Islamabad

Spent the New Year weekend in Islamabad, the capital city of
Pakistan. It is a planned city built in the early 1960’s, and is completely
different from Lahore. The most noticeable difference is the traffic: they
follow the road rules e.g. vehicles travel on the correct side of the road
& obey the traffic lights, of course it does help that there are a ;ot of
traffic police who are actually monitoring the traffic and pulling cars up for
infringements. The other major factor is that no rickshaws are allowed in the
city, unlike Lahore that has a large proportion of rickshaws that turn any
travel into a motorised lolly scramble!
Islamabad is also clean, very little litter and a lot less
building going on. Lahore has whole suburbs that are huge building sites.
There is a sophisticated, gentile air about Islamabad but as
someone said “It’s the Pakistani equivalent of Canberra” (Boring)
Did get shown around the city by a man who it turned out was
the unofficial president of Islamabad. He knew everyone. So at
restaurants we got the best tables, offered items not on the menu, and then
didn’t have to pay for the meal. As we looked at some stalls and shops another
man ran behind us, watching, and anything that we looked like wanting to buy he
would speak to the shop opener and then offer us the item for free!!! It’s a
shame there were no diamond necklaces or Lamborghinis for sale

Went on a hunt for the parliament buildings. Could always
see them in the distance but couldn’t work out how to get to them. Finally
after going through a labyrinth of road blocks we got there. Nice architecture
but what was most striking was the minimal security on display, you see more guards
and guns around where I live. Maybe the the labyrinth was a form of security!

Murree is a hilltop area north of Islamabad. It’s where the
British went in summer to avoid the heat in the lower lying areas. Today it is
still a popular holiday spot. Nice views, and good markets but it is memorable
to me for only one thing: I had a touch of Delhi belly and needed a toilet NOW.
Went to the flashest restaurant I could find and was struck with one of my
phobias – a squat toilet that was awash in filth. I would have preferred to
find a bush, but unfortunately there was no vegetation nearby and so had no
choice. It did make me reminisce on how good the South African toilets were in comparison.

Almost forgot the best part. When looking for our accommodation
in Islamabad we got lost and turned up at the gate of a house. Was Imran Khan’s
House!! Turned out we were staying next door
Went strolling near his driveway a few times but had no sightings