Part 2

Well the jet-lag has yet to wear off, by 9pm last night I was shattered even though I didn't do much in the evening, and then this morning I was wide awake at 5.30am. I find that a bit odd since 5.30am means 10.30am in Pakistan, and there's no way I would ever be wide awake at 10.30! Hopefully by the time the weekend is here it should be sorted out.

As promised, I've bought some pictures of the trip, so will continue to type about the holiday. Coming back to Karachi briefly, I forgot to mention a restaurant we visited on the night of our arrival. It's called 'Lal Qila', which translates to 'Red Fort' and it was a massive castle type building with a buffet held in the courtyard. It was very impressive with a huge range of food, and I was absolutely stuffed by the end of it. Although most of the food was enjoyable during the trip, I tried to ensure that I didn't get carried away. I'm pleased to say that my weight has not changed after the trip, so now I can start concentrating on trying to lose some! Can't say the same about certain other people on the trip! You know who you are!

Before typing more about Lahore, check out these pictures of typical Karachi traffic:


The last one is particularly amusing! I saw motorbikes with 4 people on them, other scooters with the mother holding a baby on her lap, but the 4 kids in the boot was the funniest and most bizarre of the lot! The smoke in the second picture is purely from the rickshaw and the pollution levels were extremely high throughout the city, contributing, no doubt, to the global warming dilemma I've discussed here.

I also talked about the visit to the Sindh Assembly yesterday; here are some pictures from there.


The first one is a picture of Lord Mountbatten declaring the independence of Pakistan and handing over power to Jinnah and the second photo is me in the very same chair. The third picture shows Jinnah himself - in a moment of contemplation and the last picture is the Pakistan Resolution.

So finally, back to Lahore. After arriving late Monday night, we woke up late the following Tuesday to see a lizard (see below) on the ceiling, cue pandemonium as we chased the lizard out of the room, it soon disappeared, thankfully not seen again, although I'm sure it was lingering somewhere in the house! The first day was spent relaxing at home as we had gotten up too late to do anything. It was counter-productive because it allowed my wife to make plans for the next day: namely, shopping!

Come Wednesday and my wife disappeared with her mum to do some shopping. She left at 12pm and returned at 9pm, that is some serious shopping! Thankfully she didn't spend too much and my bank balance is still intact. Meanwhile, I visited the Indo-Pak border, called the Wagha border. Thanks to my sister-in-law taking ages to get ready - why was makeup required to visit the border? - we missed the sunset ceremony by 5minutes! Luckily we managed to get to the border to take some pictures and India was merely 10m away. So close and yet so far. Funnily enough I have an Indian visa so I could have walked across, but because of my single entry Pakistan visa I would not have been allowed back in - I would be stuck in Punjab.

That evening we had to attend a Mehendi function. A common theme throughout the trip was because of the number of girls, everything was delayed because they all took ages to get ready! Credit to my wife's cousins who all got ready quickly, but as for my wife and her sister's, they all took ages! The processes they all went through, it's amazing that they have any real skin left.

The function started at 10pm and dinner was served at 11pm. What about work the next day? No-one seemed to care. Thursday saw a brief attempt at sight-seeing. We visited Minar-e-Pakistan - a bit like the Eiffel Tower, and also a famous masjid whose name I now forget, but hopefully someone will remind me in the comments section.

That evening we attended the wedding of the mehendi from the night before. Nothing changed, the girls took ages to get ready and dinner was served at 11pm. On Friday I visited my father-in-law's fathers grave. He passed away in 1973 and was buried in what was a new graveyard at the time. Over the following years the whole area has become extremely congested. My father-in-law showed me some pictures of the actual burial and the graveyard is now completely unrecognisable.

On the way back, we stopped at McDonald's, where I enjoyed a chicken Big Mac. To my astonishment I saw this Mercedes outside (see below). It had an UK number plate; it had been imported from the UK! According to my wife's uncle, the Pakistan government charges between 200-300% import tax to cars, so what was a £40,000 car, probably cost the owner upto £180,000 to import. Crazy! Incidentally, that same evening I saw another Mercedes E-Class and a BMW 7-series with UK number plates. Infact, the BMW number plate was LA54 DHA, where LA stood for Lahore and DHA for the Defence Housing Authority! Clearly some very rich people in Lahore.

Our last evening in Lahore and my wife's uncle took us out to a restaurant called Salt 'n' Peppa. It wasn't a buffet but the food was extremely good. Afterwards, outside the restaurant, I was confronted by a 'kusra' (a transvestite) asking for money - I just turned and ran; it was a real scary sight!

The following morning we had a brunch at my wife's aunts house and then grabbed the afternoon flight to Karachi. Upon landing we went to some shops in order for me to do some shopping. I bought a few shalwar kameez, I can now dress like a proper Pakistani when I return home! We then went to a restaurant at the seaside. It was an amazing buffet, with all types of food including sheep brain! Believe me, it actually tasted quite nice, a bit like egg yolk. They also served my favourite dessert, gulab jamun. In the past I've been known to down quite a few, my record stands at 11, and that was only because they ran out. This time, I was extremely sensible and only had 3. I'm very impressed with myself! On the way back I spotted something shocking, a Nissan 350Z! My car! That must have cost at least £200,000, the import tax must be at least 500% for that!!

The following morning meant the end of our holiday. My wife's sister also flew home with us, my wife's parents and other sister stayed behind for a further week. As I mentioned yesterday the return flight was quite tortuous. Overall, I had a really good time, much to my surprise. I went with a lot of negative views about the place and my experiences have changed all that.

My wife has a huge family and everyone was extremely warm, welcoming and friendly towards me. There was no animosity because I'm Indian, although I wasn't really expecting it. They all seemed to enjoy my mickey-taking of Pakistani's! I didn't encounter any negative feelings towards Shia's at anytime. When we were out shopping, or at restaurants, people knew we were Shia's but there was never any tension.

I used to tell my wife before I got married that I would visit Pakistan once as a duty to her and then never again. However, after this visit I definitely plan to return inshallah. I'm quite shocked to see myself type that. Of all the reactions I could have hoped for, this was not one of them, but I had a really enjoyable time. Part of that was thanks to my wife's family who came with us which made it much easier. I also got to interact more with my sister-in-laws which was also fun and I'll be typing a blog about them in due course now that I know them better. I think having my wife's family made it easier to interact with my wife's extended family; they all helped me out throughout the trip. At the end of the day, I want to return to Pakistan because I had such a good time with my wife's family, but I don't know whether I would recommend it to anyone to visit at random. At the moment, I don't know much about the country in terms of sight-seeing etc so I can't really say. I'll correct that the next time I visit!

I think that pretty much concludes my blog about the holiday. Hope it wasn't too boring to read. From tomorrow it's back to the usual blogs about random thoughts.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?