Week 4 in Islamabad.

We have been exploring the city and surrounds. Up in the Margala Hills there are a couple of restaurants that have a great view of the city. Helps if you go on a clear day as it can be very hazy and pictures do not always come out very well.



We have also been out and about around the markets looking at the shops. Really exciting...... At the Kohsar market there is a little cafe that has outside tables and a continental feel as it seems to be a frequent haunt of the diplomatic community as there are many embassies nearby. It is also a walking distance from our digs.

We have also found a few restaurants that sell alcohol and have applied to join the UN club where we spent Tuesday night in the company of a group of ex-Yugoslavs. Smiljana made contact with them and they invited her and her friends, us, along for a night of music and singing. The music was very good and the singing was fine, I just did not understand a word of the lyrics. Smiljana sang a few serb songs and I must say she has a wonderful voice.

This weekend we have managed to wangle an invite to a Feb 29th party at the Canadian club. I have also managed to be offered a possible invite to the Brit club at the British High Commission. This coming after spending the best part of an hour there the other week trying to speak to a Brit. I was trying to find out about possible trouble during the local government elections and kept being put through to one local after another. Ended up demanding to speak to a brit of any flavour as I could not get any sense out of the locals. Main problem was that it was Friday lunchtime and all the Brits finish at that time on a Friday. Wonder what we are actuall wasting our tax on with these foreign embassies as they do not seem to do much.

Succumbed to the Pakistani equivalent of Delhi Belly last week. Not nice and apart from work spent the rest of the time very close to a khazi. Thankfully cleared up by Saturday as we had discovered another 'wet' restaurant out in the sticks. After a 45 minute drive and getting lost a couple of times we arrived at what looked like a private residence. This was in fact 'Rifiyz Place'. The owner also owns the Table Talk in Kohsar market. It is her private house with half of it turned into a restaurant. We spent the first hour sitting in the garden around a bonfire chatting and drinking. Smiljana managed to get stuck to the chair, the zips on her back pockets caught in the rattan of the seat. She then had a blond moment and did it a second time in five minutes. Finally sitting on a cushion solved this problem. The food was excellent, best steak I have had in a very long time. We continued to avail ourselves of the wine and a couple of Calvados to end the meal. Finished up back in the digs drinking gin and tonic, Very pleasant, very convivial and very drunk by the time I hit the hay.

Pakistan

It's been a busy week or so. I left home last Friday afternoon to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan via Exeter and London. Had a good evening with my mate joe and his partner Andy. I have known Joe for over 40 years and we still have good times when we meet up.

Saturday morning I was off to London where I went to watch the Lions play Doncaster at the Den. Worst game of football I have seen in a long long time. Millwall were absolute shit and Donny looked like a side that wants promotion. After the match I met up with one of my sisters, Dee, at London Bridge for a meal and a few beers.

Sunday evening I was on a flight to Islamabad. Not a very full flight so there was a chance to grab a row of 3 seats for a kip during the night. Just as well really as when I arrived I was whisked off to a meeting with the customer. There was an ignorant woman beside me who had to be told 3 times to switch off her phone before take off and then again during the flight. BA staff were pissed off at her but all they did was give her a warning letter. Didn't even confiscate the phone. Don't know quite what sort of signal she thought she would get at 35,000 feet over rural Russia but hey some people NEED a mobile, poor buggers.

Had a pleasant suprise when I walked into this meeting as I was not expecting to see anybody I knew but Rodney Stewart and Paul Muchori who I worked with last year in Algeria were there. Along with Smijana, who I worked with in Egypt in 2006, that makes three of the team I know so not too much of the getting to know you phase. The four of us and Amir, an Iranian exiled in Sweeden, are staying in a guest house in Islamabad.

My room is top right.

As one of the senior people on the project I, along with Rodney, have the two suites in the guest house. It comprises of a bedroon, a bathroom, a living room and I have just discovered that I also have a large balcony above the carport. This is a vast improvement on the first place we were put in. That was grotty, a real cheap place. We were all complaining about different things, my room was pretty poor with brown water coming from the shower, so hot that it seemed like they were serving tea that way. Smiljana's room had a broken heater and she was constantly cold, although she always seems to be cold .

We have been eating well as all the restaurants we have tried so far have been excellent with very good food an huge portions. I was hoping to loose a few pounds while here but at this rate I will gain a stone or more.

Islamabad is a modern city and you will not fine another like it on the whole sub-continent. As it is a brand new city built in the late 20th century and is laid out in straight lines with wide roads there is none of the crows, noise, pollution or character of the older 19th century cities found elsewhere. Rawalpindi, 7 miles down the road has all this along with bombs and the occasional riot. Will visit there later.

This is a dry country so buying booze is pretty dificult, though not impossible, as foreigners and non muslims can get some. We have found a place at the back of the Best western hotel. It is across a muddy car park and is just a hole in the wall. You knock on the shutter which then springs open to show a little face asking what you want. "You want whisky" is the usual greeting. Went there the other day to get some gin for Amir as it was his birthday. That was the easy part as I was then on a mission to get some tonic water to go with it. Asked the driver for a supermarket. He duly to us to what they call a super market here. A large collection of shops. He could not get the idea that we wanted a large shop that sold all sorts of stuff and kept taking us to different parts of the market saying over and over "Supermarket, yes, yes, supermarket". Got a bit frustrating, eventually forund on by asking in a petrol station. Nevet thought it would be easier to get gin than it would be to get tonic water.

The only bar we have found so far is in the Marriott hotel, not especially great but it will suffice. First hotel bar I have found that shuts at 11pm. But hey ho beggars can't be choosers.