Before my trip, I did some research about Karachi and the latest news about Pakistan and found<\/p>\n
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- Karachi is a city with more\u00a0than 20 million<\/strong> people (it’s the freakin 2nd largest city in the world<\/a>!!!)<\/li>\n
- Pakistan\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0considered a failed state. Check out this very long read at the guardian\u00a0http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/oct\/21\/karachi-vice-inside-city-riven-by-killings-kidnappings-and-terrorism<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Still my employer has several offices there and my colleagues somehow make a living there.<\/p>\n
The first big thing to notice after my arrival was the car. It wasn’t a ‘tank’, it was ‘only’ a regular looking,\u00a0allegedly class-6<\/a> armored lexus. And the security guy – where I thought about all those ex-mercenaries, ex-special forces, … – was a random guy from the street with a security uniform and a shotgun. Ok. If someone wanted to do bad to me, they could.<\/p>\n
Then all went pretty well – the colleagues were even nicer than on the phone \/ video conferences, the food was good and hey: since you’re only allowed to travel the streets during daylight hours, you\u00a0have to leave<\/em> the office latest at 5pm \ud83d\ude42 The hotel was also more than ok – it was clean, they had good food (and yes, I actually tried mutton brain – it was yummy!!) and there was even a ‘cigar lounge’ which turned out to be a place where you can get some drinks (if you can call a Korean beer with ‘world famous hop from Germany’ a drink).<\/p>\n
Only one time I was a little concerned about security. On the 2nd day on the way from the hotel to the office, our car was making some loud noise and then we had a flat tire. In an armored car. Ok, the driver assured me it wasn’t a flat tire but a ‘worn out stud’ but whatever that means: as a matter of fact, we could not continue our drive in the armored car and we had to change from an armored car to a ‘soft skin’ car where even the seat belts didn’t work. Heyho, at least some adventure.<\/p>\n
All in all I always felt safe and would love to explore Pakistan a lot more. If only I could activate godmode somehow…<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ok so here’s my take on Pakistan. Based on vast experience watching Homeland and a 2 day business casper trip to Karachi. Based on Homeland and the usual media coverage, you would expect that whole Pakistan is a simply a huge war zone – a failed state. Ah and then again you have all the … Continue reading Pakistan<\/span>
- Pakistan\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0considered a failed state. Check out this very long read at the guardian\u00a0http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2015\/oct\/21\/karachi-vice-inside-city-riven-by-killings-kidnappings-and-terrorism<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n