En Route

En route[some timezone]
39000` over Istanbul fool GPS doesn't work in the plane - but of course not. On the way to Bahrain to change planes. Pleasant flight. Mostly an excuse to try out the handwriting features of the PDA.
The kids HBC olympc-wear shirts are taking the brunt of the airline food.
Kids are busy collecting UK snack food wrappers. Scrapbook pending.

7:20pm Mon [Bahrain]
Arrived at Bahrain ,site of the F1 Grand Prix Mar 10. Aisha and Hanna have gone to change into more traditional clothing. Boys are at their journals - pen and paper. Next flight is to Lahore in 2 hours. Enough time to check out the F1-wear.

1:00am Tue [In flight – timezone X]
Pending arrival in Lahore last minute washroom break for the boys before the landing and journey into customs. The boys long hair had prompted the question 'Would the girls like some dinner ?' Just left the naughty man taking a few drags of his smoke in the galley while the stewartesses clear the trays. All the waiting men smile like little boys as the man steals a final puff and pinches out the contraban. No cabin fires for today. We land in 20m.

The Arrival

The Arrival In Lahore [3:40am Monday]
An easy landing in Lahore and a quick trip though customs with not a word other than a stamp and a wave. The luggage fairies blessed us and despite some ticket/booking mixups in Bahrain all 10 pieces of luggage arrived – In tact. +/- semi exploded plastic bottle of laundry detergent. At least the clothes are clean!! A driver was supposed to meet us at the airport, which he did, but some how between customs and the curb we inherited several other porters who aided us in transferring the luggage to the van. We thought they where part of the driver ensemble, but apparently not, so a small Urdu fuss occurred between our host and porter crew. Of course the tall white guy, me, looking a likely target to provide the tip, finally forked of 2 Bahrain Dollars = 6 CDN = 300 Ruppee = highly overpaid tip. Money exchange lesson are complete and I am now tip savvy.

The 4:00am drive to our guests house somewhere in Lahore [still geographically unknown] was basically deserted but we still got the sense of the driving policies and principles in Pakistan/India. Eye’s front and honk – all else is optional – red lights are also only an option, which can be superceeded by the honk. We arrive at the gate home of our guest – all 10 pieces of luggage still well tied to the rack. All are soon to bed with limited sleep until morning – ie in 2 hours.

Lahore Day 1

Lahore Day 1

After sleep and breakfast I must venture outside beyond the gated walls to explore the block. I have managed to pre-survey the route from the house windows and guess that after a short walk I can return within 10m. The walk around the block spans the scale of poverty. I leave the courtyard and walk through time around the back of the house to free range goats, dogs, sheep, cattle and brick shells were persons live barley inside – a small wooden tent gyspy compound fills the space between new housing construction. A rags to riches walk around the block – am I surprised – no – but all in one block!!

After a 2nd sleep – which really did us well - and lunch - we are off to Old Lahore to visit family. The real driving adventure begins in the daytime when the tools of the driver must be at their best – Is it driving skill or just the orchestration of car, bike, taxi, van, rickshaw, horse cart and pedestrian which appear to weave through the street with inches to spare on every side. A timed dance of machine and horn.

We arrive at the gates to old Lahore. Our driver lets us out and we know must program ourselves as the ‘pedestrian’. I tell the boys, who are still basically asleep, ‘Walking in the Lahore markets is like playing a video game – concentration on sights and sounds – wait for the honk – move to the right – move to the left – give way – take way – no stopping – always forward.

My camera is in hand – I want to snap 100 pictures – I see a 1000 images I have never seen before – each shop front, 12’ wide each with a whole set of sub images and stories – vendors of everthing, foods, shoes, pots, pans, haircuts, spices, sweets, meat, fish, poultry, … Each vision lasting only 3 seconds as you walk past the stores. If you could be invisible you could snap the 100 pictures that would really describe the sight but as a tourist – in this place – you can only look and remember. I could walk these streets and alleys dozens of times and still find 100’s of images on each walk. The pictures I did take were posed and deliberate and unless you can walk these streets yourself and see and smell the experience it just doesn’t cut it. Maybe during Wed’s official tour I can get some more pictures.

Our family spot was excellent – meeting some long lost cousins, 2nd cousins and spouses. Their apartment/house is 3 stories in central old Lahore, 3 crook leg narrow alleys behind spot X. My mother in law, Nanny Ji, knows the way. Multi-family unit – 500+ years old, I guess, No luxuries but excellent family, food and hospitality. After lunch we take a later afternoon walk back into the market and climb the turret steps of a famous restaurant ‘Coco’ which appears pricey. We summit the turret to the roof to patio which over look the Mosque in the old City. (Name escape me – My mind is still back at the walk through the market. Some night pictures are taken and we return back to cousins house.
Foolishly I am expecting to leave with less gifts than we have brought, but they have prepared and we leave with many hugs and 2-3 more lbs for the carry on – at this point we are + on the luggage retuning home scale.

Almost back to the gate we meet our driver/van whom we have since called , parked mid market. We board and conduct a blind 7 point turn – by blind meaning just put it in reverse, make the beepy-beepy noise and hope people get out of your way. After several honks and many looks we are back into the motiorized stream back to our hosts home. Blog-ready, I rest until the morning. (gadgets plugged in……)

At the Airport ‘UK Style’

Arrived safely in UK (London) after delayed take off / de-icy-ing / net result was 1.x hours late and missed the connecting flight further east by 40m++ So the nice lady at the Air Canada desk put us up in 3 rooms at the ‘Premier Travel Inn’ – Did you here that ‘Premier’ Wow. Well it is very clean/new and reno-ed but still in airport row with little to do except air out our carryon luggage. We will go down for dinner shortly – a’la AirCanada and get an early sleep for the return HoppaBus trip back to Heathrow in the AM for a 9:30 flight – We try again. Kids are busy eating ‘crisps’ and developing their oxford accents.

At The Airport

Of course leaving early for the airport is always useful especially in a snow storm, however we find ourselves with 3 hours of 'leisure' time. Harvey's was good but alas Tim Hortons is out of Timbits - We can await the fine fare of the onboard dining. Luggage - 6 persons - 10 pieces of LUG-gage. Some people - Nanny - (1 person) 3 1/2 pieces. Oh well 500 lbs later we wait for the 9:45 flight Al kids are cranking through their books and will probably be done by the time the flight starts.

Oh the gadgets - I am using a Dell AXIM X51V with a folding bluetooth wireless keyboard. I won't be surprised if/when I am stopped at the security check to turn on all my gadgets maybe not in Ottawa but maybe in LHR / Abudhabi / Muscat - Gadget list inc kids - PDA w/keyboard / GPS / Mobile phone / Laptop / iPod Mini / iPod Shuffle / Chargers / Video Cam / Digital Camera(2) / Gameboy.

In search of Wifi

Of course, before traveling aboard I must ensure maximum connectivity to the internet for blogging , email, surfing (pressing right index finger to bridge of eyeglasses to seat them properly) I have downloaded from route66 some 25+ addresses on wifi hotspots and internet cafes in Lahore and Karachi. about $1.00 CDN/per hour - not bad. Still working through details of Laptop vs PDA - (or both).

Itineary Updated

We have agreed on the iteneray - but unfortunately I can't spell itinerrie - so forgive me. We leave on Saturday Feb 25 from Ottawa instead of TO. Which is of course much better otherwise I would have not looked forward to the drive back Home after the long flight. After much debate and confirmation we will start in Lahore and take an excurion to the 'Lower' Himilayan range for a 1-2 hour hike - snow pending - At least Amir can say he has hiked the Himilayas. On the return of the sojorn we will stop in Islamabad for a quick 'wow look at that' - "cool" - "sweet" - having little time to stop and visit the many relatives on route. A stop at the 'Salt Mines' to round of the excusion. After recovering it is off to Karachi via driver and guide via the Cholistan Desert with a few nights camping in the 'semi rough' Days (11-12) in Karachi with many visits and return home via London after a 2d stop and a "Cheerio" to the Queen.

Biggest problem - how to blog en route - how to connect - bring the laptop? - buy a new toy? - How to charge - where to connect - these are the real issues? 12v, 120v or 240??? GPS!!!!!

All will be sorted out prior to the outbound.