Indonesia and Pakistan

This was not a good month of eating. Although potentially a success if my aim was to reduce my portion size and lose some weight.

In Indonesia I was on a live-in training course and although the course was great, the food was oily, fried and pretty much the same dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plus they hid bananas in every single snack, and for someone who hates bananas with a passion, that’s just cruel.

I did have a night in Jakarta at the end of the course and although it’s not Indonesian food, the burritos and nachos were fantastic at the Hacienda.

Then it was onto Pakistan. My field trip was cancelled so I spent 10 days in Islamabad, enjoying the expat lifestyle of fine dining, parties and lounging by the diplomatic pool. Or, I would have done so, if I hadn’t been struck down with a stomach bug, spending a few days within close proximity to a toilet. I think it was the Palak Paneer that did it.

Islamabad is an interesting city. It’s a neighbour city to Rawalpindi, which is where the airport is located. I was surprised to see how small it is – with only just over 1 million people it’s Pakistan’s 10th largest city, and the main shopping and residential part more feels like an upper class suburb of the nearby poorer Rawalpindi. There’s a ‘Diplomatic Enclave’ which houses most embassies and where you can find 50 metre pools, gyms, squash courts, restaurants and bars. Walking around the British Club, it felt like a holiday resort, and I got the feeling that if you lived and worked in the Diplomatic Enclave, it would be easy to have only the weather in common with the rest of Pakistan.

However, underneath the swimming pools and the parties, there is an undercurrent of insecurity and the people working for NGOs there, especially those who work or travel outside of Islamabad, definitely earn their holidays.