Mar. 1 - Amritsar, India
Wednesday, March 1 :: Amritsar, India :: 63km today / 5366km total
Slept in late, but no worries, an easy day planned, back across a route I rode about a month ago, into India. I rolled along gently, enjoying my last 30km in Pakistan. I was quite sad at the border - Pakistan has been very, very good to me, and I hope I was good to it. Ah well. I changed all my money into Indian Rupees (BIG MISTAKE) and left Pakistan.
At the India customs office they decided to be assholes, and I didn't catch on to what they were up to until well along the Hell I was going through. The "problem" was that I was carrying too much cash in Indian Rupees, and they didn't want to let me into India. Even more, they wanted to "impound" the money, worth $500CDN, and give me a useless receipt that would not be a receipt after all, since all I could do with it is get a court case started. Now, this is the third time I'd entered India, and both of the previous 2 times I also was carrying a similar sum of cash. So I knew this was a scam, and I said things I probably shouldn't have, like a defiant "Pakistan Zindabad!" (Pakistan forever!). I was MAD. The men cursed at me under their breath and I loudly challenged them, asking them to say what they said so I could hear it. They wouldn't, of course. I demanded to be let back to Pakistan where the sane people would let me across the border (even though I only had a single-entry visa to Pakistan, now used up), so that I could change the money into "acceptable" currency, like $US or GBP. They didn't want to allow me to take my money back to Pakistan, which was clearly stupid and not a legal stance on their part - there was nothing "forcing" me to stay in India. It was 4 on 1, we were at a stalemate, them stonefacing me, holding onto my cash, me not leaving their face, so I had to pull the trump card...
Softly, I looked at them all, and said "What would Gandhi-ji want you to do?"
At this they immediately melted, almost comedically, handed me my money, and off I went into the no-man's land between the Indian customs office and the Pakistani border. Some helpful Indians, ashamed of what their customs people were doing to me, offered to place a phonecall to the Pakistani side to try to help me out. I thanked them, and told them it was unnecessary - I knew what the Pakistanis were like. I walked back to the border, signed out of India (thank Allah my Indian visa is unlimited re-entry), and walked up to the Pakistani border police. I explained the situation, showed them my single-entry status for Pakistan, but it was again unnecessary as they were more than happy to help me. I walked back into Pakistan, and in 10 minutes I had US$ and GBP... Pakistan Zindabad! I then went back to the Indian customs... it took a LOT of self-control, but I kept my mouth shut, threw my visa and customs form at them, and walked away to let them do their thing. Here were 5 cyclists, also waiting for processing, on their way from Jordan to Everest (to climb it!), so I had more than enough to distract me. I'm the first foreign cyclist they've met.
Across the border it was nice to see the joyous, fun Indians again. I rode with the 5 cyclists into Amritsar - our agendas are very different, so we will probably part ways tomorrow.
Slept in late, but no worries, an easy day planned, back across a route I rode about a month ago, into India. I rolled along gently, enjoying my last 30km in Pakistan. I was quite sad at the border - Pakistan has been very, very good to me, and I hope I was good to it. Ah well. I changed all my money into Indian Rupees (BIG MISTAKE) and left Pakistan.
At the India customs office they decided to be assholes, and I didn't catch on to what they were up to until well along the Hell I was going through. The "problem" was that I was carrying too much cash in Indian Rupees, and they didn't want to let me into India. Even more, they wanted to "impound" the money, worth $500CDN, and give me a useless receipt that would not be a receipt after all, since all I could do with it is get a court case started. Now, this is the third time I'd entered India, and both of the previous 2 times I also was carrying a similar sum of cash. So I knew this was a scam, and I said things I probably shouldn't have, like a defiant "Pakistan Zindabad!" (Pakistan forever!). I was MAD. The men cursed at me under their breath and I loudly challenged them, asking them to say what they said so I could hear it. They wouldn't, of course. I demanded to be let back to Pakistan where the sane people would let me across the border (even though I only had a single-entry visa to Pakistan, now used up), so that I could change the money into "acceptable" currency, like $US or GBP. They didn't want to allow me to take my money back to Pakistan, which was clearly stupid and not a legal stance on their part - there was nothing "forcing" me to stay in India. It was 4 on 1, we were at a stalemate, them stonefacing me, holding onto my cash, me not leaving their face, so I had to pull the trump card...
Softly, I looked at them all, and said "What would Gandhi-ji want you to do?"
At this they immediately melted, almost comedically, handed me my money, and off I went into the no-man's land between the Indian customs office and the Pakistani border. Some helpful Indians, ashamed of what their customs people were doing to me, offered to place a phonecall to the Pakistani side to try to help me out. I thanked them, and told them it was unnecessary - I knew what the Pakistanis were like. I walked back to the border, signed out of India (thank Allah my Indian visa is unlimited re-entry), and walked up to the Pakistani border police. I explained the situation, showed them my single-entry status for Pakistan, but it was again unnecessary as they were more than happy to help me. I walked back into Pakistan, and in 10 minutes I had US$ and GBP... Pakistan Zindabad! I then went back to the Indian customs... it took a LOT of self-control, but I kept my mouth shut, threw my visa and customs form at them, and walked away to let them do their thing. Here were 5 cyclists, also waiting for processing, on their way from Jordan to Everest (to climb it!), so I had more than enough to distract me. I'm the first foreign cyclist they've met.
Across the border it was nice to see the joyous, fun Indians again. I rode with the 5 cyclists into Amritsar - our agendas are very different, so we will probably part ways tomorrow.
posted by Graham Durrant at 7:22 AM
4 Comments:
I'm so glad you had great experiences in Pakistan...as I said, many of my Pakistani students are conservative Muslims, (though I've had my share of relaxed Muslims, as well) they have always assumed Christianity on my part, and we have had many interesting and mutually respectful conversations about religion. I, too, think that Islam gets a rough deal in the West. And, I think many people confuse socio-cultural customs with Islam...which leads to a lot of confusion about Islam, I think.
Did you have any mantoo?
"Pakistan Zindabad"?? Hanuman help us! Too funny.
-rb
no mantoo! i looked for it... food along the KKH was very, very basic. drinkable water was hard to find, even.
Zindabad: well, i was a little upset at the prospect of having so much money stolen from me by crafty border officials. part of me wants to ride back to the border today, carefully staying "inbounds", and having a "friendly chat" with the good customs officials. but i know what would happen... when I show up at Delhi International in 2 weeks to fly home there will be bells going off when my passport is put through the scanner, and I don't feel like having full body searches.
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