Random random ramblings on Beijing

Went off for a few days to visit Bejing with the family. My general impressions are,in no particular order :

1) If you are even halfway chinese,or have some chinese blood, you must visit Beijing. Even though the buildings that have been restored,kept etc are only 600 years old and represent mainly the Ming and Ching dynasties, it really is amazing. I would put my experience at the sites on par with Angkor Wat (but then again I have yellow skin, so I may be a bit biased). The guides have many great stories to tell and its better if you speak mandarin, but Beijing has enough english speaking guides.

2) Visit when you can still walk well as its BIG, and there are many many people. getting around entails a lot of walking walking walking. And as for the great wall, it's a brutal workout (think stairmaster).

3)Pollution is still bad, but the govt has done amazing things with the people of Beijing. No more spitting on the streets, toilets are clean, and the place is actually very clean. The govt spent a lot of time educating its 18 million beijing residents on manners,etiquette, cleanliness. In fact the govt also has taken cognizance of how their citizens behave when traveling abroad and has made it a point to educate the mainland chinese traveling on proper manners and behaviour, as befitting China's status as a superpower.

4) Food in beijing, if you are used to southern chinese (and I am generalising here), is more oily,salty and tastes are stronger. This is probably due to the really cold winters they have. So at restaurants tell them less salt,less oil. And really, Peking duck in Peking, well you have to try it since you are at the place of origin, but you really you can get better in HK,Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Melbourne,Sydney etc.

5)The mix of old and new in Beijing is amazing, newly skyscrapers next to old imperial buildings.

6) Taxis are plentiful, and reasonable, a 10 RMB flagfall and I would say averagely 1 RMB per km. But as with the rest of China, you may need to give directions as the place is BIG and they may not know where you want to go (obiously if you go the popular places its not an issue). But if you are staying off the beaten track, get someone to write the directions for you.

things to do on weekends in Lahore if you are a bored expat

1) wake up LATE cos there's nothing to do
2) go for breakfast at Coffee,Tea and Co, or Massoon's, they are open early and have have a breakfast menu
3)play golf
4) go for a beer at Royal Palm
5) go for breakfast at Avari if you have their gold card (the standard one person eats free thing, good value)
6) go to the gym
7) go hang out by the pool at Structure gym(no dressing hang ups, bikinis not a problem)
8) get people over and get drunk
9) go shopping at Metro, Hyperstar or Al Fatah at Liberty
10) go shopping at Liberty market. btw, lots of shops are closed on Sunday in Lahore. Why? I have no fucking idea. You would think the traders would have more business sense than that, seing as there is fuck all to do on weekends
11) play tennis at the International club
12) go to Anarkali on saturday, it's great
13) jump on a plane to Bangkok or Dubai
14) watch TV
15) surf porn
16) hang out at Cosa Nostra, bring your own grog

Hmmm, now I am struggling. Anyway you get the drift.

restaurant review - Cosa Nostra

OK. I have been meaning to write about this place for quite some time now but couldn't get off my lazy ass to do it. Many people in Lahore including foreigners reckon that this is the best western restaurant in town.

It's located off Main Bouleverd, but you will not be able to see any signage as it's hidden behind brick walls. Mostly it's word of mouth. A lot of very good looking people hang out here. The downstairs is 'casual dining' and serves pizza, pasta,salads,gelato. The pizza I agree is the best in town, and the only place where you can get proper thin crust. The pasta is not bad, good texture, but again,no aglio olio, only creamy or tomato base stuff. Salads are not bad but again, no romaine lettuce for the Ceasar's. The gelato is actually more like normal ice cream, but still good.

Upstairs its the formal dining, with chef's menu changing regularly, which makes it fun and interesting. But IMHO the food at Aylanto is better. The last time I came I got annoyed with the service upstairs as they took forever to bring the ice and water for my whisky and also I had to go get my own glass for my beer. A thirsty man is an angry man. Anyway it's a bottle friendly place.

Overall not too bad a place to hang out, good ambience,food is solid, service OK, good looking people to watch, but a tad pricey.

More ranting re Lahore Airport

OK. I am now officially pissed off. The last few times I have come back to Lahore, my luggage has been subject to "scanning". Come on. It's a hand carry. I travel light. And I am one of the first through immigration. This means I can't bring my whiskey in as it will get confiscated. OK, OK I know it's law of the land. Bullshit. The amount of bootleg stuff we can get here.

Yes, I can get the JW black here , but like I told my friends, I am in Pakistan suffering, therefore I should spoil myself by drinking a better quality whiskey. The hypocrisy really irritates me. Plus it's not as if I bring it in to sell, it's for my own consumption. Come on move on with the times. Don't like the beardos win, and let Pakistan fall back to extremism. At least let the barbaric unholy foreigners like myself drink and burn in hell.

There are no such bullshit even in the gulf states, which, as a sidebar, if you go to BKK airport, you will find many caucasians in shorts boarding flights to the UAE,Qatar, etc. So why not Pakistan? Sigh....

More irritating stuff at Lahore airport

I don't know if it is me but I get checked everytime now I leave the country. Maybe I should start wearing a suit and tie and not dress comfortably ie long pants and T shirt. Hey that's already a concession as anyone who knows me knows I wear shorts EVERYHERE in KL.

I normally take it with a grin and put up with it, but this time I got really cheesed off. I just had one hand luggage and still got searched. The Narco removed all the stuff, fine. Then without even an "excuse me" took out a mini ice pick and stuck 2 holes in the bottom of my case. And sniffed it. I said "dude, come on, that's a samsonite". And he had the cheek to grin at me and say "it's how we check" All the fucker had to do was let me know. Damn bag has a zip where you can open up and expose the base. Dickhead. Again typical bloody ego, all huffed up in their own importance.

Anyway was really considering raising a stink but not worth the aggro I guess, after all I was off HOME.

I don't get Twilight

Ok,ok I admit I watched "twilight" but it was on HBO, the wife ,inlaws,outlaws et al were playing mahjong, and I was flitting in and out watching both so it doesn't really count. I didn't realise how excruiatingly BORING it was until I watched "New Moon" on the plane back to Lahore.

Before anyone hangs shit on me, I normally watch stuff I would not watch on the plane, as most of the movies I have seen anyway (Lahore nothing to do etc etc). BORING. And I do not get why girls go all ga ga over Edward. I mean, get real, I doubt in real life they would want to be seen anywhere near someone that pasty faced, and with red lips to boot. Jacob I can understand. Ok and Alice is pretty hot too.

And the fans who complained about the bad acting ? What acting? The whole show the 2 main actors just moved around with a pained expression on their faces (like Jude Law in Cold Mountain). Easy enough to do that. Just clip on a few clothes pegs in private areas, that would do the trick.

Pakistan at the winter Olympics

Yes you heard right. Pakistan has an athlete at the winter olympics. Alpine skier. Some air force dude . Well done !

And I also found out Pakistan has a women's cycling team. They were training in DHA phase 6 cos the roads were new and no traffic for the south asian games. I actually stopped the car and applauded. Good going, girls. One of Musharaf's better legacies I suppose. And they had on proper gear too. Like I said, well done !

VIP's in Lahore

For people who are not used to VIP culture, Lahore/Pakistan is on a whole new level. Sycophancy is an art here. Over the weekend, 2 VVIP's were in town, and o boy. One of the VVIPs lives near my house when he is in town. And when he is in town, we know cos there are at least 100 cops outside his house. Human shields?

The route which said VVIP takes to whatever VVI appointment he has to go to is lined up ALL THE WAY every 100 m with a cop on both sides of the road. And the cops are accompanied by another security guard. And said route then has all the roads leading to it closed off, causing massive jams, widespread cursing by the public, and general waste of resources. O yes, there are wailing sirens and at least 15 vehicles all filled with sychophants and hapless, but serious looking cops hooning around in this VVI convoy accompanying the VVIP.

Anyway there were 2 of these VVIPS in lahore during the weekend and one of my Pak friends declared that Lahore would be at the mercy of dacoits as there were no more cops available do the actual cop work. Another wag commented that Lahore was already at the mercy of these dacoits anyway, and he wasn't refering to the armed criminal type.

Anyway real story also, one VIP was on a plane out of Lahore when his hanger ons found out to their extreme horror that their boss was seated behind a senior govt servant. Mayhem ensued and they thronged the airline guy BEGGING him to change the seat otherwise they would all be sacked, or worse. Tears were shed, mothers' graves were called upon but situation was resolved to the reief of said toadies.

winter in Lahore 2010

Winter's here with a vengeance this year. It's cold. Fog's all over. In case you don't how bad the fog is, airlines change their schedule to land early afternoon otherwise they can't see. Driving at night when the fog hits is a nightmare. You can't see more than 100 m sometimes. And it really freaks me out when idiots on bikes ride around here with the lights off. Dude, I can't see you, I will hit you, you will die. I mean what the fuck !

Anyway this year it's ridiculous. Load shedding is 4 hours a day. I mean load shedding in winter? What the hell. And gas shedding.Yes there is such a thing. Lahore has gas shedding. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. it was announced. I am lucky I live in DHA, where the gas supply is pretty good. Being S.E Asian, I shower twice a day regardless of how cold it is, so it's a damn good thing there's gas to heat up the geysers (hot water tanks)(yes they call them geysers here, pronounced geezer).Most S.E Asians shower lots due to our 30 plus degrees at home. I mean you will reek if you don't shower in that heat and humidity, so it's ingrained. That's why even when we go to places where it's bloody minus 20 we still shower.

And to top it all, there is a diesel shortage. Sigh....