Seems like a good day to recapitulate 2007? Well, not really… Not for me. This year finished not very remarkably. True I am being stuck in Lahore due to historical events, but actually I am just stuck in a place where nothing changes and days just pass by.

In a situation like this You really find out that there is nothing remarkable about the midnight of 31st of December… Its just a symbol a nudge for us to accept that one year is gone and start planning for next. But it also shows that any day can be the “judgement“… I guess I will skip it today and make it some other day.

…whatta a dull post. Lets make it little better… my year 2007 in photos…

But still… happy new year… and not just one.. all of them.. and may all be new and exciting

And if some of You are interested what is going on on the pictures, or why are they there, just ask me by email, I will reply, If I want to… (no offence, some of them are insider only)

What is so special about it?

Its quiet over there, You dont get how much “white noise” is in Karachi if You dont get away from it. You lay on a carpet on top of the boat, feel the waves move the boat under You, feel the wind and smell the food… It just feels really relaxing… Just get a few friends for a talk and its complete.

Oh, and remember the note that its “military” port? Photos are strictly forbidden… So the only way pictures can be taken is without flash – if a flash is seen, the coast guard can come and “harass” both You and the boat-owners… so the photos are pretty shaky, but some of them look artistic…

art) KHI

Today was a rather boring day… Just some working, sleeping and fooling around…

Back in Slovakia I would be utterly bored, but here hmm…. well….

Karachi is strange, its like nobody ever planned for it to look nice or become a comfortable place to live, it looks like it is a product of unplanned increase of size of a village (which is true), its full of mess and chaos… And still, when You come, without noticing You start to feel like at home… start liking it…

This message was sprayed by somebody on all possible random walls around the place I live and when going home, I guess one place where it will be written will be my sad face …. I (heart) KHI

Cay to the Ai to the Ar to the Ai to the See to the Age to the Eye… KARACHI my city!

The most known element of this month for non-muslims is fasting. Actually it is quite wider, between sunrise and sunset (which in Karachi is time between cca 5:00 and 18:15) You can not put anything in Your mouth… no food, no drinks, no cigarette, not even pills or tootbrush

But trust me, there is more than just that… If interested, read an article in Journal about Ramzan.

Click on pic to see whole album…

I was asked by Lenka to take picture of a tree, as there is not too many trees and it was nearly night, I played around with various objects there and night photo mode… See the results

And the answer is no, cactuses are not normal in Pakistan… Its just a park.

Click on the pic to see more…

I would never expect that during my stay in Karachi I would have a chance to drink beer in a pool of a person I have met the day before

Todays pic: Lazing on a Sunn(da)y afternoon… In the summertime! (name copied from the Kinks song Sunny afternoon)

I am sorry that after that so highly informative and interesting articles there is this one… but You know… Every day is different, and some of them are not boring

Apart from this we watched Transformers, actually quite OK movie… a lot of action and impressin graphics, but watching it on a laptop display takes away a lot of the effect, the scenes have so much movement that You miss a lot…

Click on the pic to see more…

My visa are being arranged for the last two and half months. I got only single entry visas for 3 months and thus my trip to IC to Istanbul was in big jeopardy… So the last chance was to go personally to the visa office in Karachi and hunt it down on my own… Mostly when I wanted to fly the same day (15.9.)

That experience was really sick…

The visa office is actually a small village with maybe 20 houses in which are maybe 100 offices in which “work” maybe 150 people… To get one sticker=visa I had to:
1. ask a guy who tries to sell us visa (You give hime 5times more than normal fee and he does it not in three weeks but three hours, no bribing, just having good “friends” whom he gives gifts)
2. random guard, ask where is the office we look for
3. random guy, ask again where is the office
4. find first clerk who sends us to second clerk
5. second clerk, we ask if he got fax from Islamabad (my only chance to get visa now)
6. waiting outside
7. we ask second clerk again
8. waiting outside
9. second clerk gets fax
10. being send to third clerk who checks the docs and says it costs 600 Rupees (10 USD), I take wallet out to pay, he says that You have to pay in bank
11. running to bank (office closes in 10 minutes), go to window, bank guy says we need special paper from the visa office
12. approaching the same guard as at beginning, he sends us to fourth clerk
13. fourth clerk pissed of that people go into his office, after being able to be louder than him and making him realize that he is the only one who has the paper, he digs deep into some shelf, where is book, where is one crumpled paper that he gives us
14. bank again… pay 600 rupees
15. third clerk again, looks again an says that it takes three days to do the visa after some beging sais that one day…. I say I fly tonight… he says: “show me ticket”
16. calling Nida, to call the travel agent to book the ticket for tonight and fax it to first clerk
17. waiting outside office of second clerk for him to get a fax
18. asking second clerk if he got fax
19. waiting
20. second clerk gets fax…. wrong document… second clerk starting to be heavily pissed off
23. call travel agent to send right document
24. waiting, its after closing time, checking if third clerk is still here and if second clerk got the fax, second clerk heavily pissed off
25. second clerk gets right fax
26. we run to third clerk who looks at the docs, puts a sticker and sends us to
27. fifth clerk to give a stamp

(actual visa giving process took 15 minutes, including short interview about who am I, where do I work and where do I go)

And this was after we got confirmation from Islamabad, that I can actually have the visa…

…………………………. try to get people here to help build the country !!!!

PS: thank You Taha… Thank You for Your endless patience and high speed Urdu

PS 2: 12 hours after getting visa, I am flying to Istanbul

PS 3: I have NGO visa, making visa for “normal” workers is much easier

PS 4: I still love it here, just another chapter of the experience…

Just wanted to share a few views…

But lets get to the stuff that interests You… So its like this: we sit at office, do our work (MC 2007/08 vision) when Taha gets an SMS (cca 4 pm) that a fire has broken out in a shopping centre (Mobile Zone market a.k.a. CTC in Clifton). Than we notice that the sky is getting dark and after a while a storm, even stronger than the one two days ago comes (cca 5 pm). The wind was so strong it opened our window, eventhough it was hatched. Taha gets an SMS: “Its raining, did You notice?”. Nida gets an SMS The rain was so short and strong that when we finished work, it was already gone (cca 6 pm).

Already before leaving I have seen a nice scene, where on a building close to ours a group of maybe 20 people including women in colourful dresses stands at the roof and enjoys the rain. Talking about enjoying, upon getting out we have seen a bunch of kids playing in the puddles at the parking place The other pictures show what I have seen on the way to our flat. The wind and rain has killed nearly 200 people, a lot were injured mostly due to falling billboards (which is no surprise, as there are hundreds of them and half of them look like scrap metal put as high as possible), home walls and trees.

These pictures were taken at the fire site. Lots of people and very discoordinated effort of local fire squad. It took them nearly hour to get there and start working… some people blame it on the traffic and unwillingness (ignorance) of the drivers, others on their uneffectiveness, others on the lack of quality equipment… I think ALL of them are right. Whole floor of expensive shops got burned to ash… Nearly none of them was insured as Clifton is one of safest areas of city (so much riots and crimes, that nobody actually thinks of a “natural” disaster).

I offer also pictures of local policemen and their by-road check points, its forbidden but I have used the chaos to take a few pics of them

And lastly, we went to a local tea place to enjoy the sunset… Rain makes all the trash look fresh and smelly, but the tea was good. Just btw, the “tea place” was: four chairs and minitable put on the isle in middle of two roads…

I guess You are interested about the rikshas the most, so here they are… My batteries died but I was able to take these pictures. Its Joanna (Sweden, MC PD current) and Marina (Canada, CEEDer) and the driver of a teeny-weeny riksha into which our three asseses nearly didnt fit (and that got broken 500 m from our home)… very funny to ride, grab tight, or else…

Indoor vs. Street
Where is the difference between here and Slovakia? On street I would say… Inside in the Caffees/shops You feel like “wow, looks really nice” and than You get out…

…the heat gives You a slap and You nearly fall into a hole in the road, car (comming from the wrong side) misses You by centimeters and honks like crazy, a security guy with a shotgun on shoulders gives You a smile, a crow shits on Your shirt. Heaven

Seriously You would be suprised on the strange fusion of new (upper-class) and old (low-class), You buy stuff like Gucci or Ray-Ban, step out of the shop and find Yourself on a street that looks like the backyard of a backyard. Those who enjoy seeing paradoxes will love Pakistan!

I am also adding some pictures I was not able to paste before… The views from our rooftop and an image of traffic (calm moment) .