Although it was a work trip (to discuss collaboration with Superior University) I hoped to get a feel for a place. Experience something different.
Apart from the heat (43 degrees on one day) the main in thing I noticed was how friendly everyone was. From the moment Husnain met us in the hotel until the time he saw us onto our plane there was nothing but kindness and courtesy. We were picked up and offered tea and food and had our hands endlessly shaken by smiling Pakistani people.
If you read the UK newspapers you'd expect the country to be all Western-fearing fundamentalists but the reality is that most people are pleasant and polite and interested in visitors. In fact many of the students at Superior University were curious to know about the treatment of muslims in the UK. They'd heard non-christians were unwelcome in Britain so I tried to allay their fears.
The country is not without its problems. Every day there were frequent power cuts and there were clear signs of poverty. Yet the dense traffic and numerous small businesses along the roadside indicated a country where people had a lot of energy.
It was a place of contrasts as well, where luxury cars drove alongside small motorbikes with whole families on them. Where the call-for-prayer mingled with pop-music from radios. And where McDonalds squeezed in between the more traditional family-run food outlets.
But even with the influx of globalisation there was a feel that the country tended to do things its own way. Time was elastic and the rules of the road were more suggestions than strict laws. Even at the university the staff could always squeeze in a cup of tea and a chat.
And that was what Pakistan was all about: people and relationships. Time to talk and catch up with friends and family. Face to face, not just on-line.
Something we struggle to do in the UK these days.