Saturday September 06: Islamabad

Our last full day in Pakistan.

At breakfast we met again the group from Norfolk that we had met in Bumburet. They had been intending to fly from Chitral but the flight had been cancelled (we always reckoned this would be a problem which is why we turned the idea down and do not recommend it) and they too had decided (late on) to drive to Islamabad, but they had not arrived till after midnight.

In the morning we went for a walk around the immediate neighbourhood. We noted lots of army vehicles with heavily armed police and soldiers. Apparently today was the day of the presidential elections; Zadari’s house was in the road parallel to ours, thus the guards. In the afternoon we noted that the guards had gone as immediately after his election he had moved to the Presidential Palace.

We first went to have a look at the Naval HQ – a large green campus in the middle of Islamabad – a long way from the see, but I suppose you have to have an HQ near the government.

In the afternoon Ehsan sent a taxi to take us to meet him and Eidjan who had been staying at the Regent Hotel in Rawalpindi. Ehsan had had the jeep serviced in the morning and took for a ride around Rawalpindi. We first saw the actual spot where Benazir Bhutto was killed – there were a group of her supporters there – and then to a shop he remembered sold the sort of ‘toy’ lorry we wanted for Jacob. The shop did indeed sell lorries, and we were amazed that he knew/remembered this. Our tour enabled us to get a final view of the sights, sounds and gridlock of Rawalpindi. As a westerner, you never tire of all the little shops, factories and workshops. I remember when I was a teenager and you could buy things like reconditioned engines (Pride & Clark of Goldhawk Road is where I got mine); you see all this in Rawalpindi – whole streets selling used engines, gearboxes and spare parts. Vehicles being repaired or welded-up in the street. Again you have to make the comment that almost nothing is thrown away, it is reconditioned and/or recycled. 

In the evening we all went to have an Afghani biriyani at an open-air restaurant in Islamabad. It was crowded and the food was very good too. Ehsan even met an old chum – shouldn’t have been surprised.