Silence

Sorry no posting but I've quite literally been at sea. Finished my assignment in Karachi on 11th of July and flew to Seychelles. Departed by sailing boat on 16th to Maldives where we are presently moored. Beautiful place.
Will be adding a lot of sailing posts to my sailing blog in next few days so come back for the link and follow up.
Fahim how we doing on the video?
Alan
PLEASE LINK TO http://www.sailblogs.com/member/lloyd/ if you want our latest travel news.
Will be back on posting soonest.

Departing dinner

We decided to invite a lot of friends for a Thai dinner before we departed. It was our way of saying thank you to so many people and have them all together to meet each other as well. I've added a few photos from the video I took, and if your not in them and should have been, well, next time. Again thanks to you all for making our initial stay in Karachi such a fun one. See you!!

Tek Tek

Having had our day out in Clifton Beach we made a point of collecting some shells. I do not know their name but they look like the ones you see on the shell petrol station signs.
We collected about 20 kilos of them straight off the beach. They were literally rolling up the beach by the wave action. Really amazing to see. (got it on video!!). Everyone watching us to see what we were doing. Everyone seems interested when we got out some plastic bags and started collecting the shells. Only the live ones of course. Some of the young boys and girls got into the action and helped us. We did not need to dig, just pick them up of the sand.


Got them home and cleaned them up to get the sand and dirt off them. Then Wanna boiled most of them and also put a few aside and we cooked them on a griddle plate.
This morning I cleaned up the shells and made a fair curry even if I say so myself! Wanna followed it up this afternoon with a tip top Thai Yam. All washed down with a few beers. Excellent. I did not have time to take a good photo of the finished curry. We had eaten most of it before I remembered to take a snap. So trust me it might not look like a food book photo by it tasted great.

Clifton Beach

Amazing finally managed to make a few snaps from the movies. Clifton Beach is amazing. Thousands of people every where. Most are enjoying walking along the beach and getting their feet wet. No swimming costumes here. As you can see two ladies are in the full 'Guinness bottle kit'. Everyone who has a chance is busy selling stuff. They charge you for parking and then again for entrance to the beach. Could not quite work it out. More amusing was the guy offering to look after your shoes. Check out the photo. He has a collection of old fruit boxes. Dread to think what state/smell the shoes are in after being there all day. We did not take advantage of the service and chose to keep our shoes on. Good idea as it turned out. Not the cleanest beach but it was just good fun. Looking round I am sure I was the only Brit within miles. Seems that was on a lot of peoples minds as well when they saw me. Everyone was so friendly, selling cakes, sweets, cigarettes and one chap wandered past selling toast. Yes toast. He has a smallish tin with hot charcoals in topped off with toast. Not my idea of a beach snack!!
Add in the guys offering horse and camel rides and put it all together and the picture is complete. Great fun and we plan to be back again tomorrow for shell collecting. No doubt again I'll be the subject of great interest!!

Clifton Beach...?

Time is running short and we are due to leave Karachi this coming Friday. Lots to do before then, apart from packing, including closing out several things we promised ourselves we would do. These are last minute restaurant meals, visits to places, trips in and around Karachi, saying good bye to numerous people etc.
Well times almost up, and yesterday we managed one item on our list, our last a trip to the Clifton Beach. We were joined as far as I could tell by the rest of the Karachi population who seem to descent onto the beach on Saturdays and Sundays. I don't think for one moment they were there to say good bye to us but it was good to see such a crowd. Well we, that's Wanna and I plus a few of her Thai friends went down to the sea last evening to have a good look round and also to collect a lot of shells which we had heard were in abundance. Made for a very interesting trip, but ... and I mean but, before I go into the details I need to tell you something......
Unknown to you readers, earlier yesterday we became the proud owners of a new Sony Handycam. I know I can hear you all already, "not more crap video footage. ..please spare us!!", well I would if I could, but, I've got this compelling urge to Blog most of my trivia!!! So stick with it please. In amongst the hours and hours of footage, there might, just might, be lurking a master piece. (Emphasis on 'might').
Maybe from here on in it will be different. How so ? I plan to use the camcorder for most recordings as it comes complete with every conceivable goody including single picture capability. Its a Sony HDR-SR12E. To you and me that simple put means I've put down a lot of money for a very small black plastic box with glass sticking out one end and an array of buttons the other. Yes lots of money for a very small box!!!
For you it means putting up with some frustrating times ahead. Having to read my sorted/edited video footage. These frustrations that I am sure to encounter during the editing process will be happily shared with you. No expense spared! So Clifton Beach Blog/post is in the editing room! All to follow after several more sessions with my new black box. Till next post. Tomorrow?...

Food yet more food

I seem these days to be only posting about eating. During the last few days all my non working time has been taken up with sitting in restaurants and eating large quantities of superb Chinese and Pakistan food.

I arrived in Karachi a year ago weighting in at 82 kilos and leave with 89 kilos. Most of it is settled comfortably around my waist and not in my suitcase.

SO again last night another restaurant. As Ian finally left today so last night was a special occasion for us all. Khalid with family took us to "Sujjad" a restaurant out of town. About 15 kilometers north of Karachi on the super highway. This was at 10.0pm. Thousands of hungry Karachites were also going in the same direction making their way out of town to eat dinner. Most people here do not eat dinner till after 10.00pm, with a lot of them happily thinking midnight a good time to start out. How they do it and still get to work next morning is beyond my understanding. Me, by then I'm curled up asleep in bed. Seems a lot of Karachites come out there for evening meals. I can see why. Good food, fresh air and just so relaxing. Ate too much and now knocking on 90kilo +.