The train, bus or hitchhiking is an „in-between“. You're out of your normal context, out of your home or working place, displaced in a way from your family and friends to whom you remain in contact with via mobile phone or thoughts. The „in-between“- time can be an hour or two, but it can be a day or several ones, depending where you're travelling, if the traffic is smooth or gets stuck caused by street blockades or belated transportation.
In the „in-between“ you can close yourself to your own memories and thoughts, to another world in reading (in the european context this starts to get displaced by watching movies on a small laptop) or listening to music or you can make the experience of getting in touch with the other travellers.
In Pakistan, it seems, a lot of things happen in the in-between of travelling. Trainrides are long (Karachi-Lahore 15 calculated hours which turn out to be 24 in practice), busrides even longer (for example on the Karakorum Highway) and from wedding invitations, to „we cannot close the window, we need the cold air as this man has got a dead body with him“, everything can happen.
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