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Trip overview
The third leg of the great overland adventure at first gave us a minor headache. We wanted to start in Delhi, where we ended last year, before moving on to the “stan”-countries. However Bangladesh was also high on the list, and we decided to make an add-on to this years trip. After final considerations we decided to start in Dhaka, go via Delhi and ending the trip in Islamabad.
We flew into Dhaka, and from there we took a buss to Khulna, the third largest city in Bangladesh and the gateway to the great Sundarban Delta. From Khulna we took a direct train to Kolkata, being the only western passengers on a fairly large train.
After experiencing Durga Puja on motorbikes in Kolkata we took a train to Delhi, then after a few days another train to Amritsar. From Amritsar we took a taxi to the Wagah border, very excited to see if they would let us through. The border crossing was very quiet with almost no people crossing, but it turned out to be fairly straight forward with a few passport checks on both sides. Walking through the big border-stadium all alone was quite an experience! From Wagah border on the Pakistani side we took a taxi to Lahore. Then the final leg took us by bus from Lahore to Islamabad.
Map
Itinerary
Oslo – Dhaka
Dhaka – Khulna
Khulna – Kolkata
Kolkata – Delhi
Delhi – Amritsar
Amritsar – Lahore
Lahore – Islamabad
Islamabad – Oslo
Planning
As always we had to do a lot of planning and visa arrangements before the trip. The visa process looked pretty straight-forward to start with, but turned out to be a thriller at the end. A few days after we had applied for Indian visas, the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India got very tense, and borders between the countries were closed. We got a call from the Indian Embassy advising us that we would not get approved our visas unless we flew out of India, rather than crossing the Wagah Border. After faking tickets out of India we got our visas, and by then we figured the Pakistani E-visas would be a walk in the park. But no, it turned out to take 4 weeks with lots of extra information to be provided. Our visas were not ready before we reached Kolkata, only 1 week before we were due to cross the border into Pakistan. As always, we like to keep things on toe until the very last minute…
Social media posts
Below are the photos we posted on Facebook during the journey. Enjoy!
Oslo, Norway
Dhaka to Islamabad! Eddie is ready!! 🦅🌏😁
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Brahmaputra and Ganges Ferry Crossing, Bangladesh
Brahmaputra and Ganges Ferry Crossing, Bangladesh
Khulna, Bangladesh
Khulna Railway Station, Bangladesh
Khulna Railway Station, Bangladesh
Kolkata, India
Kolkata, India
Kolkata, India
Push play for the full experience 🙂
Delhi, India
New Delhi Railway Station, India
Amritsar, India
Amritsar, India
Lahore, Pakistan
Not the largest, but with amazing tile and fresco work. The mosque has been under restoration since 2009, with contributions from Norway, Germany and US.
Lahore, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
Eddie was very doubtful about being taken pictures of outside a mosque, but as everybody was asking for selfies of his caretakers on holy ground, he took the chance…
Lahore, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
Lahore, Pakistan
Wagah Border, Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan
..and if you look closely in the background you see other tourists as well! Eddie couldn’t stop staring but was too shy to ask for a selfie, so here is a camouflage-selfie! They are not Chinese or Japanese if you wondered! 😉
Islamabad, Pakistan
