Pakistan is go

The Pakistan visa has required some queue hopping. There is a marquee in the tatty garden with a sign at the gate suggesting you should add yourself to one of five unseen queues, presumably, in the marquee or, to avoid local tensions, perhaps the back of the queue snaking out.

Once in the marquee I guessed correctly the visa queue (as opposed to "manual passport", "computer readable passport" and two others) where I was joined by Bryn who turned out to be doing exactly the same trip (motorbike, UK to India). We discussed cover stories -- announcing you're entering Balochistan on the Iran-Pakistan border will not get you a visa -- before getting a Q-matic number and told to go next door.

Down in the basement, they were processing about five minutes per number until my number rang up and they promptly closed for lunch. Bryn and I chewed the fat over lunch then returned as requested at 2:30 and hung around 'til 3pm when the blinds came up and the next number was rung up on the counter skipping me entirely. I butted in flashing my number demanding service.

I then got the third degree in hard stares and questions surrounding my Letter of Introduction (LOI) from LostHorizons.net who were happy to claim to be inviting me into Pakistan on the vague promise from me that I would pop in next time I was over there. Finally, I was caught out by NatWest's proof of income paper statements (my statements are otherwise online) which don't show my address. I was told to return a week later with proof of address.

Bryn received no hard stares or questions but had forgotten his bank statements.

Back there today with Proof of Address at 10am and after a bit of paper shuffling (and a photocopy of my driving licence -- always take a photocopy of stuff, it saves a lot of time) I was sent to the bank queue where they took £55 and all the paperwork and passport bar a chitty and I was told to return at 12:30, "upstairs".

Bryn had ridden into Kensington with his girlfriend as pillion -- brave boy, and girl -- and had been told to return at 3:30. We all bundled down at 12:30 and were directed into the marquee which was amazingly quiet and we were told to form a queue at the visa counter again. Shortly after 12:30 a box was ceremoniously brought in (I had predicted a silver platter and had been dismissed out of hand) and a wodge of passports retrieved from it. Visa valid for 21 days sometime before Feb 2011.

Bryn was told to bugger off 'til 3:30!

In further good news, an early return to Banbury and a quick phone call to the RAC and I should get my carnet before the end of the month. This is particularly good news as I've also had a Tax Disc/SORN request in the post. My Tax runs out at the end of August so there is a finite risk of being caught on camera or in an accident in the first few days of September without road tax -- or I pay £39 for six months and only use six days or I somehow fill in the tax reclaim forms whilst on the road in Europe. However, if I leave before 1^st September then the SORN notice will neatly cover the time the bike is out of the UK (approx. 1 year).

In other good news for the future, the landslide lake on the KKH has been crossed my men on bikes. There's even a video of the clump of men required to manhandle it down the rocks to where the boats are:

This from Journey 2 Dakar.