Islamabad really surprised us.
We thought the capital of Pakistan was a huge city, chaotic, full of people… Absolutely not.
Islamabad is the political hub, this means that the city has been decided on paper in order to house all the government buildings and the foreign missions. Therefore the city is nice, clean and tidy; with a little less than one million citizens, is completely different from its twin city Rawalpindi (home of most of the industrial and business buildings) and from all the other big cities of Pakistan like Lahore (population: 10 millions) and Karachi (population: 20 millions).
Going away from the airport the roads are fast, with separate lanes; when we stop at a red light a group of lady-boy beg for money. Transvestite in Islamabad? Crazy!
The city turns out being modern and welcoming, it’s organized in sectors as in Naval Combat (as an example, we were living in G-7), each one of them is specialized in a particular service industry and in the center of every sector is dedicated to the shopping in general. Then there is the Diplomatic Enclave, the administrative sector where all the foreign missions are located, the Blue Area for the business and technologies. Well, you can find everything, even Mc Donald’s.
The only details that remind about its international reputation are two: guns, at every corner, and the check points.
The weapons are long rifle, usually held, in front of some expensive shop, by a old man wearing a blue worn-out uniform, half asleep behind his beard. The check posts are permanent road blocks, that beside creating traffic jam during the day and pointing flashlight on your face during the night… well, I have never been checked.
So, after long time, we end up strolling around in a real metropolis again: bazaar, restaurants on the streets, salt lassi, mango shakes… we like Islamabad! And we take pleasure in adapting ourselves to its slow peace… but unfortunately to have a general description of the place you need one more detail: 48°C in the shadow!
Cold shower and we try to organize our plan, otherwise here between a siesta and a mango juice our Visa will expire sooner that what we think. The plan is: apply now for the Indian Visa, which, we heard, could be a tricky process, 
run up to the mountains (the Himalayas, not hills…) and come back nice and fresh to collect our Visas after 2 or 3 weeks.
In Islamabad we are lodging half at Kamran’s house (our host met on CouchSurfing) and half at the legendary Islamabad Camping. Somebody tells us that 10 years ago this same camping was packed with travelers from every part of the world… now here there are only me, Agata and many many black crows [ Video ]. The positive part is that we can have a room with a fan for 50 rupees each (less than 50 cents), the scam is that in Pakistan the electricity is distributed alternatively 3 hours yes and 1 hour no, so when in the middle of the night the fan stops…. you risk to suffocate while sleeping: better sleep outside with hammock and mosquito net!
I forgot, the surprise is that is almost impossible to drive the bike, even without the load the handle-bar is wobbling… maybe in Dubai, where I dismantled the front wheel… Or could it be the new Pirelli not well positioned? Or maybe the heavy duty tube? Or else I didn’t tighten enough the ring nut of the steering column when I changed the handlebar bearings?
Never do 3 different jobs to the front end at the same time! After many days of investigations and attempts, the symptoms seems to be concurrently due to all this possible causes: the tire is not well aligned an the new tube looses pressure regularly, even after fixing, balancing and inflating the tire the problem lessen but doesn’t disappear… where can I find the huge key necessary to tie the nut?
And here it comes the mythical Iqbal, Honda mechanic for all his life, he is one of the few expert in “heavy-bikes” in all Pakistan. He proudly shows us the pictures of other Africa Twins passed by that needed his skills, he then told me he quit with heavy-bikes: too much stress, too difficult to find spares… but how can you resist such a bike? Inside the work-shop is a lioness between nags!
In 5 minutes we tie the nut -and what’s more with the specific tool (even in the best workshops in Italy hammer and screwdriver go for the most)- and the motorbike is now perfect… and what could have been a better ending than a dinner invitation?
Tomorrow we are going to the mountains, the route goes trough the Northern Area and the fabled Babusar Pass (4173m). We gather different opinions on our planned route “It’s madness”, or “It’s only a path, vehicles cannot go there” or even “You are gonna have fun!”… but the wild with its mud and fords is calling and we can’t ignore it any longer!
