Ho hum...it's Sunday 5.30pm, and I'm here in the office working, just like I did yesterday. That's life over here - when the work gets tough, it gets tough.
I was doing my packing checklist for my trip to Lahore and Karachi and decided to check the weather in Lahore - it's 10 freakin' degrees Celcius! And to think I was just going to show up in shirt and pants and my cabin bag. I would have frozen to death! Hmm...I wonder how I can just go with cabin baggage now??
BTW, the airlines here don't really care about your cabin baggage unless you are flying to UK, US or Australia. And heh heh...there are funny stories too. Sometimes I struggle to understand how a normal person can insist on trying to stuff their bag which is 30% bigger than the cabin storage cabinet. This lady insisted it could fit and refused to let the stewardess take her bag to be checked-in. I think after attempt number 100, she finally relented and passed the bag on to the cargo hold. To me it was simple, if hard case bag (which it was) size is bigger than storage area, hard case bag will not fit unless you take out a blow-torch and start cutting it in half!
Right...so how am I going to pack something warm and still stick with the same bag? Wear only one set of clothes while I'm there? Nah...doesn't quite work... Looks like I might have to check in my luggage afterall...grrr....
My company is quite serious with all travel to Pakistan. I was told in no uncertain terms the other day that I'm not allowed to go anywhere in Pakistan on my own while I'm there for work. I must travel everywhere with my local escort/contact. Groann....looks like I'll just stay in the hotel and use the gym. Hopefully this guy will take me out and try all the different types of food there. Sometimes I think it's the media hype. Sure, there are some dangerous elements in Pakistan but c'mon, it's not like everyone is going to be outwardly hostile (except the embassy staff in Singapore)?? I have quite a few Pakistani friends and they're all very nice people. I have friends who have travelled there and they absolutely loved it so I am looking forward to the trip, although I'm a liiiitle bit aprehensive with all the bombs going off in Islamabad.
Coincidentally (and unrelated?), I've been reading "In the Line of Fire", Pervez Musharraf's memoir. It's interesting although I feel a sense of bias in it (just like another book I'm reading about driving tours in Ladakh, India where the bias is from the other side). He also trumps (sp?) up himself quite a bit in the book but at the same time you do feel a sense that he's trying to shape a better Pakistan. I'll leave everyone to reach their own conclusions. One of these days, I would love to go back there for a holiday and trek in the mountains, etc.
Enough rambling for now...I wish I had a mood sensor thing-a-magic like Witchy.
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4 comments:
I think you should just sneak off from your bodyguard and wonder the city. But only stay on well-lit streets, don't get into fights with armed people and keep away from all the opium :)
PS: I also wish that Blogger had a mood thingie
I didn't actually get to go out much. It was pouring every single day I was there. But......the weather was a very nice and cooling 15 degrees. :-)
PS: Let me know if you find a Blogger mood thingie
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