I had hoped this was going to be a report on Prince Charles' visit to DOST on his trip to Pakistan.  Sadly the excitement of him coming to us as his only local NGO visit turned to disappointment when he cancelled the morning of the visit.  It was not too great a surprise.  We heard the helicopters flying over our home on their way to attack the madrassa two days previously and knew immediately something was amiss (we didn't however hear the rockets flying over our heads in the opposite direction a week later in retaliation.  They didn't hit much and only appeared in the back pages of the local newspaper, missiles with 15km range were reported as just a bit of accidental 'over exuberance' from our tribal friends).  The last straw was the night before the visit, a friend of mine from the US consulate called me to say he had received a specific threat on the Prince's life.  I tried to persuade him to keep quiet, but he insisted on calling the Prince's security team, and the visit to Peshawar was off.  Whimp.....

Oh well who needs a Prince when we had my sister visiting.  As usual a trip to the 2000 year old Buddhist ruins in Takht-e Bhai.

John got down to some of his own excavating..

Emma and I went for a drive down to Lahore.  We took the old Grand Trunk road and stopped at Rohtas Fort.  A huge Mughal fort with 4km circumference walls, 12 gates and 68 Bastions, built in 1543.  A fair sized village is situated inside and does not even stretch to the walls.

 Apparently the architect was nearly put to death after the emperor saw the first construction because it was too small.  I think he got the message..

Then onto Lahore and the fort.  We saw that a VIP was visiting and so hung around the closed off Hall of Mirrors.  Sure enough the VIP was invited in, and so we begged the guard to let us in too.  Although still under restoration it was spectacular.

Lahore of course meant a meal on the rooftop of Coco's den overlooking the mosque

However I still prefer the street food.

We also went to the border closing ceremony where I got my first glimpse of India.  Well the sight of a large well constructed spectator stadium.  On the Pakistan side it was incomplete and pretty dangerous, but still the crowd was very enthusiastic.  Both sides cheer their border guards as they close the gate each evening.  Quite a display.

We also went to Jahangir's tomb near Lahore, the only Mughal mausoleum in Pakistan.  Dated 1627, it is beautiful and very peaceful.

Interestingly there were a team of restorers making new marble screens.  Almost exactly as they would have been made 400 years ago, but maybe without the crafty bottle of superglue to fix any breaks!

Finally, VSO wanted to make a film about me to encorage others to volenteer and come to Pakistan, so for 2 days I had a film crew follow me around and interview friends and family.  Not sure what they will produce, but here is a photo they made of me cycling home from work.