Blogs from Islamabad, Pakistan, Asia
January 18th 2010
Okay, Pakistan in good for one's ego. That's 100% clear. We're now exactly one week in Pakistan and all is going well and our egos had a significant boost, but more about that later on. The main reason of being in Paki is visiting a good, old friend on mine (who probably doesn't want to be called 'old', or do you, Renate?). We had a perfect flight from Kathmandu to ISB, with only one weird thing: the whole plane is basically full, but only 3 female passengers: 1 western lady in Business class and 2 in Economy, one of which being Agi and the other one is a local lady. Despite my initial expectation, we were shown a lovely local movie, which was actually in english: "Wolverine, origines", a typical US Hollywood blockbuster movie. Hmmmm, no ... read more
November 5th 2009
Hello TB, I've joined, finally. Going through the planning phase for my 2009 vacation - 'Middle east journey'. This trip would be road travel from Islamabad via Taftan into Iran vising Shiraz, Yazd, Esfahan, Tehran - taking the Trans-Asia Express to Istanbul and back to Tehran via Ankara, then Gorgan, Mashad and back into Pakistan via Taftan. I'm uber-excited about this. Lets hope it all plans well and I can provide my travel-ramble as I go. Wish me luck. Zaki... read more
April 13th 2009
Adventures on the Road to Murree from Islamabad! So, the steep, narrow, curvy, and perilous mountain road leading up from Islamabad to the cool mountain-top town of Murree is, well, steep, narrow, and perilous. The road to Murree is also filled with large commercial trucks that are rolling folk art, wonderfully painted, and dazzlingly decorated. They are also often old and tired. Metal chains dangle and clang as the trucks struggle and strain to go up hills. If you are behind one of them, the people in your rear-view window become increasingly agitated if you don't pass them. There were some other factors to consider as well: (1) a steering wheel on the right hand side, (2) a stick shift in your left hand, and most importantly, (3) oncoming traffic, which means on the right hand ... read more
November 18th 2008
In relaying our experiences of Pakistan, certain aspects of daily life got overlooked, simply because they became so commonplace. Power cuts became increasingly frequent, and by the time we reached Lahore 'load shedding' was every other hour, on the hour, across the country. Whilst this was an inconvenience for us, for residents and businesses it must have been a nightmare. Thankfully, at the time of writing, normal service has been resumed. There were also the incidents that we heard about and read about in the paper of the barbaric justice meted out to those having sexual relationships outside of marriage. 'Honour killings' are frequent - one truly horrific incident that made international news was where a young woman was forcibly aborted, and fed alive to dogs; and another case in Balochistan of a man being tried ... read more
November 7th 2008
Letter from Islamabad 02/11/2008 End of the first week and are now half way through our training. Have attended Urdu lessons for two hours every morning and know more about my own language construction than I was teached in school in England. Our teacher has given us both the basic structure and the history of his language. We have learned some basic sayings parrot fashion but has encouraged us to develop our own phrases based on the structure S O V (subject object verb). Have learned a lot about Islam and cultural matters through a range of workshops and discussion sessions. Islamabad is a strange city built on a grid system with a market area in the centre, housing is arranged around the edge. We are currently staying in street 32 F11/2 house 334. There are ... read more
October 28th 2008
MONDAY 27th OCTOBER Hello from sunny Pakistan! Made it here at last after many months waiting and planning. We are in Islamabad for 2 weeks having our in-country training which involves 2hours of Urdu each day, As-salam alaikum to all, then briefings on security, cultural adaptation and etiquette etc,etc. There are 7 of us new vols and a very mixed bunch we are, which makes for interesting conversations. It is good to be making friends with people who will be based in different areas of Pakistan as we will be able to visit and see different aspects of this country. We are staying in a guest house in a very new suburb of Islambad far away from any suspect areas. It is in a street full of very large posh looking houses with varandas,pillars,gates infact it ... read more
Subcontinental Drift: Chapter Twenty - The Karakoram Highway
Published: August 21st 2008Asia » Pakistan » Islamabad
August 1st 2008
A wildness about Pakistan is evident in the name of the regions over which the government has teetering control. Provinces such as Sindh and Balochistan may be one thing. But when added to the likes of the more lawless sounding Northwest Frontier Province, you’d expect scenes out of the Wild West. In many cases, that’s exactly what takes place! My favorite region of Pakistan by title alone is the Northern Areas, leaving the foreigner with the impression that its inhabitants are a part of the nation when it suits them, but do not wholly buy into Pakistani integration. I met the connections needed to make it into the Northern Areas without a night’s layover in Islamabad. Daewoo runs a splendid coach service out of their own station in Lahore to the capital on the half hour. ... read more
July 2nd 2008
“Killer Mountain, Nanga Parbat - naked mountain - is the ninth highest peak (8125 meters) in the world and second highest in Pakistan, situated on the western tip of great Himalayan. Its south face, known as Rupal Face rises over 5000 meters from the valley floor to the summit. After a German climber Hurman Bhul scaled it in 1953, many climbers have stepped on the majestic peak and many have lost their lives in their pursuits.” After a mercifully uneventful flight, we landed in a somewhat dusty, noisy, hot Rawalpindi (locals call it Pindi) and our senses were immediately bombarded from all angles by sights, sounds and smells, a subtle blend of cooking, herbs, spices, smoke and sewers. ... read more
April 3rd 2008
Seagulls and bare midriffs. I’ve made many mistakes in my life. The latest one was based on the assumption that the weather in Holland and England would be mild since the temperature was going up in Pakistan. That proved to be a wrong assumption. When in September 2006 we started our trip towards the East in the revamped Land Rover, we left behind our “European” camper, the Renault master we had bought the year before. It was a good car although underpowered with too little ground clearance to risk roads in underdeveloped countries. We left it in a garage in Holland to be sold. After almost 16 months, it was still there, gathering rust and, with a month time before I could hope to get in China over the Khunjerab pass, which is closed in winter, ... read more
February 23rd 2008
February 24, Islamabad It’s after the elections and after the results have been published. Only 30 to 40 % took part and scores of women were prevented from voting, although that is their constitutional right. It seems that in other parts of the country not everything went as peacefully as it did here, but even with that as a consideration it all went a lot less problematic than expected. Of course, in a country like this trouble lurks always around the corner because democracy is a word that has a foreign ring to it, like in South Africa. There the opposition is expected to retreat in it’s corner and not to interfere with the goings on in the country. They have lost and should stay away from government, commissions and all such things where the winning ... read more
