Random ramblings from Pakistan

Michael driving a Pakistani truck
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

The past week has involved much lazing around our campsite in Islamabad, partly due to sheer laziness; partly due to the oppressive heat; and partly because we have both had eye infections which got bad enough for us to wake up Michael’s poor mother for medical advice at 4am UK time and for us to be forced to visit two Pakistani hospitals. At the international hospital, all the doctors had trained in the UK, Ireland or the US and everyone used English rather than Urdu, so the only real differences from a hospital in England were that we were seen much more quickly; the standards of hygiene seemed far better; and the corridors were decorated with educational posters about Islam. Several medications later, the eyes are (fingers crossed) on the mend.

The hospitals were quite interesting because they were the only places that we have seen women working during our whole stay in Pakistan. Although in Islamabad women are much more integrated into society than they were in Indus Khoistan (though that isn’t saying much, given that we saw almost no women in that area), even here we have seen very few employed women. All the waiters, shop keepers, café owners, check-out assistants etc are men. But in the hospital there were female nurses, doctors and administrative staff. In England that wouldn’t even be notable, but here it very much is.

Everything has been peaceful in our area of Islamabad since we arrived, though we have avoided Rawalpindi down the road as it has seen more recent troubles. Even ex-PM Nawaz Sharif coming back to Pakistan last week from exile (and swiftly being deported again) didn’t kick off too much trouble as had been feared. So, fingers crossed, all is well on the security front. We are, however, extremely glad not to be in the north west of the country, where we are hearing of regular trouble in Waziristan, including some recent beheadings. Lovely.

We did manage to drag ourselves off the campsite for long enough to visit the impressive Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, which is absolutely huge (it can hold 10,000 people) and also to head up into the mountains for a couple of nights (mainly to benefit from some cool air). Only two hours outside Islamabad, the temperature was down to 15 degrees (rather than the 30+ degree, humid heat of the city), which made a welcome change. We walked in the green hills, which are covered in pine trees and dotted with big houses owned by the wealthier inhabitants of the capital (who go up to Murree and the other hill stations for the weekends and the summer months). There is a lot of wildlife up there, too, including lots of monkeys who wander at the side of the road and come to restaurants to eat scraps of naan.

A few random observations about out time in Pakistan so far:

1. Sadly, given what a beautiful country this is, there really aren’t all that many foreign tourists. Pakistan is supposed to be having a Year of Tourism this year, but we certainly haven’t noticed. It seems that they have a endless problems in attracting tourists: a military leader took over in 1999 and put people off; then came September 11th; then people were scared off by SARS; then came the London bombings (associated whether rightly or wrongly with Pakistan’s religious schools); and most recently there was the fiasco at the Red Mosque. We have seen far fewer tourists here than I was expecting: there were occasional tour groups in the Northern Areas, but almost no independent travellers. We saw only one cyclist on the KKH, whereas when Michael was here with Chris and Rich they saw quite a few more. Even in Islamabad and the Murree hills, the vast majority of the tourists are of Pakistani origin.

2. The Pakistanis seem to be absolutely obsessed with both politics and cricket. The newspapers are completely dominated by those two subjects. At the hospital, all the doctors and patients were glued to television screens watching coverage of Sharif’s return and almost every restaurant we have been to in the past few days has been showing the Twenty20 cricket on big screens.

3. Literacy rates are scarily low in some areas. At Fairy Meadow, we were told that the rate of basic literacy amongst women there stands at less than 2%. Even in Islamabad, there are little stalls at the sides of the street where illiterate people pay a literate person to fill in their passport application forms and the like. Odd to be able to make money just from being able to read.

4. There are mosques everywhere. Not just in the towns and cities, but in the hospitals; at service stations and at all the modern petrol stations (presumably for the use of travellers during the ritual five daily prayers). It is odd to see petrol station hoardings advertising electric pumps, 24 hour service, diesel and a mosque.

5. The standard of driving is AWFUL. But we hear that it is even worse in India. Oh good.....

6. In Pakistan we eat a lot (and I really mean a lot) of chappatis and dhal. We are relishing being able to afford to eat out every day as restaurants (especially if you eat veggie food) are so cheap here. Although we have found the quality of food to be generally good (better than Michael remembered), that is probably only because we have stuck to the safe vegetarian options. But it is definitely true that dhal, vegetable curry and chapattis twice a day, every day, for three weeks can get a little repetitive. The problem is that the “Continental” options are pretty grim, so we have resorted ringing the changes during the past couple of nights by going to Pizza Hut (not exactly the authentic local experience, I know, but it was far and away the busiest restaurant we have been to anywhere in Pakistan) and also the buffet at Islamabad’s poshest residence, the Aga-Khan funded Serena Hotel.

7. The month of Ramadan started yesterday. This means that no-one can eat during the day, so the cafes are completely empty until just before sunset, when stalls appear outside each café selling hot samosas and the like for people to take home and eat after dark. Something tells me that despite this being the month of fasting, lots of Pakistanis eat a huge amount of food at this time of year: everywhere from KFC to hotel restaurants is advertising Ramadan deals and special buffets, on which presumably the locals gorge themselves once the sun goes down, having starved themselves for the rest of the day.

8. Pakistan is turning Michael into a hippy. Well, sort of – at the very least he now looks like a full-blown traveller type. He whiles away the days sitting in a camping chair on the campsite wearing linen trousers, sandals, no shirt and sporting long hair (which is now curling around his shoulders). Sometimes he even accessorises with my pink stripy headband - very fetching. Occasionally, he wanders topless in the sunshine around the campsite bobbing his head to my iPod. I can only imagine what the shalwaar kameez-clad, gun-wielding Pakistani security guards on the campsite think....