India/Pakistan border 23 Dec 12

The plan was to get to the India/Pakistan border early to beat the rush, the gates open at 3.30pm and the ceremony begins at 5pm.  

We stopped for lunch at a Punjabi roadside restaurant on our way, best vegie thali I’ve had since we arrived in India.

Deepak and thali meal

5km before the border trucks line the side of the highway.  Jim counted 385.  They wait till 7pm to go across the border and unload their goods onto Pakistani trucks.  Amazing how things operate in the world without you knowing. 

The line of trucks lining the highway

We arrived at the border at 2.45pm and there were long queues already.  Being foreigners we were put with the school groups in a queue off to the side away from the main queues.  Two other American ladies arrived after us.  Despite the crowds we thought this seems okay and orderly.  Not for long!!

Then the scene turned to chaos.  Our gate was opened and a stampede from the main queue came rushing over to our gate and we were caught up in a mosh pit.  We were feeling unsafe as we watched people being pushed over in the rush near the barbed wire fence and we weren’t even near the passport check-point yet.  

The end of the story is we decided to leave.  Walking out we saw more foreign tourists coming through, looked like bus groups.  I thought we could have stayed with them but the crowds were still coming in and Jim said it is going to be just as chaotic getting out so it made sense to leave.  At this point I had to agree. 

Should have bought the ceremony DVD offered by the touts selling them on the way in, will have to Google the event now to see what happens.  

Back in the hotel room reading Lonely Planet, it mentioned the stampede of people.  If I had read that beforehand I still would have gone.