just being us again. It’s the first time that we have ever travelled with others and we are not used to having to compromise...at all! Simon and I usually have the same ideas and plans and want to do exactly the same thing at the same time! Lucky eh?