Oh the comforts of a decent hotel room with a mattress. But still from time to time, I feel my body swaying with the waves of the Indian Ocean, and I like this feeling, but we’re delighted to be on land.

Yet we are without our cars. Offices are closed until 30 December 2000 due to Eid holidays and then 31 December is a holiday again, so looks like it’ll be 1 January 2001 before anyone gets serious about the bureaucratic madness of allowing foreigners to enter Pakistan with a couple of cars.

Here Ramadan is called Ramzan or Ramazan. Reading local newspapers in Karachi and from other Muslim countries makes me realize just how much the US is seen as an ‘anti-Islamic’ force in this part of the world. The papers are filled with politicians blaming other politicians for the woes of the country and then the IMF gets blamed too for wanting the government to cut costs and stop subsidizing; thus making worse the life for the average Mohammed. There is much press about helping the needy and the poor during Ramadan. People upset that Sharif (former leader and proven embezzler) was exiled recently to Saudi Arabia receiving no harsh punishment for corruption et al.