The rocky mountainous series in Montana, USA is a haven for those Americans who like to travel away from the nerve stressing daily routine of busy life amid the towering, lofty buildings and built environment around. The series is famous for abundant wildlife, natural landscapes and forest cover. This is a completely different image of America which is popularly identified with skyscrapers and complex network of roads and travel labyrinth.

The long drive along the Rocky Mountains chain, often called the Rockies in the Western North America, is like a kaleidoscope of changing colours and shapes -- from blue to orange, from high, majestic, and snowy mountain walls to the gently low high peaks, studded with the true tall trees. Every year the scenic areas and recreational opportunities of the Rocky Mountains draw millions of tourists. People from all over the world visit the sites to hike, camp, or engage in mountain sports particularly in the summers.

Our week-long trip began from Butte. The huge statue of The Lady of the Rockies standing far and tall looked majestic. We saw several mining towers of late 90s in the old town. Interestingly the downtown looks more like uptown because of its uphill location.

We later moved to Yellowstone and stayed at Bozeman in the travel itinerary -- a small town with all the facilities for the residents and the tourists, and nestles in the Gallatin Valley. The first day of our visit was spent at Montana State University offering all the basic study and research frontiers in its outstanding Alma mater status. The area is thinly populated and the downtowns and streets usually look deserted to an outsider.

Yellowstone National Park was the first national park of the world, established in 1872. The name of the park has been derived from the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone River has high yellow rock cliffs along its banks in the northern area of the present day park. Vastness of the park can be gauged from the fact that it is spread in three states of the US, majority of area lying in the Wyoming state, followed by Montana and Idaho states. We saw one of the world's most famous geysers, the Old Faithful Geyser in the Park. The thermal areas in the park are the chief points for tourists. The park also has one of the world's largest petrified forests including trees which were long ago buried by ash and soil and transformed from wood to mineral materials.

At the west of the park lies the splendid water reservoir called Lake McDonald at Apgar Village. From Apgar we went along the east side of the lake McDonald to Avalanche Creek where we came across Cedar Avalanche Lake with a famous wooden trail called Trail of the Cedars. The Trail of Cedars is one of the most important trails, visited by hundreds of tourists. It is a wooden trail that loops around a certain area inside the park providing best sights of walk in the Cedars grove. Avalanche Gorge was a magnificent sight with water running down through the truncated rocks forming a gorge.

The southern boundary of the park is close to Canada, joining Waterton National Park of Canada. It has been declared as International Peace Park since 1932 with Canada representing the world's longest undefended border. The Waterton-Glacier National Park was declared a World Heritage Site in 1995 for its scenic values, its significant climate, ecological processes and cultural importance.

"Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?!" I asked myself as I frantically pushed my way through people standing in single-file queues and waiting to check in their bags at Rome's Fiumicino Airport. And then it hit me; I saw a 'queue,' if so I can dare call it, of desi men, women, and families, all with four to five bags each. "There I am," I thought to myself. What is it that makes it so obvious to spot an apna at an international airport? Simple. We are the ones that ignore baggage weight limits because we want to bring those gifts we bought at a pound-store back for our kids; we are the ones that buy a handbag for our sister and therefore need to buy one also for our sisters-in-law, our mother-in-law, our cousins, our brother's wife etc; we are the ones that don't understand how to stand in a line and pretend we are trying to find something as we quietly cut to the front; we are the ones who's kids are running around unwatched. I am not saying all this in a negative way. They are just facts that make us unique.

I'm not sure if it was the jeans, or the fact that I pulled out a brush and fixed my hair as I was waiting to board, but there definitely was some kind of issue; I could tell by the looks and comments of the people around me that for them, I wasn't descent enough. It doesn't matter how many old women I give my seat too, or how many people I help by translating when the guards are trying to explain to them why water bottles are not allowed on the plane. All they see is the girl in jeans. Oh well, I ignored all this and actually enjoyed my flight (which means I slept through all of it). When I landed, couples with kids pushed me to the side to get past me at passport control, thinking its their right to do so because they have a kid.

I left Italy with the weather starting to get colder and colder, so for some strange reason I thought if not cold, it would at least be chilly here. But no, not at all. As I stepped outside the airport, the heat began making me slightly dizzy. A man was helping me carry my luggage, which contained an expensive glass lamp that was meant to be a gift for my sister. I carried it with extreme care on all my fourteen-hour flight with transit, and the minute we reached my car, he put down my bag so harshly that CRACK! I was in tears. The funny thing is he still expected a tip, which I reluctantly gave him.

Something I do enjoy about Pakistan is the comfortable and lazy lifestyle. The driver took me home so I could rest. The cook made me breakfast. The cleaner made the bed and washed the dishes. The beautician came right at my door. It was like a dream. I am used to doing all the work myself, so at times I'd go get myself a glass of water and I'd be shocked at how offended the cook would be. This is something I can't seem to accept. This time round, I had a very big argument with my cook when I saw the cleaner drinking out of a half-cut plastic bottle. I was informed that this is because he is a Christian. I tried talking to the cook, to explain why this sort of discrimination is not allowed in Islam but although he nodded, I could see the dissent in his eyes.

I got hungry in the middle of the night once and drove to McDonald's with my cousins. There are many other places open till late daily in Lahore, which is something I really like. We bought our food, ate and chatted as we went for a drive blasting Atif Aslam's classic tunes and singing to them with all our energy. Suddenly, a cousin of mine opened the window and thew the entire McD's bag with our rubbish in it out of the car window. I asked him why he'd done that. According to him, he did so because he knows the sweeper will come in the morning and clean it. I'm still not sure whether he was serious or he was joking, but whatever the reasons, I disagree with this and believe there should be more trash cans in the streets and the sweeper can simply empty them the next day.

Pakistan is full of beautiful tourist spots and has a very interesting culture, then why is it that Western media only portrays it as a country that's falling apart and is dangerous to live in? Yes, it is dangerous, but no more than any other country. I lived in London for three years. There were so many teenage gang fights and murders that once an adolescent was stabbed to death on my street, yet no national newspaper reported the story. It was too common. I am here on holiday and I haven't witnessed anything in first person, not even in NWFP, where I spent a good part of my trip and people believe life is constantly at risk. Of course, the earthquake in Balochistan happened, but that was a natural disaster that couldn't have been prevented.

I come from a part of the world where democracy is considered an ideal system, but the people in Pakistan have yet to learn how important their role is in a democratic state; they don't understand the value of their vote, they no longer march on streets for their beliefs, and they don't ever share their knowledge unless they are showing it off to someone else. As an alien in my own country, I have reached the conclusion that there is a lot to be done to improve Pakistan's socio-economic and political condition, so to prevent it from going towards the total chaos its headed to.