The Days Fly By...
I have so much to write about, and it feels like i never have the time to write...
Honestly... i dont know WHERE the days disapear to... its like your at the office and it feels like DAYS until 1-2 o clock... and after that you don teven realise it and its time for iftaar (fitar here), you have iftaar and go into a food induced coma - eventually you meet a lot of people do a lot of shit and next thing you know its 4 in the morning.
Even now, im just gonna run for an iftaar meeting with Tom the crazy Australian and Percy the almost impossible to understand hyper speed talking Indian :P So im gonna LIST the crazy ass events that have been happening over the last week or so in an effort not to forget them all...
THE MONEY CHANGER
Well i had been trying to find an open money changer for almost a week now, but with these warped Ramadhan timings (that are NEVER displayed in the shops) every time i go it seems like theyve JUST closed... every other shop in the entire market will be open but the money changer will be closed :P
Well i FINALLY found a money changer who was semi-open - i.e. shop was open but the main dude was missing and business would start in 15 minutes. So i started talking to the chota who was there and in my broken arabic and his practically nonexistant english i told him i was bakistani which is how they pronounce it here. That caused him to break into a MASSIVE smile... run into the kitchen.. bring out a can of fanta that he insisted i have. Offereed me a cigerrete. What happened next ill never forget:
chota: Bin Laden... Bakistan?
me: la la la (no no no)... Bin Ladian Afgaaaanistan...
chota: aaaaahhh... Bin Laden ... Very Good Man *Big toothy grinning smile coupled with two thumbs)
hahahaha i couldnt stop cracking up... as i agreed with him that yes Bin Ladin was a "very good man" as i drank my fanta and smoked my cigerette :P
The Newspaper Guy
Wow what an arm... 4 in the morning were walking back from having sehri and right outside our place this motorcyclist with a sidecar pulls over, reaches into his cart pulls out four newspapers, and bang bang bang bang absolutely chucks them into the first, second, third, and fourth story balconies... im sure this happens in pakistan as well.. but damn this guy should start playing baseball or something with an arm like that.
Khan - e - Khalili (And the Mosque Around it)
Before i get into Khan e Khalili proper... i want to talk about the mosque thats next to it... it has its own name that i cant recall right now but wow it was absoltely beautiful. One of the coolest things i saw... was that outside the mosque were these massive pillars not connected to any ceiling or anything... During the day these pillers opened up into massive square umbrellas that touched one another and totally covered the area outside the mosque. Magnificent and at the same time there are so many that are so much grander...
Khan e Khalili is like a big handicrafts market... and everywhere you look youll find fake pyramids and papyrus paper and what REALLY keys you into the fact that this place has become a MAJOR major tourist spot is the fact that whenever you ask anyone for the price of something... they look at you and with a completely straight face ask: Egyptian Pounds, Dollers, Euros?
In the end Pakistani and Turkish skills combined... we looked for the SMALLEST gully that we could find and then to the SMALLEST shop in that gully to buy a sheesha... asking price, 85 LE - we shooed the more "foreign looking" boys along (the german in particularly :P) and after numerous bargainiing and discussing where we ewre from and if we were muslims ('Alhumdulillah') End Price: 40 LE - hey mom hows that for bargaining :P
Gotta Run to go get some iftaar now... there are so many more things i wanna write about i just never get the time... New pics were uploaded yesterday... more will come soon...
Honestly... i dont know WHERE the days disapear to... its like your at the office and it feels like DAYS until 1-2 o clock... and after that you don teven realise it and its time for iftaar (fitar here), you have iftaar and go into a food induced coma - eventually you meet a lot of people do a lot of shit and next thing you know its 4 in the morning.
Even now, im just gonna run for an iftaar meeting with Tom the crazy Australian and Percy the almost impossible to understand hyper speed talking Indian :P So im gonna LIST the crazy ass events that have been happening over the last week or so in an effort not to forget them all...
THE MONEY CHANGER
Well i had been trying to find an open money changer for almost a week now, but with these warped Ramadhan timings (that are NEVER displayed in the shops) every time i go it seems like theyve JUST closed... every other shop in the entire market will be open but the money changer will be closed :P
Well i FINALLY found a money changer who was semi-open - i.e. shop was open but the main dude was missing and business would start in 15 minutes. So i started talking to the chota who was there and in my broken arabic and his practically nonexistant english i told him i was bakistani which is how they pronounce it here. That caused him to break into a MASSIVE smile... run into the kitchen.. bring out a can of fanta that he insisted i have. Offereed me a cigerrete. What happened next ill never forget:
chota: Bin Laden... Bakistan?
me: la la la (no no no)... Bin Ladian Afgaaaanistan...
chota: aaaaahhh... Bin Laden ... Very Good Man *Big toothy grinning smile coupled with two thumbs)
hahahaha i couldnt stop cracking up... as i agreed with him that yes Bin Ladin was a "very good man" as i drank my fanta and smoked my cigerette :P
The Newspaper Guy
Wow what an arm... 4 in the morning were walking back from having sehri and right outside our place this motorcyclist with a sidecar pulls over, reaches into his cart pulls out four newspapers, and bang bang bang bang absolutely chucks them into the first, second, third, and fourth story balconies... im sure this happens in pakistan as well.. but damn this guy should start playing baseball or something with an arm like that.
Khan - e - Khalili (And the Mosque Around it)
Before i get into Khan e Khalili proper... i want to talk about the mosque thats next to it... it has its own name that i cant recall right now but wow it was absoltely beautiful. One of the coolest things i saw... was that outside the mosque were these massive pillars not connected to any ceiling or anything... During the day these pillers opened up into massive square umbrellas that touched one another and totally covered the area outside the mosque. Magnificent and at the same time there are so many that are so much grander...
Khan e Khalili is like a big handicrafts market... and everywhere you look youll find fake pyramids and papyrus paper and what REALLY keys you into the fact that this place has become a MAJOR major tourist spot is the fact that whenever you ask anyone for the price of something... they look at you and with a completely straight face ask: Egyptian Pounds, Dollers, Euros?
In the end Pakistani and Turkish skills combined... we looked for the SMALLEST gully that we could find and then to the SMALLEST shop in that gully to buy a sheesha... asking price, 85 LE - we shooed the more "foreign looking" boys along (the german in particularly :P) and after numerous bargainiing and discussing where we ewre from and if we were muslims ('Alhumdulillah') End Price: 40 LE - hey mom hows that for bargaining :P
Gotta Run to go get some iftaar now... there are so many more things i wanna write about i just never get the time... New pics were uploaded yesterday... more will come soon...
i love reading your blog,it's like having a live conversation with you...
sounds like youre having an amazing time..mashallah
good luckk with everythingggg:):)
Posted by saraaaaahhhhhh | 10:14 PM