Greetings from Karachi

So I'm blogging from Karachi heheh. Been meaning to post this since I got in a couple of days ago but it's been a bit busy. Even now I'm actually still in the middle of today's workshop but we're on a bit of a longer break due to some of the participants having meetings. Plus we're a little bit ahead of schedule today so we have some slack.

Anyway, I still need to keep this to a quick-ish update so here you go:

• There are SO MANY local security forces standing/driving around the city with rifles in their hands. It's kinda intimidating.


• Otherwise it's actually been quite alright here for me. The people in general are polite. They stare a lot but they're not hostile towards you or anything. Not that I've approached any of them heh.


• Hotel's quite nice. The gym has great equipment (I went at 6am this morning for a workout)


• The local food is AWESOME, but oh so fattening (hence gym visit). Lots of capati and naan (they have different names here tho) and kebabs and masalas and hummus and mmmm yummy.


• Coincidentally this same week, our hotel is the venue for an "IDEAS (International Defence Exhibition and Seminar) - Arms for Peace" convention. Yes, Arms for Peace. Kind of an oxymoron isn't it? Anyhoo. What that means is that I'm staying at the same hotel with a huge bunch of the leaders of armed forces of the World. We have no idea if that's a good or a bad thing!!! Good because security is heightened 'cuz so many important army people are here. Bad because, well.. doesn't that make Sheraton a hotspot???? Eek.


• I did however meet two top Generals of Malaysia last night (if I'm not mistaken one was from the Airforce and another was from the Navy, although I don't remember their titles 'cuz they sounded complicated and long when they introduced themselves to me). I was waiting at the hotel foyer whilst a whole bunch of the delegates were there and the Malaysian delegates saw me and asked if I was Malaysian or Mongolian (wut? Ingat aku Altantuya kah??). Kinda cool to have chit-chatted with them all the way here in Pakistan when the chances of that happening in KL would be nada.


• Sadly none of the delegates were hot men in uniform. Oh they wore their uniforms alright, hundreds of them in their navy/airforce/army uniforms with loads of badges and stars and medals etc but none looking like Pierce Brosnan or Robert Downey Jr hahaha.


• The Shell office here is pretty nice. It's not too big a building but the interior's good. However, the electricity goes out for about a minute or two, occuring about 6-7 times a day. Like India and Indonesia, they also get quite an unsteady supply of electricy. So we'll be in the meeting room discussing when *poof* it goes dark and the airconds shut off. Thankfully the computer ports and projector are on backup power supply so they remain on. When this happened on the first day we were here in the office us visitors kept jumping and going "oh!" everytime there was a blackout. But after that happening so many times, we're now as calm and steady as the locals haha! I don't even stop midsentence now when the power goes out... I just continue talking like nothing happened. Dah champion ah macam local :P


• They have A LOT of hawks flying around in the skies. I've always thought hawks were lone creatures and don't live in flocks but there's a whole big bunch of them hovering in the skies above the city all the time. And they're pretty huge. I was up on the office building roof yesterday getting a view of the city and the birds flew pretty close. It was quite cool.


• We were out for dinner last nite, one of the local HR managers took us and gave us a semi-tour around the places we passed by. We drove by Benazir's late father's house, and along the road her brother was killed by local police whilst she was in power.


• Books here are quite cheap. I went into a local bookstore chain (Liberty Books) and found some great titles at about 30-40% the price of books in Malaysia at full price. And guess what. I've bought 5 books from here so far haha :D
  

Will write more comprehensive stories of my trip when I have the time!

Soundtrack: Nothing at the moment. Office is pretty quiet.
Mood: Work work work
Location: Shell Pakistan Limited, Karachi office
Random thought: I'll get fat if I stay here very long.