Pakistan, 4-11 Feb 2001.
The Pakistan trip was a business trip sponsored
by my employer, National Energy Corp, Malaysia.
Our (myself and my colleague, Azrol) job was to study the network and IT
infrastructure of our subsidiary (Liberty Power) in Pakistan.
Initially, we were a bit reluctant to receive this assignment as there was
a massive earthquake which just took place in northwestern region of India,
somewhere close to Pakistan-India border. But after some assurance from our
managers, we took off on Feb 4 via MAS, arriving in Karachi first before our
transit to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Coincidentally, the ambassador
of Malaysia to Pakistan was in the same flight with us.
We arrived at Karachi in late evening. Transit waiting time was 2 hours.
And when we reached Islamabad, it was already late at night.
We checked into Holiday Inn, a 4 star hotel.
We stayed in Islamabad for 4 nights. We worked in the main office in the
morning, and at night we went shopping.
Things are pretty cheap in Islamabad. We bought carpet and some onyx stones
which were carved into goblet. My colleague bought silk and gold too. We were
lucky that our company manager in Islamabad was kind enough to bring us to
shops which give good price and high quality goods.
On the fifth day we boarded a domestic flight to fly to our power plant
located at Mirpur, Sindh province.
From the airport to the power plant, it was a 2 hours drive. The company
has arranged a company driver to meet us at the airport.
Along the way, we saw villages, rivers, deserts and people. The environment
is mostly dusty and run down. Not much of trees, not much of grass, even the
rivers are dirty and half dried. This is my first experience of seeing such
thing. Before this trip, my travel destinations were all well-to-do countries.
The power plant is not a very big complex. It is a 235 MW (ISO rating) gas fired combined cycle Power Plant
and is currently supplying electricity to the Pakistan
Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA).
We spent 2 nights there. There is nothing much to do in that place. Very
remote. There is cafeteria and a TV lounge with snooker table, table tennis
table and etc.
We flew home on the 10th, but reached KL only on the 11th. It was quite
a tiring journey, from Mirpur to Karachi by PIA, then by SIA to Lahore (transit),
then to Singapore, then boarded MAS's plane to KL.
We didn't visit any tourist attraction there, this is not a VACATION, for
god sake !!!! *&@#%$!?@ad32!~*..........
Conclution:
In a way, Islamabad residents are among the richest in the country. On our
first visit to Pakistan, we were actually seeing the rich first, then on our
journey to the south (power plant location), we see the real pakistan. Most
people are poor and earn less than US $1 per day.
Fyi, I am no longer working for this company.
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