Feb. 16 - Islamabad, Pakistan
Thursday, February 16 :: Islamabad, Pakistan :: 10km today / 4555km total
A morning visit to a very disappointing war museum - for a country that spends 30% of it's annual budget on it's military I had expected something half-decent. Ah well. I packed up quickly and left my hotel for the short ride into neighbouring Islamabad - I didn't bother to change into my cycling gear, or even to put my cycling shoes on.
Islamabad is a very young city, not more than 40 years old, and the capital of Pakistan. Its a planned city, and it is beautiful. It has trees, grass, wide avenues, and order - all the things you don't expect from a South Asian city. If you ever visit the Subcontinent (India/Pakistan/Nepal/Sri Lanka) I highly recommend starting in Islamabad, to "ease" your way in. I almost started laughing as I rode into Islamabad's twin Rawalpindi yesterday, how gentle the traffic and drivers are here, how they were paying close attention to things like traffic lights and lines on the road. I actually had to consciously de-aggressify my city driving habits, habits that had grown on me in places like Agra, Jaipur, Bombay, Panaji, Calicut, Trivandrum, Kathmandu, Amritsar...
Being a beautiful, cleanish, orderly city (like Toronto?), Islamabad is also kind of boring (like Toronto?). The must-see is the Shah Faisal Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world built largely from funds donated by Saudi Arabia's King Faisal. Big, bold, stately, I love mosques to begin with and this one was no different. The bad news is that Pakistan lost to India in cricket again today, and have now also lost the best-of-5 series. If you hear about renewed "cartoon" rioting in Pakistan today, don't say I didn't warn you!
160km West of here is Peshawar, near the Afghan border and Khyber Pass, and it's pretty much the end of the road in that direction. What to do with myself after that? I'll have about 2-3 weeks before I need to be back in Delhi for my flight home. South and West are the dangerous bandit provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, so I'm not going there. Northwest is Afghanistan... no thanks. North are the Karakoram mountains... too cold in February. I'm contimplating:
a) riding a different route (the M2 highway) back to Lahore (only 3-4 days though)
b) flying somewhere cheap from Islamabad or Delhi, for a few weeks
c) riding through central/North India, between Varanasi and Udaipur
We'll see!
A morning visit to a very disappointing war museum - for a country that spends 30% of it's annual budget on it's military I had expected something half-decent. Ah well. I packed up quickly and left my hotel for the short ride into neighbouring Islamabad - I didn't bother to change into my cycling gear, or even to put my cycling shoes on.
Islamabad is a very young city, not more than 40 years old, and the capital of Pakistan. Its a planned city, and it is beautiful. It has trees, grass, wide avenues, and order - all the things you don't expect from a South Asian city. If you ever visit the Subcontinent (India/Pakistan/Nepal/Sri Lanka) I highly recommend starting in Islamabad, to "ease" your way in. I almost started laughing as I rode into Islamabad's twin Rawalpindi yesterday, how gentle the traffic and drivers are here, how they were paying close attention to things like traffic lights and lines on the road. I actually had to consciously de-aggressify my city driving habits, habits that had grown on me in places like Agra, Jaipur, Bombay, Panaji, Calicut, Trivandrum, Kathmandu, Amritsar...
Being a beautiful, cleanish, orderly city (like Toronto?), Islamabad is also kind of boring (like Toronto?). The must-see is the Shah Faisal Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world built largely from funds donated by Saudi Arabia's King Faisal. Big, bold, stately, I love mosques to begin with and this one was no different. The bad news is that Pakistan lost to India in cricket again today, and have now also lost the best-of-5 series. If you hear about renewed "cartoon" rioting in Pakistan today, don't say I didn't warn you!
160km West of here is Peshawar, near the Afghan border and Khyber Pass, and it's pretty much the end of the road in that direction. What to do with myself after that? I'll have about 2-3 weeks before I need to be back in Delhi for my flight home. South and West are the dangerous bandit provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, so I'm not going there. Northwest is Afghanistan... no thanks. North are the Karakoram mountains... too cold in February. I'm contimplating:
a) riding a different route (the M2 highway) back to Lahore (only 3-4 days though)
b) flying somewhere cheap from Islamabad or Delhi, for a few weeks
c) riding through central/North India, between Varanasi and Udaipur
We'll see!
posted by Graham Durrant at 7:20 AM
5 Comments:
(Provided that you feel up to dealing with more chaotic Indian drivers), I think that you should go to Varanasi!
I don't care what you do, just sell some soap, body cream and body butter to the locals while you're contemplating your next move!
I think you should pick up a cheap flight and explore somewhere for a little while. How about Iraq? You missed that last time! Just kidding- your cousin.
go to assam
-rb
the Karakoram Highway it is!
Varanasi would be interesting, its kind of the one thing in India that I feel I "missed". I may still be able to tack it on at the end, depending on how my ride in North Pakistan goes.
Iraq won't happen, but Iran is very high on my list...
Assam's a little far...
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