January 17, 2006

Pakistan, here I am.... (me voila!)

Donc me voila, un mardi après-midi à Islamabad, Pakistan. Ce nom de ville est, hormis Kaboul, probablement la ville la plus annoncée en Asie du Sud-Est. Mon collègue et moi sommes arrivés hier aux heures petites du matin, après ce qui est, jusqu'ici, le plus long voyage que j'ai jamais fait.

So here I am, on a tuesday afternoon in Islamabad, Pakistan. This city name is, aside from Kaboul, probably the most publicized city in South-East Asia. My colleague and I arrived yesterday in the wee hours of the morning, after what is, to date, the longest trek I have ever taken.


Vendredi après-midi, j'ai pris un vol de 8 heures de long de DC de Washington à Londres. Le vol lui-même était très agreable: j'ai dormi et eu une conversation animée avec une dame espagnole qui était charmante et amusante....

Friday afternoon, I took an 8 hour long flight from Washington DC to London. The flight itself was pretty good: it involved sleep and an animated conversation with a spanish lady who was charming and amusing....

Puis, arrivé à Londres, j'ai dû litterallement traverser l'aéroport a la vitesse grand V pour attraper mon vol vers Abu Dhabi. Le vol de 5 heures était très agreable - je partageais 3 sieges avec un monsieur britannique qui avait la capacité etrange de dormir assis tout droit, ainsi je me suis effondree et j'ai dormi encore plus.

Then, arrived in London, I had to litterally cross the airport at Mach 3 to make it to my connecting flight to Abu Dhabi. The 5 hour flight was pretty good - I was sharing a 3 seater with a british gentleman who had the uncanny ability to sleep upright, so I just nuzzled up and slept some more.

Arrivée a Abu Dhabi (dans les Emirats unis), j'ai eu un transit de 5 heures à tuer. Après un verre au Piano Bar avec mon collègue, j'ai paye le 20$ usuel et soit allée dormir sur un divan dans le salon d'affaires.

Arrived in Abu Dhabi (in the United Emirates), I had a 5 hour layover to kill. After a drink at the piano bar with my colleague, I payed the customary 20$ and went to sleep on a couch in the business lounge.

Nous avons ensuite pris eu un vol de 3 heures vers Islamabad sur Gulf Air. J'étais assise à côté très d'un drôle et tres gentil pakistanais qui vis maintenant en Angleterre et qui parlait avec toutes les expressions habituelles d'un bon Brit, comme "mates" et "Cheers".

We then had a 3 hour flight to Islamabad on Gulf Air. I was seating next to a very funny and sweet pakistani guy who now lived in England and talked to me about his "mates" in Islamabad and said "cheers" every 2 seconds.

Arrivé à Islamabad (temps local de 6:30am), nous avons péniblement traverse la ligne desordonnee des douane et alors avons attendu inutilement la voiture de fonction.

Arrived in Islamabad (6:30AM local time), we painfully went throught the messy customs line-up and then waited uselessly for the company car to pick us up.

Eventuellement, nous sommes allés au Marriott et y avons pris des chambres.

Eventually, we just went to the Marriott and got rooms there.

Il y avait ce probleme que nous aurions dû payer 2 nuits parce que c'était la politique concernant les arrivees prematurees, mais nous pouvions pas faire cela parce que cette depense ne nous aurait jamais ete remboursee et on s'est prepare a attendre quelques heures.

There was this whole issue that we had to pay for 2 nights because it was the early check in policy and we couldn't do that, so we were getting ready to wait another few hours.

Mon collègue a essayé d'entrer en contact avec le bureau local tandis que je surveillais notre bagage. Je me suis endormie pendant mon tour de garde, et ca a convaincu le commis de bureau de nous donner une chambre plus tôt gratuitement.

My colleague tried to contact the local office while I was watching our luggage. I fell asleep on duty, which convinced the desk clerk to give us an early check in free of charge.

Je suis allee me coucher et j'ai dormi... pendant 26 heures d'afilee!

I then proceeded to sleeping... for 26 hours straight!

Pour le moment, je n'ai pas vu grand chose d'Islamabad, mais je puis dire ceci: Je NE VOIS AUCUNE MENACE IMMÉDIATE DE SÉCURITÉ.

So far, I haven't seen too much of Islamabad, but I can say this: I SEE NO IMMEDIATE SECURITY THREAT.

Plus à venir sur cet nouvel endroit fascinant pose au pied de l'Himalaya:)

More to come on this fascinating new place resting at the bottom of the Himalaya :)

8 comments:

Anjamon said...

Oh Honey, you really live fast this days! I hope you'll find way to relax and I hope you'll have fun and good time! I'm lazy to post, but I might post this days... If you have time and interenet post more about your slef, I'm interested!

Have a good time sweetie!!!

Peace,
Light,
Love
and Chocolate
from your friend Guess-Who! ;)

juliana said...

It's good to know your flight went well and you're there safe. Best of luck with everything!

Thanks for helping me refresh my french. I was able to read and understand what you wrote without having to resort to the english. :)

Saur♥Kraut said...

Be safe, have fun, take pictures!!!

Victoria said...

Yay for the luggage (I know, that's so belated of me). It sucks loosing it, doesn't it? I find I never put anything essential there anymore. Pakistan sounds interesting! I can't wait until I get your take on it.
And I missed you in SA...

Beaver said...

Anya, yeah I try to have fun :) I'll write some more over the weekend hopefully. Take care of yourself in Serbia!!!

Juliana, thanks Jules! Yeah that was a long flight - but I'm just glad that I am now on solid ground.

Keep doing the french thing. It'll really be useful to you in West Africa.

Saur, I'll be safe, keep posting. And don't worry, I'm the picture monster!

Vick, yeah, I'm amazed that my luggage got lost between MTL and BLT but made it all the way to ISB. Go figure...

COMING UP: A POLITICAL REVIEW OF PAKISTAN AND SOME PERSONNAL DIARY ENTRIES.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you're safe...
Oh girl, I do envy you(in Spanish the verb "to envy" also has a positive meaning), I'd love to travel aroundo the world too!!!
Cuídate mucho ;)

Anonymous said...

I wrote the previous post...

Saur♥Kraut said...

Good. I'd really, really hate to see you on the news. Unless it's accepting a prize. And if you do, I'd better get invited to the party afterwards!