By Phil Long With the Barmy Army in Pakistan

Just seven weeks after 25,000 jubilant English fans packed into Trafalgar Square to celebrate the Ashes triumph rather fewer supporters made it to Rawalpindi to see England kick off their tour of Pakistan.

It's been the usual fascinating start to touring in this part of the world

In fact, a mere eight hardy English souls made the journey across Pakistan to the imposing Pindi Stadium to see Michael Vaughan's men make very heavy weather of beating a Patron's XI.

But they aroused plenty of media interest among local scribes and TV networks who were intrigued as to why anybody would willingly travel thousands of miles to see England play a low-key 14-a-side match.

As a procession of England batsmen came and went for single figure scores, and to increasingly injudicious shots, we were left wondering the very same thing.

Our various proclamations made on Pakistani TV that England would win the forthcoming series 'by one or two Tests' looked just a tad optimistic, if not downright foolish, with the Pindi scoreboard displaying England on 39-6 in their second innings.

While the England team were having problems out on the field, on the stadium's concrete steps we were facing our own, slightly different, challenges.

The final days of Ramadan meant that water and food were in short supply during daylight hours.

And although the welcoming home supporters told us observing the fast got easier as time went on it was little consolation to us and our under-prepared constitutions.

Distributing aid is the main order of business in Pakistan

However, our early discomfort was put in sharp perspective by events overhead throughout the three-day game.

Pindi Stadium lies very close to Islamabad International Airport and the temporary home of thousands of tonnes of aid destined for earthquake ravaged Kashmir.

Every half hour or so two or more huge Chinook helicopters would fly low overhead on their way north - a timely reminder that cricket in this part of the world is, understandably, rather unimportant at the moment.

With victory secured by England's bowlers, it was just a five-hour bus trip east to Lahore and a city ready to celebrate the end of Ramadan with the Eid celebrations.

One headline you won't have read anywhere is 'England fans shot' but that is precisely what happened to a number of us as we wandered around the atmospheric, yet largely deserted (due to the holidays), old city of Lahore.

I'm not sure if they were this year's must-have toy, but every young boy was carrying a brand new toy gun this Eid.

Unfortunately for us we didn't realise that they came packed with high velocity pellets that pinged into us as we wandered unsuspectingly into the crossfire of a 20-a-side shooting match or were carefully picked off by young snipers from the windows looking over the narrow bazaars.

Almost every time we were hit a small figure would run to us and offer us their hand as form of an apology and ask if we wanted to join in.