We were very pleased to welcome Mudassir back when we arrived in Islamabad. He picked us up from the bus terminal and brought us back to the Grand Islamabad Hotel, which we already knew from the first days of this trip. Shortly after 2 o’clock in the morning we went to bed – we also had a small guest in the room, a gecko.
The next day was quite quiet. Around 10 am we left the hotel together. We visited among others the impressive Pakistan Monument, the Margalla Hills (beautiful view over Islamabad), the old village of Saidpur (founded in 1530 and Melanie finally found her beloved refrigerator magnets) and a natural history museum.
The highlight of this day, however, was to be the visit to the house of Mudassir and his family. His wife and daughters had absolutely insisted on inviting us. So we spent the whole evening with Mudassir, his wife, his 2 daughters, 2 sons and the cat. Of course, there was again plenty of food and we talked for hours about all kinds of topics. Melanie still got small gifts and from the younger daughter a hand-painted henna tattoo.
When the time came for us to leave, we all found it very difficult. We felt very welcome and actually like at home. When Mudassir said goodbye to us at the airport, we all had a lump in our throats and possibly a few tears. Rarely had we met so many nice people during a vacation – everyone in Pakistan had welcomed us and was always concerned about our well-being.
We can recommend Pakistan unconditionally. Many more tourists need to visit this wonderful country and these warm people, so that it loses its, unjustly, bad reputation (created by a completely false image in the Western media). So please, overcome your fears and book a vacation in Pakistan (best directly with Discovering Pakistan).
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