Austman
Feb 12, 00, 5:31 am
I've just spent another 18 days or so working in the country that Mr Clinton said a few days ago was part of ‘the most dangerous place on Earth’. He was referring to the Sub-Continent.
To the visitor however, it does not seem that dangerous. Our worst fears were about food problems and you quickly get to realise that all of the kind advice that the travel books tell you about what to eat and drink and what not to eat and drink is advice that’s near impossible to adhere to. As for me and my colleagues, we gave up trying to follow that advice on the first day. We did however drink bottled water and ate in what we were told were good quality restaurants. We had few problems. Pakistani food is, by the way absolutely delicious and is certainly one of the best parts of any visit there.
Pakistan is a strict Muslim country and as such alcohol is only available to non-Muslims and is never served in public places, such as restaurants. It was only available in our hotel rooms through an unmentioned room service and then there was a limited choice or beer, vodka, gin or whiskey, all locally produced. That said, non-alcoholic drinks abound and the king of them all in Pakistan is Pepsi. It seems to be bigger than Coke by a factor of 20. Pepsi is THE drink to accompany most Pakistani food in their restaurants.
Now, before a certain Catman runs off to book his next vacation in Pakistan, the rest for my report should be read:-
I was staying with work colleagues in Lahore at the Pearl Continental Hotel. This is a beautiful hotel and is part of the ‘Leading Hotels of the World’ group. The rooms were beautiful and comfortable and the attention to detail was great. The hotel had some 6 restaurants and the best of them was a magnificent place with delicious food and possibly too much service. Prices were just excellent. Even at the hotel, a great meal cost around USD 10. Yes that’s right, USD 10. Outside the hotel, excellent meals could be bought for USD 4. And there was always McDonalds or KFC to go to if you needed a fast food fix. But the American fast food chains charged near American prices. A burger, fries and coke (Yes McDonalds was one of the few places that served coke) was around USD 3-4.
One thing that the hotel got a little wrong was that they did not seem to realise that at breakfast time a lot of people are in a hurry and do not like waiting 10 minutes to get a cup of coffee. I saw how this frustrated many Westerners (us included). One day someone even yelled ‘do I have to BOOK a cup of coffee around here!’ It was such an easy problem for the hotel to solve given the amount of staff they had buzzing around. I just don’t think they understood the frustration it caused or why it should cause any frustration at all ...
The hotel was always a hub of social and business activity and it must have been one of the most fashionable places to be in Lahore. One night they hosted no fewer than 5 wedding receptions. It was always kept sparkling clean, which would not be easy to do in dusty Lahore. It truly would be an excellent hotel in any city anywhere.
But step out the door and the universe around you changes dramatically.
Noisy, crowded, dirty and dusty, Lahore is not the most easy place for a visitor. After Lahore, Bangkok is like a dream come true! But that said, after a while you kind of get used to it. Then you see the beautiful parks and monuments and the greenery that is all over. The traffic seems (and is) chaotic and I would not advise anyone to drive there themselves. We had Avis cars. The difference in Pakistan is that when you rent the car, the driver comes too. Our drivers were on 24 hour duty for us. At the end of a day (and sometimes that was 7 am the next day, thanks to work), the drivers took us back to the hotel and asked what time we wanted to be collected. The poor guys, sometimes they were sitting in the car all night waiting for us.
At one point, I had to visit a city that was some 50 km outside Lahore. Well even my Pakistani co-workers from Lahore complained about the dirt and dust in this smaller city. Driving through it reminded me of scenes from Star Wars. I really wondered if I was still on the same planet. All manner of beast, vehicle and building lined the roads. All shrouded in a perpetual dusty haze. I returned to that place about 4 times and with each subsequent visit it didn’t seem as bad. It’s amazing how quickly one gets used to things. I quite enjoyed going there in the end.
It’s coming up to kite flying season now apparently. And I did see a lot of them around. The problem with the kites is that the kite fliers like to use metal ‘string’ on the kite because it’s stronger. It also means that the mains power failed dozens of times a day when the kites hit the overhead power cables. I don’t know what happened to the kite fliers themselves!!
I very much enjoyed working with my Pakistani co-workers and everyone I met was very friendly to me. It’s very much a part of the culture for everyone to shake hands with everyone else. That’s fine, but there always seemed to be a lot of people around no matter where I went so a lot of time got spent on shaking hands!
Pakistani public bathrooms are the stuff that nightmares are made of! Sometimes we even drove back to our hotel JUST for the purpose of using the bathroom in our rooms. Quite frankly I was not even sure how to correctly use an Asian toilet, so (once I knew him well) out of curiosity, I asked a Pakistani co-worker how it’s done (there’s no paper in there and only a funny little jug thing of water…). Well, after blushing deeply, he did explain it all to me. I will not repeat the explanation here but need I say that after the explanation we still decided to go back to the hotel (are we chickens?). Good restaurants have western style bathrooms, thank goodness.
Lahore is an army town and you see the military everywhere and they are much respected. Security is a serious issue and it was at the hotel also. It was a first for me at a hotel to see permanently stationed at the entrance to the hotel’s 4 elevators a guard with a metal scanner in hand. Occasionally we’d see guards sitting at the end of corridors with a gun on their lap. A few more steps and one of the hotel staff (and there was ALWAYS at least one in every corridor) would wish me good evening or good morning. I saw a truck once that our driver said was carrying prisoners. It was just a small van really with guards sitting at the back of it. They had machine guns, but they also had their fingers actually on the trigger. Once again I was amazed at how quickly one seems to be able to accept all of this. I don’t agree with it, but it was acceptable. I’d think of Stockholm and thought that if a gun was shown on the street there, people would run.
I flew to Lahore on Thai International. I steadfastly refused to use Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). One of my colleagues did take them and it made the hairs on my neck stand on end when he told of his ‘adventurous’ flight from London to Islamabad, connecting to a domestic flight from Islamabad to Lahore.
Arrival and departure at Lahore international airport can be an adventure in itself. But this time both went quite smoothly and it helped that I had done it before and knew what to expect. Once you realise that with departure your bag is going to be x-rayed 3 times and that you will have to present your papers about 6 times, you just do it and it’s OK. It’s a shock the first time. The very last inspection is literally done on the steps leading up to the plane. Hand luggage has to have a tag on it that has been stamped by an earlier inspector. The stamp has to be on the boarding pass too. Interestingly, departure tax is 400 rupees for economy class and 600 for business class. I’ve never seen different amounts charged before. The 200 extra for business class gets you admission to the executive lounge and a separate mini-bus to the plane. Oh and it’s kind of quaint - they do not have check-in computers so they have to issue you with a REAL boarding pass. A beautiful card of blue and gold with your seat assignment placed on it. Some things were better before computers. And there’s no chance of double seat allocation - they simply peal off a sticker from the single printed seat map and place it on your boarding pass.
I’m in Amazing Thailand now.
[This message has been edited by Austman (edited 02-13-2000).]
To the visitor however, it does not seem that dangerous. Our worst fears were about food problems and you quickly get to realise that all of the kind advice that the travel books tell you about what to eat and drink and what not to eat and drink is advice that’s near impossible to adhere to. As for me and my colleagues, we gave up trying to follow that advice on the first day. We did however drink bottled water and ate in what we were told were good quality restaurants. We had few problems. Pakistani food is, by the way absolutely delicious and is certainly one of the best parts of any visit there.
Pakistan is a strict Muslim country and as such alcohol is only available to non-Muslims and is never served in public places, such as restaurants. It was only available in our hotel rooms through an unmentioned room service and then there was a limited choice or beer, vodka, gin or whiskey, all locally produced. That said, non-alcoholic drinks abound and the king of them all in Pakistan is Pepsi. It seems to be bigger than Coke by a factor of 20. Pepsi is THE drink to accompany most Pakistani food in their restaurants.
Now, before a certain Catman runs off to book his next vacation in Pakistan, the rest for my report should be read:-
I was staying with work colleagues in Lahore at the Pearl Continental Hotel. This is a beautiful hotel and is part of the ‘Leading Hotels of the World’ group. The rooms were beautiful and comfortable and the attention to detail was great. The hotel had some 6 restaurants and the best of them was a magnificent place with delicious food and possibly too much service. Prices were just excellent. Even at the hotel, a great meal cost around USD 10. Yes that’s right, USD 10. Outside the hotel, excellent meals could be bought for USD 4. And there was always McDonalds or KFC to go to if you needed a fast food fix. But the American fast food chains charged near American prices. A burger, fries and coke (Yes McDonalds was one of the few places that served coke) was around USD 3-4.
One thing that the hotel got a little wrong was that they did not seem to realise that at breakfast time a lot of people are in a hurry and do not like waiting 10 minutes to get a cup of coffee. I saw how this frustrated many Westerners (us included). One day someone even yelled ‘do I have to BOOK a cup of coffee around here!’ It was such an easy problem for the hotel to solve given the amount of staff they had buzzing around. I just don’t think they understood the frustration it caused or why it should cause any frustration at all ...
The hotel was always a hub of social and business activity and it must have been one of the most fashionable places to be in Lahore. One night they hosted no fewer than 5 wedding receptions. It was always kept sparkling clean, which would not be easy to do in dusty Lahore. It truly would be an excellent hotel in any city anywhere.
But step out the door and the universe around you changes dramatically.
Noisy, crowded, dirty and dusty, Lahore is not the most easy place for a visitor. After Lahore, Bangkok is like a dream come true! But that said, after a while you kind of get used to it. Then you see the beautiful parks and monuments and the greenery that is all over. The traffic seems (and is) chaotic and I would not advise anyone to drive there themselves. We had Avis cars. The difference in Pakistan is that when you rent the car, the driver comes too. Our drivers were on 24 hour duty for us. At the end of a day (and sometimes that was 7 am the next day, thanks to work), the drivers took us back to the hotel and asked what time we wanted to be collected. The poor guys, sometimes they were sitting in the car all night waiting for us.
At one point, I had to visit a city that was some 50 km outside Lahore. Well even my Pakistani co-workers from Lahore complained about the dirt and dust in this smaller city. Driving through it reminded me of scenes from Star Wars. I really wondered if I was still on the same planet. All manner of beast, vehicle and building lined the roads. All shrouded in a perpetual dusty haze. I returned to that place about 4 times and with each subsequent visit it didn’t seem as bad. It’s amazing how quickly one gets used to things. I quite enjoyed going there in the end.
It’s coming up to kite flying season now apparently. And I did see a lot of them around. The problem with the kites is that the kite fliers like to use metal ‘string’ on the kite because it’s stronger. It also means that the mains power failed dozens of times a day when the kites hit the overhead power cables. I don’t know what happened to the kite fliers themselves!!
I very much enjoyed working with my Pakistani co-workers and everyone I met was very friendly to me. It’s very much a part of the culture for everyone to shake hands with everyone else. That’s fine, but there always seemed to be a lot of people around no matter where I went so a lot of time got spent on shaking hands!
Pakistani public bathrooms are the stuff that nightmares are made of! Sometimes we even drove back to our hotel JUST for the purpose of using the bathroom in our rooms. Quite frankly I was not even sure how to correctly use an Asian toilet, so (once I knew him well) out of curiosity, I asked a Pakistani co-worker how it’s done (there’s no paper in there and only a funny little jug thing of water…). Well, after blushing deeply, he did explain it all to me. I will not repeat the explanation here but need I say that after the explanation we still decided to go back to the hotel (are we chickens?). Good restaurants have western style bathrooms, thank goodness.
Lahore is an army town and you see the military everywhere and they are much respected. Security is a serious issue and it was at the hotel also. It was a first for me at a hotel to see permanently stationed at the entrance to the hotel’s 4 elevators a guard with a metal scanner in hand. Occasionally we’d see guards sitting at the end of corridors with a gun on their lap. A few more steps and one of the hotel staff (and there was ALWAYS at least one in every corridor) would wish me good evening or good morning. I saw a truck once that our driver said was carrying prisoners. It was just a small van really with guards sitting at the back of it. They had machine guns, but they also had their fingers actually on the trigger. Once again I was amazed at how quickly one seems to be able to accept all of this. I don’t agree with it, but it was acceptable. I’d think of Stockholm and thought that if a gun was shown on the street there, people would run.
I flew to Lahore on Thai International. I steadfastly refused to use Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). One of my colleagues did take them and it made the hairs on my neck stand on end when he told of his ‘adventurous’ flight from London to Islamabad, connecting to a domestic flight from Islamabad to Lahore.
Arrival and departure at Lahore international airport can be an adventure in itself. But this time both went quite smoothly and it helped that I had done it before and knew what to expect. Once you realise that with departure your bag is going to be x-rayed 3 times and that you will have to present your papers about 6 times, you just do it and it’s OK. It’s a shock the first time. The very last inspection is literally done on the steps leading up to the plane. Hand luggage has to have a tag on it that has been stamped by an earlier inspector. The stamp has to be on the boarding pass too. Interestingly, departure tax is 400 rupees for economy class and 600 for business class. I’ve never seen different amounts charged before. The 200 extra for business class gets you admission to the executive lounge and a separate mini-bus to the plane. Oh and it’s kind of quaint - they do not have check-in computers so they have to issue you with a REAL boarding pass. A beautiful card of blue and gold with your seat assignment placed on it. Some things were better before computers. And there’s no chance of double seat allocation - they simply peal off a sticker from the single printed seat map and place it on your boarding pass.
I’m in Amazing Thailand now.
[This message has been edited by Austman (edited 02-13-2000).]