THE NORTH SERIES: DAY 1 || KARACHI TO LAHORE || What3words Included

The North Series. It'll comprise of 7-8 blogs and I'll post 1 blog each day. This North series will have everything. From the beautiful scenic mountains to the green lands. From horses to snow leopards. From rivers to lakes. From freezing to death on the Pak-China border to melting in the heat of Lahore. From stories of friendship to experiencing betrayal. This trip will always be close to my heart. But this wasn't in actual a trip. It was a community service. I am proud of myself for this service. We travelled more than 2,000 kms, above 14,000 feet to set up a free dental camp for the underprivileged students of an area where there are no dental facilities. So let's start with day 1.

---

DAY 1: KARACHI TO LAHORE

---

_W3W

---

4 boys and 11 girls. I was so excited for this trip. I had been looking forward to this journey for a month. We had started preparing for it from May 2022. Gettingour dental supplies and kits ready, having multiple meetings on zoom. Buying a lot of clothes and supplies for the journey. Being anxious on meeting other dentists from all over Pakistan. It was a feeling I couldn't describe.

My brother (2nd guy from right) and I went to the station together. After being informed about the platform we headed towards platform number 7. We were one of the firsts to reach the station.

---

---

There we were greeted by friends and their families. It was truly fascinating to witness these moments. Thousands of men women and children waiting on the platform, waiting for their trains to arrive. Hundreds of parents sitting their, waving their children goodbyes. Thousands of different stories. To a worker looking forward to meeting his family back in the village to a mother who was sending his son off for work in a different city. To a brother telling his brother to behave to a sister feeding his little brother food. Everyone had the feeling of anxiety and excitement and sadness.

Slowly, the families of my train-mates started to pour in the platform. I got to meet a lot of people for the first time. For example the parents of my friends. The parents were very friendly yet concerned about their children ofcourse. The parents altogether stood with the organizers and got each and every detail from them

The train was to leave at 4 pm but obviously it got delayed. Delayed for a good 2.5 hours. Why? Is that even a question? When has anything happened on time in Pakistan? Anyway, the delay meant we got to spend more time with families in the hot weather. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately no rain was forecasted on that day. Spending more time on the platform meant more consumption of water bottles which in turn meant more need of water bottles. So we purchased around 20 water bottles from station for the journey as well as for our waiting period at the platform.

The train finally arrived at 7 pm. We had three cubicles in the Business section of the train. Each cubicle has 6 seats. We had two complete cubicles on our name and 2 seperate seats in a different cubicle. We were 14 in total, which meant two of us had to share a cubicle with a complete strange family. Anyway, we boarded the train, adjusted our luggage under the designated seats. After that we got out of the train to get some final pictures before leaving Karachi for atleast 9 days.

---

---

The train finally left station at 7:15 and Karachi at 8 pm. As soon as we left Karachi, the phone signals went on a rather long vacation and we were left with nothing but to talk and play games with each other. A blessing in disguise if you call me. Due to this we all got comfortable with each other and talked to the people who were with us on this trip but from different universities. We had a lot of stops on our way to Lahore, but I'll mention the few big stops. Cities where the train stopped for at least 30 minutes. The other stops were for just 2 minutes or at max, 5. The big stops were:

---

• Rohri Junction

• Khanewal

---

Only 2 big stops on a 22 hour long journey is a bit unjust if you ask me. But there's nothing that we could have done about it, so we made peace with it. On our way in the traun we had a lot of fun and I have compiled a video for you guys as well. We played a lot of games such as, Dumb Charades, Mafia, Cards, Antakshari etc. The rest of the time we spent in eating and sleeping

---

_{Chicken Macaroni}

---

I enjoyed Chicken Macaroni brought by a friend. The rest of the food dishes included, beef qeema and Chicken Pulao. I couldn't take pictures of them as if I had spent time in clicking pictures, the food would have been consumed by the rest so I preferred eating first 😂😂

The first stop was at Rohri where we stopped after 6 hours of travel. It felt refreshing to get out of a moving vehicle and get a chance to walk and to have some tea. Yes, tea is very important. We even rated teas of every station and according to joint decision, the best tea on our journey was that of Rohri station. We stopped at Rohri, had tea and biscuits as the next major station was 10 hours ahead.

---

W3W

---

Thats me, you can see in a pink shirt engaging in a conversation with the rest of my friends. We reached Rohri Junction at around 3 am, so after getting back in train I slept. I was woken up by a friend who was shouting at ne that we have reached Khanewal and there won't be any other stop after this so if I need to buy something to eat, NOW is the time. I quickly got up, took my toothpaste and brush from my bag and ran outside. There I brushed my teeth. While I was brushing my teeth, my friend purchased tea and Chaat for my breakfast.

---

W3W

---

It was refreshing to eat something alongside tea. The rest of the journey was spent in packing our things and changing our clothes as Lahore was only 4 hours ahead. I spent the rest of the time in train talking to my friends. Changed into comfortable clothes as the journey ahead wasn't an easy one. You'll get to know in the upcoming blogs. We reached Lahor ate around 4 pm and it was raining there. 24 hours had already passed and the travel had only just begun. I took a picture on Lahore station and then boarded the next train which would take us from Lahore to Islamabad. And just like that my day 1 of this extraordinary trip ended.

---

W3W

---

I have compiled a video of Day 1. Have a look at it. Chose a very peculiar, uplifting song for it xD

---