Sleeping in a doghouse
by Peter
(Malaysia/Holland)
Need a bicycle tire? This guy had plenty...
Some years ago, I was cycling in Pakistan. It was one of the few times I was actually cycling with someone. I had been cycling for months now, all the way from Holland through Europe, Turkey, Iran and now Pakistan. It had been an excellent journey.
But I was tired. I really wanted to stay at a place for a couple of days, doing nothing. Fortunately Lahore, the border city between Pakistan and India was nearby. But it was not nearby enough to have to spend one night in a small kind of suburb of Lahore, 40 km from the city center.
It was one of those towns where you can ask yourself why people would even want to live there. Apart of the local food stalls, restaurants, endless shops and hawkers, there seemed to be little reason to stay here.
Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking like that. There was not a single hotel or guesthouse available. This was a bit odd as usually there's something cheap. In the years on the road I had almost always been able to find something. This would be no different.
When you are cycling in Pakistan, a room with a lock is nice. It's not that you have much to fear for robbery when you camp out, it's more the hordes of people coming to stare at you.
In this little town we found a place. The owner of the restaurant were we had our chapati, dhal and rice told us he could give us a place to sleep. We followed him upstairs. He opened a door and we looked inside.
It was a wooden kind of shelter with two beds and an oil lamp. The hardest part was to get in as it was only 1 meter high.
We slept that night quite well but it did feel like sleeping in a doghouse instead of a guesthouse. But we were safe and well rested the next morning to conclude our journey to Lahore.
Peter
