National Monument at night

We went back to The National Monument. I wanted to see it at night and also to visit the neighbouring Lok Virsa Heritage Museum. Unfortunately the museum was closed when we arrived, but I enjoyed seeing the monument again.

Stuck on the Big Wheel

We went to the Nawaz Sharif park in Rawalpindi (Islamabad's
neighbouring city). It was rubbish.

There were no good rides and to top it off, the ride-operator on the
Big Wheel forgot about us. We were stuck at the top for around 20
minutes.

Play Land

I took one of my friends children to Play Land, which is also known as
the Japanese Park (I have no idea why).

Dinner at Chinese Dragon

Shakeel and I had dinner with our good friend Yaruq (true fact: his mother is a well known and renowned poet in Pakistan, this may possibly be why her sons have rhyming names) at the Chinese
Dragon, which is located in the Blue Area of Islamabad.

There was not a china-man in sight, but the food and atmosphere were to a very high standard - even better than Camp Freddy Chong's back in Southampton!

Faisal Mosque

I have visited here before during the day, but I have never been here at night. I was a little disappointed that the building was not lit up as much as it is on national holidays, but the architecture and size were very impressive.








My apologies for spoiling the view in the last picture.

Shakar Parian

We had a relaxing stroll through the Shakar Parian gardens after seeing the National Monument. The gardens are about 5 minutes from the main Monument (which is located in the Shakar Parian Hills) and are a great picnic spot.

Rumbled!

As we were leaving, we came across some of my brother-in-law's college-fellows (one year his juniors). It turns out that they come here when they decide to bunk classes!

The National Monument

The National Monument was completed very recently in 2007. I had been eagerly anticipating seeing and snapping it weeks before my arrival.

It is my favourite landmark that I have seen so far. The weather was perfect and not many people were around, so we had the opportunity to shoot lots of great pictures and video.

I'll post a link to my Flickr account, which will have a lot more of these pictures when I get back.










I took the above photo really well, placing my subject at the optimum point and making full use of the background. My brother-in-law on the other hand decided putting me in the middle was good enough.



The National Monument has a lovely viewpoint, from which you can see the apple turnover-esque Faisal Mosque that I talked about in one of my earlier posts.

Saudi-Pak Tower

This is a picture of the Saudi-Pak Tower, one of the tallest buildings in a city not famed for tall buildings...

Read more about it here

Games, DVD's and music

Jumbo (formerly known as DVD Zone) is where I always go to buy games, music and movies.


It seems to be legal to sell counterfeit goods in Pakistan. You cannot find an original copy of anything anywhere...

Clothes shopping

You can get some nice clothes in Pakistan very cheaply.


Textilion is a good place to start.


The Silk Hut is good as well. Although as you can see from the photo below, it can't decide how to spell its own name.

The Centaurus building

This is due to be completed in 2010 and will look something like this:


Currently it looks like this:


and this:



According to Wikipedia, The $350 million complex is planned to have a 37-story, 7 star deluxe hotel, with two 21-story residential towers, a 25-story corporate office tower, and a 5-story shopping mall.. The complex will have a parking lot to accommodate over 2,000 vehicles. It is designed to withstand up to 9.5 magnitude earthquakes and is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

A nutritious lunch

Coffee and doughnuts for 3.40GBP. That's 2 COFFEES AND 12 DOUGHNUTS!

Maybe I will add in a pound sign later when I have access to a
standard European keyboard...

My brother-in-law...

...who is also my traveling guide/companion.