The highway to Peshawar is fairly deserted. As we get closer to the city, Pakistan’s rugged terrain gives way to farmlands, and then finally a colorful explosion of traffic and rickshaws.
Though only a 2 1/2-hour drive from Islamabad and all of its modern amenities, Peshawar is conspicuously more conservative. Many women here are wearing burkas or only have their eyes showing underneath their hijabs. I reach up to my headscarf and make sure no offensive hairs have managed to slip out.
Read Arwa Damon's report on the children of Peshawar
We stop briefly in front of the ancient Bala Hisar Fort - erected at a time when Pakistan was in the midst of other wars, centuries ago. I snap a quick photograph.
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Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, is on a visit to Pakistan and has urged the country to step up pressure on the Afghan Taliban. CNN's Arwa Damon interviews the general in Pakistan.