There are other buses, of course, but people have told me this is among the best (not that I'm here to promote Daewoo, btw, a company I'd like to ask about its investment in Burma despite calls for sanctions). I can tell you the best thing about it is that it goes every 30 minutes and you don't have to book a ticket in advance.

When I took the bus last week from Islamabad to Lahore things almost came badly unstuck when the bus was held up in traffic and was half an hour late getting in. After a frantic taxi ride through Lahore to the airport, I found myself at 7.40pm pleading with the airline staff to check me in for a flight to Delhi that left at 8pm. (Wonderfully, they did. Thanks Indian Airlines.)

Anyway, all this shameless plugging of Asian corporations, distracts me from my real point which is that the bus between Lahore and Islamabad always shows English language film (a plus) but goes to adverts every five minutes (a minus). Indeed there is one advert that shows almost repeatedly - a commercial for Tara fertiliser. What is fun about this ad, showing how the fortunes of an impoverished farmer are turned around when he starts using this fertiliser, is that it is set in the verdant fields of the Punjab through which the bus travels. Look out of the window and you'll see the very same landscape of wheat, rice and oranges that are shown in the video. I've seen it so many times that I can now sing along. And gentle reader, now so can you. It turns out that the Tara video is up there on YouTube. The singer is apparently a Pakistani performer called Javad Ahmed. Be warned it's addictive.