Shauntu شان: Pakistan Trip 2005

Observant Eyes

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 12:49:59 GMT

A friend found something in one of the pictures in the Pakistan Trip 2005 album on this space that is rather hilarious. Lets see if anyone else can find it... Its not too hard, once you know which picture to look at. Figuring out what he noticed though does sort of require that you have been to Pakistan (I can't say more or it would be very easy to figure this out)...

Meanwhile my friend Omair wins the prize for making an ass out of me... now if only there had been a prize in the first place :).

Omair, feel free to spill the beans in the comments if some time passes and no one is guessing, if you want to...

McDonalds vs KFC, location: Karachi

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:35:57 GMT

In the last 11 years since I originally left Karachi for the US, foreign food franchises have been opening up locations in Karachi and generally doing rather well. When I had left, there had been a Shakey's pizza spot (which likely doesn't exist anymore), and one brand new Pizza Hut location (rather expensive, but its still there and still popular).

Now, there are Pizza Huts, McDonalds, KFCs, Subways, even Dunkin Donuts, everywhere.

Now, while Pizza Hut is the one who started it, from what I can tell, McDonalds are the ones who truly opened the door to having lots of locations everywhere. Apparently they did a lot of market location to choose where to open a branch, etc. Seeing as there appears to be a KFC near each McDonalds branch now, I guess KFC skipped on the research :)

Anyways, while Pizza Huts and Subways (and Dunkin Donuts) are doing all right on their own, the 2 big ones have narrowed down to McDonalds and KFC. And it looks like KFC is the winner.

Why? It appears that KFC made more of an effort to offer food the local population would like for longer than the novelty factor. The Zinger Burger, with it's spicy nature, seems to have appealed to the people. I have even seen street bun kabab vendors selling their versions of Zinger burgers.

Although McDonalds appears to be making an effort, with Mango Shakes introduced this summer, and chicken fajitas introduced with the odd 'McArabia' name. But for now, it seems to be a losing battle. Some McDonalds have been forced to close, while more KFC's keep opening everywhere. Still, there is one location I can say is winning -- the McDonalds at the beach (pictured here), perhaps because it is closer to the beach then the next door KFC, seems to be a bigger hit than that particular KFC.

Meanwhile, franchises like Burger King and Wendy's and Jack in the Box have still not made an appearance. No Starbucks yet either, although I heard one might open soon. One Dominoes has opened up... Personally though, with the success of KFC, I'd have to say the franchise most likely to be a big success over there would have to be Popeye's, specially since they already specialize in spicy cajun chicken...

End of the Trip

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:07:46 GMT

I thought I would make some final observations regarding my recently concluded trip to Karachi. I have been back a little more than a week now, and already miss being with family there. That is really the hardest part.

Anyways, on to my more normal detached rambling :).

Overall, I found Karachi to be not much different than my previous visit 2.5 years ago. The roads are still crappy, even with the spread of traffic lights and flyovers to try and control traffic flow. There are way too many cars on the road, all really small in size, with no drivers obeying the principle of driving lanes. Which I have to admit, makes driving rather fun. The pollution from the cars I could do without. The very frequent speed bumps annoy me greatly as well.

The people still seem rather split between being highly religious and being more modern. My last visit I got the impression that the beards and burkas had grown in numbers greatly. I didn't see much of a change this visit.

The biggest thing I noticed is the way things get done. I would have to say that Karachi is probably the capitalism capital of the world, with the biggest example of free-market economy in the world. The capitalism has engulfed politics, religion, and modernism all within itself. Its actually pretty impressive.

In the end, I am not much of a big city person. It's why I wouldn't want to live in NY or LA, and the same is likely true for Karachi. Still an interesting place to hang out though. And I am going to miss the food -- Al Kabab, Bundoo Khan, Lal Qila, Kings & Queens Pizza Parlour, Silver Spoon, Mr. Burger, Nursery Super Bun Kabab... :). The foreign franchises seem to be doing fairly well as well, in fact I think I will have another entry following this one about that...

Hoping to visit Karachi again soon. Hopefully next time I can tour more of the country of Pakistan as well.

World Traveller? Would like to be!

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 16:53:30 GMT

Well I may be back from the long trip, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to travel more in the future :). The following is a crude map that attempts to show where I have been and where I'd like to visit. I say crude because it colors the whole of China when I have only been to Hong Kong for e.g., and I would also like more differentiation between the US States, seeing as how there is a large section of the US I have not been to that I would like to visit...

So anyone know a better 'World Traveller Mapping Tool'?

visited 7 countries- like to visit 14 countries
Create your own world map

Mangoes

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 09:04:54 GMT

One thing about Pakistan during summer is the mango craze. Everyone seems to be eating mangoes all the time. For juices, people drink mango juices. For ice cream, mango flavored ice cream. The main attraction McDonalds is advertising is Mango shakes.

As far as the mangoes are concerned, there appear to be many types of mangoes. The attached picture showcases some of the types...

Cellphone Snatching

Sun, 10 Jul 2005 11:21:19 GMT

Today, one of the headlines in the Dawn newspaper in Karachi is about Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan wanting to create a task force to deal with cellphone snatching... The article came with statistics that show just how bad this problem has become... From what I can tell these statistics are for Karachi only, but since January 2005 there have been 11,161 cellphones stolen, either at gunpoint or otherwise (about 3000 of them were at gunpoint according to a separate article). The first week of July has had 1603 reported cellphones alone.

Meanwhile, the cellphone service companies now have a process in place to send a code to the cellphones and block them for good, so if someone's cellphone is stolen then they can atleast have the satisfaction of making the cellphone valueless to the thieves...

Another article is about a Dr who on Thursday resisted when his cellphone was being stolen at gunpoint. He was shot and died later from his wounds. Another case fromn Tuesday is about 3 armed men robbing everyone on a bus, and when one of the passengers resisted on handing over his cellphone, he was shot and killed as well.

Unlike normal, when news of crime tends to feel remote and isolated, in this case I personally know 5 people who have had their cellphones stolen recently, 4 of them at gunpoint. One is my father, one my brother (the only one not at gunpoint). One is my wife's uncle, who's wedding pictures are in the Pakistan Trip album on this Space. Two are good friends of mine who both graduated from Arizona State University before moving back here a few years ago...

Pakistan's Internet Connection

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 07:00:06 GMT

Well for the last week, since Monday or so, the Internet connection here has been kaput... Turns out that the undersea connections cable linking Pakistan's internet with the rest of the world had a fault somewhere, cutting Pakistan off for a few days. This effected businesses, the stock exchange, call centers, etc, leading to a lot of loss for the country.

Eventually a satellite backup was instated, so that the stock exchange etc would be able to do some work, but the latency on that connection was horrible -- e.g. it was taking half an hour for me to open up hotmail or my work email.

Things look much better today, so I guess the fault may be repaired at this point. Check out these news articles for more information on the problem and the damage...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8392773/ The initial crash report on from Monday...

Airlines and credit card companies were among the businesses hit by the crash.
"It's a total disaster," said Nasir Ali, commercial director of the private Air Blue airline. "We have a Web-based booking system which has totally collapsed."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8424511/ The crash continues Thursday... the good news, is the announcement that a second cable will be laid in the near future to avoid problems like this happening again.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8430510/ Pakistan's call center's affected (my brother works in one, and had a few days of unscheduled time off due to this)

Two new links, one a submarine cable and the other a land link with neighbouring India, are due to come on stream this year.

A British company operating in India is reconsidering a $10 million investment in Pakistan because of this week's communications melt-down.

Pakistan has 25 call centre operators employing up to 2,000 people, with a combined revenue of up to $15 million a year.

Latest Movies on Cable TV

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 12:36:16 GMT

At home in Karachi we get TV through cable. There are about 100 channels. Some are Pakistani, some Indian, we also have Fox News, BBC, etc. There are a few financial news channels that are breoadcast from the Middle East but the broadcasters are Pakistani (including one who is a brother of a friend from Arizona State University). There are also a bunch of Music channels (MTV and a few local music stations).

One of the interesting parts though are a bunch of channels that focus on movies. Some focus on English movies and some on Indian movies. The way they work is interesting: they show a list of possible movies, and there is a phone number on the screen with instructions. People call in the 12-15 minutes before the movie starts to 'vote' for which of the listed movies should be shown. When the countdown ends, the movie with the most number of votes is the one that is shown. Of course it costs about Rs 6 to vote, the most votes I have seen so far is about 7 or 8.

The movie then plays with maybe 1 or 2 commercial breaks. What is most interesting for me though is that the movies tend to be fairly new movies. This morning for example, Mr & Mrs Smith was playing, which I believe only came out in the US Theaters 1.5 weeks ago. A bit more surprising is that the print seemed identical to the copy of Mr & Mrs Smith I picked up from a local store a few days ago -- a copy made likely from within a theater, although still widescreen. Mainly its the sound quality that seems to have suffered.

My brother tells me that Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, was in the stores and the same copy on these Cable channels about a couple of days before it was released in theaters in the US. The copy of it however was not all that great, and people had been upset.

Once a movie has been out a while and they get better copies here, they start showing those instead of the first draft versions they get their hands on...

Wedding in Karachi

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 11:37:08 GMT

Over the last few days I have been attending a wedding. I have uploaded some pictures from the overall Wedding and its various ceremonies.

I have to say, weddings go on for way too long over here. We went on four separate nights for the various functions, always late at night, always lasting beyond 2 am.

First there was the Mehndi function, outside the bride's home, where the groom's family took with them a bunch of Mehndi (Henna) in big bowls.

A couple of nights later was the Mehndi function for the groom, where everyone collected up outside his home. Among other things, the groom was extorted for money in a ritual where some ladies who are related to the bride wouldn't let go of his finder unless he paid up.

The next night was the actual wedding function, in a wedding hall. A bunch of teenagers at the function set off fireworks and firecrackers, some people showed off from nearby with drums hoping to get paid, etc. The wedding papers were signed here with witnesses etc, after which the groom joined the bride and they sat together the rest of the time while people got their pictures taken with them.

The next night was the final function, the Valima dinner, again in a hall. Here people were invited basically to the first dinner where the newly married couple are the hosts.

I gotta say, I was very tired by the end, and not just due to the weddings. The heat, the lack of fans, the lack of electricity at home all day before going to the Valima dinner, the long drive to the various functions, all contributed to it being a looong wedding.

How many on a bike?

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 04:43:22 GMT

So couple of nights ago, on the road, I saw a motorbike (Kawasaki style) that had 6 people riding it -- the man driving it, two kids in front of him, one behind him, a lady behind that kid, and another kid in the lady's arms.

I also saw another one with only 4 (2 kids in front of the driver), not quite as impressive, although one of the kids was asleep, the head sleeping against one of the driver's elbows while he steered the bike...

Energy Saving Lights

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 04:09:31 GMT

One thing that I have noticed is that the traditional light bulb seems to have gone extinct. Everyone had those fancy energy saving lights -- over here they seem to be advertised as using 25 Watts and lasting 3 years.

Whats weird is that I have seen stores that have 10 of these lights all turned on, located on the ceiling, layed out in a grid formation -- all 1 feet apart from each other, in a 4x5 grid.

I wish I had a camera on me at the time. I still don't get what the point was of that... but it was in multiple stores all next to each other, all doing the same thing...

UPDATED: I took a picture of a ceiling light that had all the bulbs replaced with these energy saving lights. Check it out in the Pakistan Trip album, its worth a look. It is very ugly...

So Very Hot!

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:07:33 GMT

Well I have been in Karachi for 4-5 days now, and the main thing I have to say is --- its freakin' hot! I mean AZ may have temperatures in the 110 F range during summer, but Karachi has that plus 90% humidity... I have been sweating non-stop for the last 5 days. Since we don't have an Air Conditioner, being inside is of no real help...

Other oddities I have noticed so far -- while the Internet connection we have is an 'always-on' cable type, the speed we get is extremely low... I'd have to say in the less than 5kbps range...

Cellphones seem to be a big target for thieves here nowadays. I have already encountered multiple people in the family who have had their cellphone stolen on gunpoint in the last few months.

Traffic is as horrible as I remember. Top speeds are very low, everyone is jostling for position, and 5 cars ride side by side in a 3 lane road. A rather weird thing has been that while street lights are now just about everywhere, they have the unexpected (for me) behaviour of showing the yellow light before green, rather than before red. Red itself pops up suddenly. Its also funny to see occasional cars, tired of waiting for green, suddenly cross the roads even when its red. Its funny actually.

Oh, since our room is so hot, I last night decided to keep the window open. It's cooler outside than inside at night. This morning a lizard had found its way in. I don't think I will be allowed to keep the window open again :)

Going to Pakistan!

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:23:11 GMT

Well, I leave for Karachi, Pakistan within 24 hours. Anyways, I decided that I will create a new Category to the left (Pakistan Trip 2005), and post pictures and commentary from the trip while I am gone.

What type of stuff? I have no idea. I think I will take photos of some sightseeing stuff, some cultural stuff, maybe some commentary on differences and similarities between Tempe and Karachi, pictures of food... whatever takes my fancy I guess :)

I figure this is a cool way to kind of keep in touch with everyone left behind in Tempe. I guess it remains to be seen how often I keep this up, but if I am having fun, why not?