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2008-07-14, 18:22 I'm back in Pakistan again, this time to settle in for the long haul. We're here so Sarah can help get her company, SaafWater, off the ground. Things are going well, so we're planning to be here at least a year. I'm going to continue with my science journalism, covering research published in journals, but I'll be seeking out things to write about in this region. I've got a few ideas for stories in Pakistan, and I got a Middlebury Fellowship for Environmental Journalism that's paying for me to go to Bangladesh to report on monsoon flooding there.
We're getting settled now in Karachi, and since it'll be my new home for a while, I'll tell you a bit about it. After Mumbai (aka Bombay), Karachi is technically the second-biggest city in the world! Of course, there are other places such as Tokyo and Mexico City, with much bigger populations that sprawl beyond the official city limits. In ranking all these larger metropolitan areas, Karachi still comes in around #15 with about 15 million people. It's a huge, sprawing city with (as far as I know) no real strong center, and various enclaves of richer areas dotted around with many poorer and informal settlements around. The traffic can slow things down a lot, but as far as I can tell, it's not as bad as the traffic in some other developing world megacities I've heard about, like Cairo.
I don't have many photos to share yet. We arrived a few days ago, and are trying to keep a low profile for now, since as gori—that is, whites—we stand out. So we haven't been strolling around snapping pictures, and are easing our way into walking around, taking rickshaws, and so on. But, for now, here a shot of our ornate bed at our guesthouse, called Decent Lodge. (At least you can say the name is honest; it is nothing special, but it is decent.)
Buying a car
Since we're trying to keep a low profile, I was disappointed to find out, when we went to the car dealership, that our car's license plates will have to start with "FN" for "foreign national." But we are going to get one of the super-compact Suzuki Altos [link], a really standard car here, so that will help us blend in.
We'll get one with a tank in the back for CNG—an acronym everyone here knows, even though most probably don't know the English phrase it stands for, "compressed natural gas." Pakistan has a lot of natural gas reserves, so it's cheaper to run your car on CNG than on petrol (aka gasoline). I believe it's also better for the environment, with less carbon emissions per mile. Once we get the car, I'll have to see what kind of mileage we get and calculate out the rough carbon emissions.
Here, it seems the price for most everything is negotiable. So I was surprised that the prices for cars are fixed. It's the reverse of the situation in the US, where hardly any price is negotiable, except with cars, which makes buying a car so stressful there. So we were relieved to not have to haggle over the car price, since neither of us is good at bargaining. We found the prices on helpful websites such as PakWheels [http://pakwheels.com] and ApniGari [link] (which means "your car"), and when we went into the dealership, the prices were almost identical.
Michael Jackson rickshaw
We stopped by a bank, where Sarah knew the branch manager, to talk about a car loan, and to get advice on what kind of car to buy. After discussing various Suzukis—from the $5,000 Mehran to the $10,000 Cultus—Sarah said, "We were also thinking about getting a rickshaw." (There are motorized rickshaws—basically motorcycles with two wheels in the back, and seating for up to six—everywhere here.)
 I could drive and she could sit in the back, Sarah said, and we could make extra money by picking up people on the way to her office. The manager laughed, and said that if we did that, everyone would want to ride in my rickshaw, and all the media would want to talk to me, because they would wonder, "Why have you come from America and you want to drive a rickshaw?" He said, "You will be more famous than Michael Jackson!" |
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