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Monday, December 23rd – Rawalpindi/ Islamabad, 15,290 km
We seem to be back on our feet today, a few rumbling digestive systems and the occasion rush trip to the toilet but a good day overall with no one being too sick. I am doing well. My system is still struggling with the food or perhaps the malaria medicine. The weather is cool and cloudy, not cold enough to freeze, but there are no mosquitoes. I settle my digestive system I have decided to stop the malaria medicine for now as there probably won't be any mosquitoes or malaria until we are south of Delhi.
By late morning, all five of us are washed, fed and ready to go about our duties. Vincent, Stephen and I have gone to the post office six blocks away to check for mail. My banking and Visa cards have not yet arrived. I will need to check back every day until they do.
Our next task is to ride north to Islamabad, the national capital, and apply for a visitor visa to India at the Indian embassy. The two cities are two halves to a whole, a double city if you will, like Minneapolis and St Paul, but they couldn't be more different. Rawalpindi is an ancient city with an erratic street pattern, crowded retail strips and the usual hustle and confusion of a crowded Asian city that has a couple million people or more. It has served as the national headquarters of the Pakistan army since its independence from India in 1947.
We make our way from the district of Rawalpindi near the railway station along Murree Road, one of its main streets, through the city to the start of Islamabad. The transition between the cities is stark. Islamabad is a planned city built as the national capital in 1960 directly along Rawalpindi's north side. Its streets are on a grid pattern and are spaciously wide streets with impressive view lines. A row of low mountains form its northern border. Besides the National Assembly and many other national architectural show pieces, it is where the various international embassies are located, including the Indian embassy.
On the down side, Islamabad doesn't have much of a street life or many business services that are not related to government bureaucracy or the military. The clutter of markets and retail strips has been replaced by sterile malls. If you need to shop for regular supplies or do day to day business it is better to return to Rawalpindi, at least at point of its history. It hasn't yet matured into a city with full services.
Rawalpindi, or 'Pindi' as the locals call it, has wide enough streets that aren't as crazy as some Asian cities, like Tehran or Istanbul, though they are filled with 3-wheeled motorized rickshaws, carts, bicycles, buses, trucks and motorcycles as well as taxis and cars. Islamabad has even wider and much emptier streets, lined with trees and with spacious setbacks for many of the buildings. There are also lawns and gardens that use an inappropriate amount of water for this desert environment.
The Indian embassy is easy to find. It looks like any other government building and it belies the fact that India is a poor country. Perhaps that is intentional, to show Pakistan that it has money if it needs it. It has six times the population of Pakistan so it is harder for Pakistan to keep up with India's military spending. We are able to keep our passports until our visas are ready. We fill in our application forms and each pay our US$50 fee.
After that is done, Coen, Vincent and I ride around the streets of Islamabad. They are like a cyclist's playground, even more peaceful and civilized to ride around than in any European city its size. We stop at a couple malls and ride up to the Shah Faisal Mosque, which sits at the base of the mountains to the north. It's a massive mosque and very modern. It was only completed five years ago.
We ride back to Rawalpindi, which takes forty-five minutes, and we team up with Kate and Stephen again for dinner. Kate has been asking around and has learned that there is a Boys and Girls Club here, but in Islamabad, not Rawalpindi. She called there and they have told her they have plenty of room so we have decided to change our residence to there tomorrow morning. I am grateful that I won't need to put my mattress on the floor after tonight.
PHOTO 1: old building on the way to Islamabad
PHOTO 2: donkeys on the street, Rawalpindi
PHOTO 3: the huge, modern Faisal Mosque
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