Elephants and Things

After 18 months in Karachi, making good friends and seeing a tiny bit of Pakistan (nowhere near enough of it) it is with a lot of good memories and regrets that we leave. Where to?.. Thailand new job, new location etc. So new Blog. Should do. I fancy writing about my daily life and pick up on the odd things, quirky stuff you know, like seeing 7 people on a motor bike, along with the family dog of course! Loads of just things for reflection. What to call it. How about 'Alan in Thailand'.... Hardly original. Somehow I don't think so. Not this time round. Also I found I never wrote about times outside of Karachi, overseas trips etc. They never seemed to fit in with the title. I went on line to try and find some inspiration and came across a good Blog which ran it's own competition for anew name. Made my efforts seem lightweight!!! http://chrisncarol-onlyinthailand.blogspot.com/ Very impressed and hope you don't mind the mention here.

How do you follow that. err.........

Alan not in Karachi ?

Alan after Karachi ?

Beyond Karachi ?

Karachi no more ?

Life after Karachi ?

On from Karachi ?

Also given my wife is called Wanna and is Thai and that one friend always writes to us 'Wannal' maybe something from that.

Bananas ? (Why I hear you ask, no idea it just came into my head!!!)

Somtam phu ?

Issan ?

Life moves on ?

Chang ?

Elephants (and things that go bump in the night)

OK Elephants it is. Opps just checked with Google and its taken. No real surprise there.

So http://elephantsandthings.blogspot.com/

That's it

bye bye to this Blog. Hows the famous saying go

"The Blog is dead, Long live the Blog"

(That's corny to the extreme).

See you at the new Blog.

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 +.

Fishing and PGFA Dinner

Good day yesterday. Went to Korangi fish harbour for a look round. This was followed by the annual PGFA dinner. (Paksitan Game Fishing Association). Both were real fun.
I always like fishing ports. The smells and general layout of boats and gear. There's something about them that is always facinating to see. In the case of Karangi it is however somewhat sad. A beautiful port with what seems like nerw berths with over 4 meters of water. No boats moored up except some impounded japanese vessels. Seems since it was built about 12 years ago with foreign aid money it has never been used. Such a waste of money and opportunity. Given the possibilities it really is depressing walking round empty warehouses and wide open spaced with no one about. Korangi is about 15 kilmeters north east of Karachi. Might as well be on another planet. Seems to be in the middle of nowhere.
There are hidden in the back a couple of local fibreglass builders but not really very much else. Bit of a ghost town really. We came across one group of workers who were building a big 'dhow' type pleasure boat. That was it.
The evening was taken up by attending the 2nd annual dinner of the PGFA. It was great. Met a few guys who I have been on email or phone to over the last year. So now I'm lined up for camping in Gilgit and fly fishing further north. Should be a good 2009 and plenty of new things to see. Getting quite excited about it.

Ormara and a night out from Karachi

This is a longer post than most as I went away for the weekend. Lot to write about.
This was my second trip to Ormara. Ahmad had decided we should make it an over night one and so give us a bit of time for a spot of fishing. Official reason for the trip was to undertake a site visit to the naval base and check on some ongoing ground improvement works. Can't tell you about that or I'll get shot!
Mujtaba joined us for the trip so there was plenty of chatter and banter on the way down. Who will get the biggest fish etc. And indeed who got the biggest one last time. I was not bothered I knew I had got and was going to get the biggest one tomorrow.
Ormara, lies about 350 kilometers west of Karachi. It is a small fishing village, existing on a short spit of sand perpendicular to the coast and running out to sea sea with a mud cliff ‘hammer' head at the end. Difficult to describe so I’ve added a Google photo, and believe me it is spectacular. The whole area comprises soft mud/sandstone hence the peculiar layered effect on the mountains, brought about by the wind erosion. Quite spectacular. The problem with taking photos of it all that is it so vast there is no sense of depth and the extent of the plains and mountains is lost in a small 4x5 print!! However, I did try, and actually found that a movie is probably better, as there is some movement in the frames, and this lends itself to giving some sense of scale. The other problem with taking photos was the Navy. No photos allowed!! So my trip up the hill to base camp etc, all interesting, but no printed memories.
So after starting off from Karachi around 10.30am we made our way along the main highway and had our first stop at a road side ‘cafe’. (Actually it's the only road side café for about 100 kilometers either way!!) And there were only 4 other customers. We ordered some tea and Nan bread with chana (peas to you!). The Nan bread was baked fresh as we waited. It was good, very good. The cafe is located against a spectacular view over looking the sea and a fabulous mountain back drop. Amazing looking round this area and the only mess is caused by man. Plastic bags and litter etc. If you avoid seeing it, then, the place is quiet simply fantastic.

Back on the road. Its a long road, part long and straight and some windy and reaching 2000+ meters above sea level. I've added a short clip to give you some idea of the rugged terrain and maybe provide some sense of scale and vastness of the area. Ahmad had some CD's from John Denver so I've used one track to remind me of the flavour of the trip!! Next time I'll ask him to add Pakistani music to the Cd player.

Well Ormara once there is a small dusty place and seems to exist mainly on fishing and small shops supplying local demand. The demands have increased as a result to the Navy being present. You can buy just about anything and its amazing when you look at the short video and see nothing but a really basic village. I bought a new car charger for a nokia phone!!
Whiskey, Gin and Vodka are also available if you know who to ask. A 1.5 litre bottle is about 1,500 Rupees. Fantastic value as the same in Karachi is going for about 3,500 Rupees or more. It depend on who you know, as you won't find it in a shop! I was sure there was no way I was going to find anyone to sell it to me without a good introduction. Need good contacts. I was told it is smuggled in from Iran. So some stops off in Ormara and the rest makes its way to Karachi. Iran is only about 300 kilometers away! I think I could with such assistance while away a few evenings in Ormara!!! I'll sort it out for the next trip.

The village is not much to write home about but you really need to see to arrive at that conclusion if you follow my meaning. Not sure even I follow it!! Its full of little shops all selling small scale items.

Well, we had a walk through. (I seem to be adding a lot of video this post!)

Mujtaba then showed me round the area where they were making fishing boats. (I've added it into this posting as it is all part and parcel of my trip to Ormara).

They make wooden boats in Ormara, in the same way that their fathers and forefathers did. The wood is not local, but imported from up country. It is generally of poor quality. Nor is it properly cured so the bending and shaping depends to a large extent on the shape of the original wood pieces.

Tools comprise a manual saw, hand turned drill (bow and arrow) and an arris for rough cutting and shaping. And a hammer to drive in the nails. (steel nails no less, not copper nails). They will not use an electric drill, stating that it will burn the wood..... Go figure....

Interestingly the general shape is good. I had Mujtaba take a close look and make a professional judgement. Seems all OK.

....Till next time....

Office day out

Our Engineers and staff team decided on a day out and organised for . Cosy Water Park It's about 45 minutes out of Karachi, so I was told. Easy, so we set off to join everyone. 2 hours later we finally found it!!! Miles out of Karachi, in what can only be described as desert/shrub land. Not one road sign indicating where is was all the way along the 30 kilometers of Super highway!

(Photos from Cosy Park Web page)
Anyway we made it. Place has several pools and some high level slides. When we arrived the team had organised a shaded area, placed out the matting and ordered the biryanies. So far so good. It was a hot day in the low 30's and dry. Middle of a desert really. Once up on the slides you could see for miles and it was only adjacent to the area that there was any greenery. In its way very spectacular.

I even managed to brave the big slide and come out intact!

Sailing to Chuna island for the weekend

Friday morning Shahzad sent me a text message asking if I was interested in an overnight fishing/sailing trip. Silly question really "of course" was the returning text message! So that was agreed. "Great, We'll pick you up Saturday afternoon from your apartment".

We went in 2 boats. They are both MacGregor 26's and are well adapted for both power and sail. The idea was to get to Chuna Island about 39 Nautical Miles from the marina club. Shahzad organized for the boats to be sailed from the marina club to Hawks Bay (there was not enough time for us to sail the whole way in such light winds).

We all got on board at Hawks Bay. Loaded all our gear and had a comfortable evening/night on board. Setting off very early next morning. Beautiful weather. Only complaint there was no wind so we had to motor. You can see from the pictures how flat was the sea. We bought some fish of local fishermen at sea. And managed to film a quick video of a local fisherman netting a good catch.

Had super grilled barracuda, squid and a massive assortment of breads, cakes, sandwiches etc etc plus some real coffee. For those of you who have not experienced life at sea, a really good coffee is something not to be missed. Shhzad';s son Afnan caught a Parrot fish. We went in the kayaks, had a swim and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The water was clear and visibility over 5-10 meters. Lots of jelly fish as one of the young kids found out to her dismay!

Unfortunately like all good things it had to come to an end. Going back we returned in a speed boat. Belongs to Ifran who kindly took us all back to Hawks Bay and sadly reality. Hes the one with the shades. (I told him he was going to appear in this posting. He's also a keen diver. If I'm still here in September time I'm off wreck diving for sure.

We got finally home about 6pm on Sunday evening. Real fun and I know there is more to follow.

Port Qassim

Had a day trip to Port Qassim. Reason being to look at a damaged jetty. PQ is about 45 minutes east of Karachi and is set in the delta. Have just been to Keti Bandar only a week ago and this seems a similar trip. Difference is it has deep water hence the very successful port development. It handles about 35% of Pakistan sea imports. So impressive yes. Its got a lot of jetties and quays all spread out. We looked at a coal and steel unloading jetty then had a quick boat trip to view a couple of other jetties. Both in use. Good dayout from the office.

Keti Bandar What? Who? Where?

Keti Bandar is a small fishing village situated about 150 kilometers east of Karachi. It is nestled in one of the many thousands of creeks, rivers and dykes which make up the mouth of the Indus River.
The area is low and sparse. Sparse in all ways, by which I mean little to no vegetation due to the saline waters, few people due to the simple fact there is nothing there to sustain them except fishing and flat like all delta regions. Even the drinking water is trucked in. There is also evidence of some power lines. Two lines, one had collapsed and a one was being built.
The only access to Keti Bandar is by road or of course fishing boat. We did also see evidence of a helicopter pad marked out on the road. We suspected this was for military purposes as we are only about 100 kilometers from the Indian Boarder.
Given what I have just said I was surprised to see an asphalted road at all, I had been preparing myself for a long haul over rough terrain, being bumped from side to side for what would surely have seemed like hours. In fact we took an hour getting out of Karachi (that’s 20 kilometers !) due to traffic and here in the delta we were batting along at 120 plus!
After what I’ve just told you the question must be …”Why visit”? Well very good question. Actually my Company is undertaking a study for some jetties and it included a site visit to Keti Bandar. A couple of Engineers had come over from UK, that's Simon and Scott, and together with our local Engineer Partner Ahmad Pathan (Yes Ahmad of fishing days) we made the trip. So I decided why not visit with them and have a day out of Karachi. Somewhere else in Pakistan to see.
Given my comments above it is all the more striking when you consider this is only 150 kilometers from Karachi.
Ahmads’ Farm(s) On the way back from Keti Bandar we stopped at Ahmad’s farms. At the fist stop he had laid on lunch for us. Everything was cooked over an open fire in one of the outhouses. Lunch was ready on arrival comprising fried fish, chicken curry and rice, and local salads. All was ready and cooked for our arrival. Smelled great. A far cry from Keti Bandar. We ate, relaxed then relaxed some more while sipping some local tea.
After relaxing we had a wander around. Ahmad keeps cows and oxen. The farm comprises a small dwelling and some outbuilding including the kitchen. The others were for storage of tools and bedrooms. He had a tractor and a few other bits of equipment. However whilst there we watched the boys go off in the ox cart to collect grass. On returning they cut it up into smaller sizes using a cutting wheel. To the grass were added sugar cane storks and banana stems for added bulk. Watching this all being done whilst sitting in the shade with yet another cup of tea made us all feel like gentlemen farmers. The good life!! The cows seemed to enjoy their food as well!
We even had time for a little shooting! Nothing came to sight so we let of a few rounds just for fun.
To cap it all off I went home armed with cauliflower, carrots and Italian Basil.