On Sunday we took a little time to explore some other parts of Karachi, since we had finished reporting our baby rescue story. Omar Farooq, the fixer we had been using, accompanied us, and, as we found out, it was a good thing he did.
We had our driver take us to the port of Karachi, which, like the rest of the city, is dirty and noisy and packed to the gills with people trying to make a living, often by swindling unlucky tourists. (I should say at this point that the people we have encountered in Pakistan have been almost universally kind and generous; however I did just purchase a pair of 'real,' 'authentic' Armani sunglasses for 500 rupees from a street vendor only to discover you shouldn't pay more than 100 rupees.)
As soon as we exited the car we were surrounded by a horde of boat owners, all clamoring for us to go for a ride because each of their boats somehow was amazingly faster, safer and just plain better than all of the others. Walking up the street toward the docks we had quite an entourage.
Then we got in trouble with the Pakistan Navy. Two officers apparently spotted Jodi Hilton (the photographer who is along for this trip) taking photographs in the general direction of some military installations. For 10 or 15 minutes they interrogated Omar in Urdu while the boat owners gawked. Not understanding what any of the shouting was about, we stood by with our gear and wondered whether Pakistan prison guards would honor our advance health care directives. But Omar talked fast, and eventually they let us go with dire warnings.Manora Island was not exciting. We dined next to a table full of prettily-dressed transvestites and managed to get far more stares than they did. Then we visited a deserted Hindu shrine on the beach, which was pretty depressing.
The boat ride back in the dark was the scariest part. It was so overloaded that the gunwales often were less than a foot above the surface. Somehow we made it back though.
All of the photos in this post were taken by Jodi Hilton.
2 comments:
Your travelogue of Pakistan is fasciniating, if a little but depressing. Thanks for posting.
Joel,
I'm so glad your dreams are being realized and that you are being a voice for those that have no voice. That's what being a reporter is about and what you have always been at heart.
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