Six on Two

This is a familiar sight not only in Thailand, but also here in Pakistan: a family somehow managing to fit on one motorcycle. This is a new record for me nonetheless: father, mother, and four kids! And only Dad is wearing a helmet.

McDonalds Islamabad

McDonalds Islamabad
Originally uploaded by go2net.

Signs of times. Anti-car bomb barriers stand like mute sentinels as schoolgirls on a field trip march to McDonalds.

New Children's Park

We finally got a chance to visit the new children's playground that a friend highly recommended, not once but twice this past weekend. Needless to say our one-year old loved it. And this made me wish we could go there every day, perhaps in the morning when it's still cool and not so busy.

The playground is the biggest I've ever seen. It is located inside Jinnah Park in F-11. It has a wonderful variety of playground equipment for children of all ages, even mini slides and swings for our little toddler. But the best ones are those for older kids: climbing walls and ropes, twisters, and zip lines. And it's open to the public for only Rps. 10 per person! This has its disadvantages though, some equipment are already broken such as the cheap plastic swings at the toddler section. Maybe because it could not handle the weight of heavier and older kids. We wondered if they have the staff, parts, and tools to maintain them. While the bigger equipments are obviously of imported quality, designed to handle rough handling from over-enthusiastic and the harsh elements, others look like they already need to be fixed.

Let's hope the park will last long so the residents of Islamabad can truly enjoy this great facility.

How to Make Chicken Paratha Roll

I think I'm going to start a mini-series about street food in Islamabad. It will be short because we don't get out much. But we do love to try street food in most places we live or visit.

So here's our first one. A photo and video featuring the chicken paratha roll at Munchees.