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.