Cycling in Islamabad

I just got back from a short 15 mile bike ride.  I’m not allowed to ride up in the Margalla hills right now due to security threats.  So I rode along Margalla road down to F-9 Park.  It’s a huge park here in Islamabad.  It was a very busy day for all parks today.  It’s the end of the Eid Al Fitr weekend and this coming Wednesday is Pakistan’s Independence Day.  So traffic was epic.  I haven’t ridden in traffic this busy since Thailand or perhaps Indonesia.  I forgot how much I love riding my bike in traffic.  I suppose it’s from growing up riding a bike on the streets of LA.  I ride better in traffic than I do on mountain trails, and I’m no slouch on dirt trails.  Funny, most of the American’s I work with hate Pakistani drivers.  They complain about the way they drift about on the roadway and don’t seem to pay any attention to what might be behind them.  All those complaints and yet I feel safer riding along in heavy traffic in Islamabad than I ever have on the Pacific Coast Highway.  Yes Pakistanis drive much slower, but more to the point, they do pay attention to whatever is in front of them.  They look for obstacles, like pedestrians, goats, cows and bicyclists.  So it was a fun ride, and a relatively safe ride.

 

So many people were worried for me when they found out I was headed to Pakistan.  Americans seem to think I live in a land full of terrorists and Islamic fanatics.  OK to be fair, there are some terrorists and Islamic fanatics here.  Just as there are some terrorists and Christian fanatics in the USA.  Many of the people I ride by look at me with some suspicion.  No doubt I look very strange to most Pakistanis, wearing shorts and a brightly painted bike helmet, gloves and eye protection.  I ride an odd looking bike and go nearly as fast as most of the cars here.  So I can understand some suspicion.  What I didn’t expect is the number of people who wave.  Who say hello.  The parents who have their children shake my hand.  This city has a great many very friendly people.  In America we rarely treat visitors this well, especially those that don’t speak the same language.  I am enjoying my time here, half a world away from family and friends.  I’ll be back soon enough.  Not much will have changed where I work, in my home town, with my friends, but I will feel as if I’ve been gone for a decade.                    

Shia Mosque Bombing Thwarted

Life continues to be curious.  Yesterday I left work around 4:00.  Our new roommate rode with me.  He is still getting his bearings so I asked if he knew about the 4^th entrance to the diplomatic enclave.  He didn’t so I decided to show him.  It’s a bit of a drive as the main entrances face the city while this one faces the small village of Nurpur Shahan, North East of the enclave.  It’s a nice drive through an area vastly different from the rest of this city.  You go through the local bazaar area before turning south on 3^rd Ave toward Murree road.  It was a nice drive, saw donkey carts, many people, cows, goats and horses wandering about.  The rest of my evening was completely uneventful. 

 

 

Then a short while ago, just before 8 AM my phone rang.  It was a guy that works for me.  He was calling me to let me know his flight was diverted.  They should have landed at Islamabad but were diverted to Lahore.  Not only that but they were forced to deplane.  The claimed reason was weather but, while it’s raining right now, it isn’t particularly bad weather.  So I decided to go online and check the news.  Apparently there was a threat and search at Benazir Bhutto airport over 22 hours ago that the authorities are now saying was “training”… doubtful.  The more interesting article was about a thwarted mosque bombing yesterday afternoon.  A heroic security guard got in a shootout with a very well trained suicide bomber at a Shia mosque.  He managed to kill the would-be bomber but was also wounded and died later at the hospital.  This was in the little village of Bara Kahu about 2 miles east of the village we drove through yesterday afternoon.  I’d be lying if I said this was not a bit sobering.  It pissed me off as well.  This sectarian crap is as evil as it gets.  Killing one another because “MY god and kick YOUR god’s ass” or perhaps it’s more along the lines of “YOU are worthy of death because you don’t pray EXACTLY the same way I do”.  No matter, the perpetrators of this crap, the leaders of this evil will burn in hell, or be reincarnated as lowly insects or in some way, no matter your belief, will be punished for their deeds.  I genuinely like Pakistan.  I am greatly disappointed that my ability to travel about and see more of it is being hampered by an evil that plagues the good people of this land.       

AFP Photo, dead bomber next to grenades, bullets, etc.