Karachi

Introduction

The Mausoleum Of the Founder of Pakistan at Karachi

© doc_yousuf

Karachi is Pakistan's most populated city and is the capital of Sindh. With over 11.6 million residents in its vast area, Karachi also charts as the world's second most populated city^[1]. Though heavy population has brought with it a certain element of chaos, people from Karachi are generally very helpful and generous in nature.

Suburbs

• Thatta

Sights and Activities

• Clifton
• Hawksbay

Events and Festivals

Pakistan Flower Show

Also in February is the annual Pakistan flower show. Held in Karachi at Sea View Park, the flower show displays the best in flowers and plants that the region has to offer. The event is professionally organized by the Horticulture Society of Pakistan and the vibrant colors and decadent aromas are a feast for the senses.

Weather

Karachi's weather ranges from mild winters (13 °C to 25 °C) to hot summers (28 °C to 40 °C). As it is located by the coast, the humidity is high. By contrast, precipitation tends to be quite low, though the monsoon season in July-August sees heavier rainfall.

Getting there

You can travel to Karachi by mini bus, train and cars. The traffic of Karachi is very unsystematic.

By Train

Since February 2006, a train travels between the Indian city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan and Karachi. It's the first international train travelling directly between the two countries since 1965. The Thar Express leaves Karachi at 11:00pm on Fridays, taking almost 24 hours before arriving in Jodhpur on Saturday evening. In the opposite direction, trains leave and arrive on approximately the same time on the same days taking 24 hours as well.

Sleep

Upscale

Keep connected

Internet

Cybercafes can be found on virtually every street corner and the rates are as low as Rs 15-20 per hour. They usually don't have a very fast operating system so don't be too impatient. They usually use 14 inch monitors with Windows 2000, Windows 98 or Windows XP usually installed. Most of the cafes have a decent speed internet connection.

Internet Access can be obtained easily on notebook computers with the help of GPRS enabled mobile connections, supported by almost all of the five mobile operators. Mobilink provides EDGE based connection in very limited areas of Karachi, but Telenor's coverage of EDGE is wider. The standard price of GPRS/EDGE usage is Rs 10-18 per MB of data transferred but Zong offers Rs 15/h. If you wish to download much more, you may want to use unlimited packages, provided only by Warid, Mobilink and Telenor at this time. World Call and Ufone also offers USB Modem.3G and 4G based connections are also available from all the mobile service providers, rates are nearly same as EDGE.

There are Wi-Fi hotspots all over Pakistan, in hotels, malls, and cafes/restaurants.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The country code for Pakistan is +92 if you are calling from outside the country.

Major providers of mobile phone service (GSM) are Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong - China Mobile. One very convenient feature is that all Pakistani cellular operators use the GSM platform, so that cellular handsets nationwide are freely interchangeable between providers.
There are various service providers offering a huge variety of plans. Among them are Mobilink, Warid Telecom, Telenor, Ufone & Zong (China Mobile). It's not a bad idea to buy a cell phone and use a prepaid plan to get yourself connected while you are in the country. The mobile phones and the prepaid plans are very cheap; you can usually get a new cheap cell phone just for Rs 2,000 and a prepaid connection for Rs 150-400.

Due to security threats, in order to purchase a SIM card you will need to provide formal identification such as Visas, resident permits, residing address in Pakistan along with a written declaration that you will not use the provided phone number for any illegal activity. Starting March 2015, possesion of unverified SIM will be considered a serious and punishable crime.

Public Call Offices can be found all over the country. You will find a PCO in nearly 50% of the general stores where there is usually someone who operates the phone and fax. Fees will be charged according to the time spent, and you will pay when you have finished your call.

Post

The Pakistan postal service works well. But be aware you are not allowed to send CD's or DVD's out of the country. This includes your photo's on CD. This is due to the high number of software and media trafficking in Pakistan.

External Links