Pakistani Visas Granted

Somewhat to my surprise Ellie and I were granted our visas to enter Pakistan today. We had to apply for them now, even though we won't reach Pakistan until the end of September, because the Pakistani government only issues visas in the country in which the passport is held. So if you're Australian, you can only apply in Australia. There's a part on the visa application form for the names and addresses of two people in the home country and two people in Pakistan who can vouch for your character and will also provide funds to repatriate you if necessary. I'm not sure that I know that many people in the whole world who would vouch for me and pay to get me out of trouble, let alone two in Australia and two in Pakistan. So in the Australian section I wrote the names and address of my two adult daughters. Lyndal and Michaela, if you're reading this, you just vouched for me! :-) I left the Pakistan section blank but the visa clerk insisted that I fill it in. She said, "Just write the name of the hotel you'll be staying at". "But I won't be there for three months - I haven't booked a hotel", I replied. She told me to write the name of any old hotel then, it didn't matter, as long as the section wasn't blank. So I asked her if she could name a hotel in Pakistan and I would write that. "No, I'm Iranian", she said. Of course. So I thought long and hard, trying to dredge up anything I could about a hotel in Pakistan. The only one I could think of was the Marriott, but I think it was blown up last year. Best not to claim that I was staying there. So eventually I wrote "Intercontinental Hotel, Islamabad" on the paper and scurried out the door. When I got home I checked the internet to discover that there actually IS a hotel called the Intercontinental in Islamabad. The only problem is, they haven't finished building it yet. Probably never will. Oh well. Thank you to the visa clerk in the Pakistani High Commission in Canberra for issuing my daughter and I with our visas, even though we claimed to be staying in an unfinished building with no scheduled completion date.