On a beautiful, sunny day in Kabul, giddy with excitement about the journey ahead, we loaded up the pickup truck with our latest publications, as well as some various artefacts. None of us (two reporters, the driver and I) were familiar with the terrain beyond Pakistan's borders; India and the road to Nepal was still a mystery to us all.
Leaving Kabul at around 9:30 in the morning, the eastern road to Jalalabad provided us with a stunning view of the valleys and mountains, green for just two months every year. We devoured a quick lunch at a local restaurant in the town and proceeded onwards. Despite the usual harassment of customs officials and police on both sides of the Durand Line in Turkham, we arrived in Peshawar as planned, at dusk.
The next morning, after a breakfast of milk tea and parathas in Nowshera, we took the motorway to Islamabad and Lahore. After hours of driving, we eventually crossed the border at Wagah, ahead of the ceremony of lowering the Indian and Pakistani flags, before heading to Amritsar. We were now in unfamiliar territory, and found ourselves accompanied by turbaned Sikhs travelling from Wagah to Amritsar. We paid a visit to the holy Harmandir Sahib, the famous Golden Temple.
From there, the real adventure started, taking the NH1 highway from Amritsar to Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Ambala. Despite the difficulties of the road and the unbelievably erratic driving, the beauty of the landscape was mesmerising – my companions from dusty Afghanistan had never seen so much greenery. After a night in Delhi, we decided to head to Agra early the next morning, from where we sped up to Kanpur and then on to Lucknow. There, we slept the night dreaming about the opulent lifestyles of the Nawabs.