"Pretend You're Indiana Jones" Gujranwala by kwokman

I came here to Gujranwala to visit friends. Being from the U.S., it was a culture shock. The clothing is different, the music is different, the smells, the food, the traffic, the language, the buildings - everything is different. There was nothing recognizably American here - not like Lahore which has at least a McDonald's. But that's the adventure of it all. I had entered another world.

The people are friendly and hospitable. They are not afraid to come up to you on the street and talk, especially young men and boys.

Gujranwala is like America's wild, wild west - Asian style. You will find car and motorcycle horns honking all the time, like noise makers at a New Year's Eve party. The road belongs to the most aggressive drivers. The highway is shared by cars traveling at 60 mph, as well as buses, trucks, donkeys, sheeps, goats, horses, rickshaws, and pedestrians. You will find no traffic lights, and very few policemen. The streets and dusty and dirty, with trash piled up at the corners. The sewers are actually open gutters. When it rains or when the sewers are clogged, smelly debris sometimes flows out into the street.

About terrorists -- yes, there are anti-American extremists around, but they tend to concentrate in the northwest frontier areas near Afghanistan, and in the villages. In cities such as Gujranwala, there is a greater chance that the health and safety hazards will do you harm than will terrorism.