I was 'robbed' in France

Many of you may have heard the famous song 'I was lost in France' by one of my favourite singers Bonnie Tyler and I also fall in love with the song as it was beautifully sung. But I never knew that I will have to repeat the title of the song a little reworded as 'I was robbed in France,' one day.

In my previous post on 'A visit to Sacré-Cœur - Paris,' I said in the ending note that while visiting the beautiful piece of architecture was a great thing to do, the going away from the place left me in quite a bad taste and that I would write about it in my next post - and this 'the' next post. 

As I said in my previous post, we found it very difficult to find a parking near the small bazaar leading to the Sacré-Cœur and we had to go down in an alley finally to find a parking. The alley seemed less frequented as it was a residential area and probably was the reason why of writing this post.

While we were driving in Paris, we found boards at many places that tourists should not leave valuable things in their car as car burglars often break the car windows to snatch the valuable. While I was parking the car, I mad sure that I do not leave behind any valuable on the seats, though the boot contained laptops of sons and other shopping.  But one thing attractive was the camera casing of my camera that we left in the car and probably that prompted a thief to break in the rear right window of the car and snatch the 'camera' - which may have been a disappointed for him as it was empty.

We were saved because of the security system fo the BMW cars as these do not open unless one has the original keys. So even after breaking the glass, the thief could not open the doors and was to contend with empty camera casing.

But in doing so, he did the damage. And now you can well imagine how expensive is the window glass of a brand new BMW we had rented form Germany to visit Holland, Belgium and France. Luckily at the time of renting the car, I had insured the car by paying a little extra that helped us out of the misery and any further financial loss.

Although the experience was pretty bad, but all Parisians are not bad. The owner of the house in front of whose house we had parked our vehicle was an  old woman. She along with her son came out and help us clean the mess of broken glass pieces from the car. 

The old woman (left of the photo) had gone to the neighbours across the street and when she saw us in distress came for all out help with her son 

Not only that, her son also used scotch tape to close the broken window lest its pieces fell on us while we drove . The photos (above and below) are with the good people of Paris and my family.

Although we had not lost anything valuable, our day was lost as the car rental company had its office at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, which was quite far away from the place of 'theft.' So we drove to the car rental company, where our car was replaced with a similar BMW car for our further journey in Paris and back to Kiel, Germany.

So while you are in foreign lands, be careful of your belongings as pick-pocketing and car burgling are often experienced by tourists not familiar with Paris and its 'life-style.'

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Huacachina – Peru: A desert oasis invites tourists who dare

About three years ago, I shared a post about a desert oasis in the sizzling hot Gobi Desert of China. Many of my readers doubted the authenticity of the existence of a lake right in the centre of one of the hottest deserts of the world where water evaporates in seconds. But it was right there – an oasis with a crescent shaped lake.

An oasis with a crescent shaped lake in one of the hottest deserts of the world: The Gobi Desert (China)

But as if that was just the beginning. There is yet a similar lakes right in the desert of Peru at Huacachina which has recently been an attractive tourist and travel destination from people around the world.

Huacachina – Peru - Just see the similarity between the two oases

The town of Huacachina is located in one of the driest place on the earth with only 96 residents. But it has hotels enough to accommodate those daring tourists who would not only like to enjoy a boat ride or a swim in the lake but also sandboard on the slops of the high dunes surrounding the oasis. 

The unique and awesome Huacachina oasis is situated only 4km from the southern city of Ica, a former Spanish colonial town located on the borders of the desert. Today, descendents of the Inca people make their living by hosting guests coming from afar to climb to the top of a wind-sculptured sand dune and watch the sunset illuminate the golden landscape, before sailing down the slopes on rented sandboards or dune buggies.

The lake is naturally formed, but there is a legend that a young princess was bathing when she was discovered by a hunter and fled, leaving behind a pool of water. Her flowing cloak was said to have created the surrounding sand dunes.

Watch tourists sandboarding on the high dunes surrounding the Huacachina oasis in the video below:

Read more and see more photos of this unique oasis at Daily Mail
Attributes: All photos above are the property of people/organizations as shown each on the photo and are being shared as shared in the Daily Mail.

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A visit to Sacré-Cœur - Paris

On the second day in Paris, our destination was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris or the Sacré-Cœur-Paris - and yet simply the White Cathedral.  The Sacré-Cœur is a Roman Catholic church, located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, overlooking the Paris.

The drive up the summit through narrow streets was awesome and once up there, the parking of the car was one big problem as already tourists had thronged the area and we could not find a place near the small bazaar which finally leades to the church. However, we finally were able to find a parking place far down the summit and walking up the summit took a heavy toll of us and almost left me breathless.

The bazaar was full of souveniers and paintings of the church and Paris. And of course there were a number of eateries for providing the necessary relief to the hungry tourists as the morning breakfast had already been digested whie climbing up the summit.

Scroll down for photos of the Sacré-Cœur:

The structure of the church speaks volume of its space and strength which is in white stones - that is why it is commonly known as the white church.  It was designed by Paul Abadie and its construction began in 1875 and was finished in 1914. It was consecrated after the end of World War I in 1919.

The church from inside is magnificent and immensely built and decorated. However, it was unfortunate that the tourists were not allowed to take photos and I cannot explain the massiveness of the structure as it looks from inside. The huge church bell, the Savoyarde, has nationalist references: Savoy was annexed to France in 1860. Cast in Annecy in 1895, it is one of the world's heaviest bells at 19 tons.

According to architecture details given at Wikipedia, the Sacré-Cœur is built of travertine stone quarried in Château-Landon (Seine-et-Marne), France. This stone constantly exudes calcite, which ensures that the basilica remains white even with weathering and pollution. And this is why it is commonly known as the White Church.

There are two places from where one can have an impressive all round view of Paris: The Eiffel Tower and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. While at the Eiffel Tower, my son spotted the church in the far distance and took a long distance shot of the church which I have already shared as under in my earlier post Paris down below - as seen from the Eiffel Tower. It is claimed that the highest point of the church is even higher than the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The visit to Sacré-Cœur  would remain a memorable part of the tour to Paris for two reasons: For one we came and saw the massive structure that overlooks Paris same as the Eiffel Tower does, and secondly, the visit ended in an event that robbed us of our valuable time to visit Paris that evening. I would talk about it in one of my next posts.

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Chocolate Mousse Cake baked with love

It is a hearty Sunday today as my wife has baked a fingers licking Chocolate Mousse Cake for us today. The post is not to share the recipe as many such recipes can be downloaded from the net. But the post is a thank-you for she was not obliged to bake this cake for us at all.

But it is her love for all of us that often results her staying in the kitchen more than she does ordinarily and bake or cook something special for us. And while we eat, one can smell the aroma of her love side by side the aroma of the cake itself. 

And more than anyone else in the house, I am the first one to smell of something being baked or cooked in the kitchen as my study is adjacent to the kitchen. And this often forces me to stop typing my blogs, and go to the kitchen and have the first bite of the freshly baked cake or the dish.

We are a lucky family where everything goes by love. And the love of a spouse can be felt nowhere else but in the taste of the dishes she makes, cooks or bakes for her family. Do you feel the same way?

All photos are taken by me by my Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone camera

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Photo Session with Obama in Amsterdam

In my previous two posts on our visit to Madame Tussaud's wax museum in Amsterdam, I talked of meeting someone right at the main entrance of the museum and said that I would cover 'that someone' in a separate post. Well this posts lets out the secret as to whom did we meet.

As we entered the museum, the first life size celebrity wax statue was that of US President Obama. And everyone had a choice to pose with him to be 'officially' photographed. So we too had a hurried group photo and we were told that we could collect our photo at the top floor if at all we wanted to have it.

However, to our dismay the photo was badly taken when we reached the top floor to collect it. And we were really pulled down as there was no retake. However, a good man from USA who was employed at the museum came to our rescue. 

The good man with my sons - a thank you portrait for his personal efforts

He took us down and had ourselves photographed not once but thrice so that we could select the best photo out of the three so taken. And this is how it came finally, which was selected by us and we got it duly framed in Madame Tussaud's museum cover:

A memorable photo session with 'Barack Obama'

My previous posts on visit to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum:

Part -1

Part -2

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School days friends – Lost and Found

Google and Facebook are excellent places to find lost friends and classmates. It has been more than four decades since I left my school and had since lost contact with some of the classmates and friends with whose good company I once enjoyed. Going to the college and joining a professional line which took me to a new place every two years, it was not possible to retrace my footsteps and find some familiar faces.

Thus more than four decades passed. Technologies changed and the Facebook and Google made it possible to find people provided they too were active on these two major social media networks and search engines.
While in school, we were a group of few friends out of which many went out of the country in search of better future. In early 70s, the means of communication were not as good as these are today and thus we lost contact with each other. Since Rashid Mahmood (read more about him in the end) and I were in the same profession, we met once or twice in the 80s but then lost each other.

Farhat Qayyum Naz: 43 years ago (left) and now (right)

Farhat Qayyum Naz who had gone and settled in Sydney Australia, came once in 2008 and I met hin Islamabad where he was staying in a hotel. That was the first meeting with him after school and since 2008 Facebook is the only contact with him.

Zahid Masood Khan: 43 years ago (left) and now (right)

The first 'overseas' contact was established last year when I received a call from England and I heard a rather familiar voice I had last listened to some 43 years ago when I left the school. It was my friend Zahid Masood Khan who found me out on the Facebook and then through a common friend found out my cell number and made contact.

 Tariq Hashmi: 43 years ago (left) and now (right)

Through him, I got in contact with another friend, Tariq Hashmi, presently living in Groningen, the Netherlands. And when I recently went to Germany where my younger son Wahaab Jalal is studying in the Kiel University of Applied Sciences, I made it a point to travel to Holland and meet him. 

Left to right: My younger son, Tariq Hashmi, Me and Hashmi's eldest son at Groningen, Netherlands

And soon our two families got along with each other as we two knew each other many many years ago. I have already written about this reunion in one of my earlier posts: To Netherlands – to meet a friend after 43 years.

And yet again one day I received a message on Facebook from a school days friend Muhammad Khaleeq, messaging from Doha, Qatar. This added a a third friend to the list. Khaleeq came to visit me a few months back and we shared some of the best memories of school days.

Me with Khaleeq with our 43 years old photos

And as if this is not the end. I also got in contact with yet another friend, Malik Tahir Aslam, who had left for another school while we were in the 9^th class and last night he came to visit me and I met him after 45 years.

Malik Tahir Aslm: 43 years ago (left) and now (right)

Tahir (left) and I (right) as of last night

This really has been a great experience, meeting one friend after the other. 

There is yet another friend, Rashid Mahmood, that I found on Facebook and have sent him a message to re-establish the lost contact. We were together till eight grade, when he left for the prestigious Cadet College, Hasanabdal. Although we once met thereafter in our professional lives in Karachi, but that was long time back in early 80s.

 Rashid Mahmood: As of now

And the telephonic contact with Rashid has finally been established and he promised to visit me by this month end. This would almost complete my list of friends and I do hope that we all someday meet in Lahore, a place where we last met to share the nostalgia of the good old school days and those four decades that just went by in between our Lost and Found quest.

Tahir Mirza: 43 years ago (left) and sometimes from now (right)

And before I forget, let me recall my dear friend Tahir Mirza. He was a gem of a person to whose house I often went and played vinyl records on his radiogram. His father was a man of taste and class who would often come in and would chat with him. Tahir was close to Zahid Masood, myself and Tariq Hashmi. So when I first established contact with Zahid Masood, I asked about Tahir Mirza. But was saddened to know that he had already flown to his heavenly abode in 2008. I wish he was still here with us but perhaps this is what the Nature had planned for him. Be blessed, good old Tahir Mirza - may we all meet in Heavens one day.

There are still many classmates and friends I still vividly remember. Some of these being Tanvir Hayat (the genius of our class who always topped), Bashir (who was a math wizard), Iftikhar and Dilawar, with whom I used to partly share my way home after the school through Anarkali and famous Paisa Akhbar Road. Then there was Mazhar ul Haq, who later went to NCA (National College of Arts) to do architecture as did Farhat and I recently found him out through my cousin Ibrar Bhatti who is also graduate of NCA. I sent him a message and got a prompt reply. We hope to interact more on Facebook, as he said in his message.

Mazhar ul Haq: 43 years ago (left) - thereafter (centre) and now (right)

So this is how the digital age and the social media is helping out people to find friends, specially those lost since long and bringing them closer yet again. Have you ever found friends through search engines like Google or social media network like Facebook?
Updated 10 June 2018:

I had just one more surprise yesterday when I received a call from a lost classmate Iftikhar. We used to walk back from school through Anarkali where he lived while I continued on foot to my home on McLeod Road.

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The Paris night-boat ride

Sometime back, I wrote a post: Paris – the Tourists’ Lover. At that time I had not seen Paris and the post was based on my imagination of Paris as I had seen in movies and TV. I never knew at that time that one day I shall be part of those lucky tourists who would be walking in and enjoying the love of one of the loveliest cities of the world – Paris.

Now having seen Paris, I am part of Paris’ love having walked through its streets, seen the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and walked on the famous fashion street – the Champs-Élysées .  I have already shared details and photos of my visit to these three places, right on the first day. Having visited the Champs-Élysées , we rushed back to the Eiffel Tower to catch the very last boat to have round of Paris in River Seine to see the Paris’ illuminated building. 

Herein under are some of the many photos I took while enjoying the Paris boat ride. And do not forget to see at the end of this post  a small video clip I shot.

Pont (Bridge) Alexandre III  with its black sculptures- running from the Hotel des Invalides across the river to the Grand Palais, Petit Palais and Champs Elysées. It is the most decorated bridge over the river. It was built in 1900 in ornate Art Nouveau style and named after Alexander III of Russia who laid the foundation stone.

 Grand Palais, a building created for the universal exposition of 1900, located near Pont Alexandre III

Bourbon Palace (Parliament Building)

 Museum D'Orsay, houses art from 1848-1914, formerly a railway station

An evening walk in the evening boat

 The dome of Institut de France, faces the Louvre museum with the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge stretching between the two

 Pont Neuf (Neuft Bridge)

 Passing by the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral

Then it was the time to turn back and now we eagerly looked for the Eiffel Tower for it looks majestic at night.

Conciergerie, originally home to the caretaker and guards of the Palais de Justice. It was later made to hold prisoners at end of the 14th century. Marie-Antoinette was also held a prisoner here. After 914, it was made a which still displays its prison walls, guillotine, and sculptures of famous prisoners

 Pont Alexandre III bridge - also gives out first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower

 Finally the Eiffel Tower comes in full view in its full bloom of illuminations

 My children and wife with Eiffel Tower in the background (above-below)

Spectacular view of Eiffel Tower from the boat, just before disembarking

 I too am finally photographed sitting with my wife

With my family posing at the exit of the boat with Eiffel Tower in the background

I forgot to make a video of the Amsterdam Canal Boat-ride - but remembered to make one here. You may now a video clip of our boat ride that I have shared at YouTube:

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