Walking around

Saturday, I walked around town.

Sector F-9, like the rest of the sectors, comprises a one square mile block of the city. However, this block is almost entirely undeveloped and left for recreation, Fatima Jinnah Park. There are tennis courts, walking and jogging tracks, an ice cream joint called Hot Spot which I didn't find, and large pieces of untouched tall grassland. I took a walk down a few foot trails that were quite unused in the latter section.

It's a great wildlife sanctuary because there is so much brush. I saw sunflowers and some close equivalents to falcons, crows, pheasant (which scared the bejeezus out of me flying from under foot), dragonflies, lady bugs, finches, and dove. Thank Allah for no snake sitings, which gave me the most worry; the cobra is ISOI's school mascot and apparently a resident of the region.

Then I drove to Jinnah market. Each sector possesses a market at its center (except for F-9 of course); Jinnah, Supermarket, Kohsar, and Covered markets are the high-class areas in Islamabad with more products than you can shake a stick at. I wandered around trying to get a fix on what was offered and spent some time in a few book stores.

Saeed's Bookstore (much like a two-story Barnes & Noble), Pizza Hut, a small Nike store, and the Kabul Restaurant are a few highlights of the block. DVDs (a popular store is Illusions), clothes, jewelry, and much more is available. My pictures and words don't represent the market well.

My favorite site in Jinnah market was a building with government stores of crafts from NWFP and Kashmir (two provinces of the country). It reminded me of ATAG in Ghana which provided an outlet for craft sales from across the country: brass and wood furniture from Peshawar, blankets from Swat, stonework from Karachi (southern Pakistan), leatherwork and painted bowls from other parts of the NWFP, and from Kashmir there was walnut wood furnishings, animal pelts, painted paper mache eggs, and sown artwork. I only picked up a blanket the size of a prayer rug (2.5'x4') from Swat, but I was happy to find fixed prices on crafts for once, at the NWFP store.

[Pakistan Textile Journal]

The day concluded in the Diplomatic Enclave which holds the embassies of France, Canada, US, China, South Korea, and many more. I played a game of frisbee with Marines (who seem to be forbidden to leave the US Embassy) and then went to a special jam session of musicians at the Canadian embassy, which has the Canadabad Cafe (cute name, huh?). There is a social life in Islamabad on many different levels once you get to know people.