Islamabad's "Fortalice boutique"

One of the pleasant surprises of my visit to Pakistan
was the couple of nights spent at Islamabad’s
“Fortalice ”, an up scale bourgeois house ensconced
in a Makati-type village and converted into a boutique
hotel.
That was where the Islamabad Policy Research
Institute, our host,billeted us -- Lyn Resurrecction
(Business Mirror),Natalia Diaz (Philippine Daily
Inquirer), Ellen Tordesillas (Malaya), Fatima
(People’s Asia), and Dante Francis Ang ( Manila
Times)— shortly after an animated session with the
frightfully outspoken journalists of the Karachi Press
Club. Our hosts probably wanted to keep us out of
harms way; we were joking of course, the Pakistan
trip was definitely not a “guided tour”.
The “Fortalice” was pure nostalgia. Somehow, it
reminded me of the Araneta mansion “MARA”, on McKinley
Road, where my husband and I lived during the first
two years of our marriage. In fact, I had given my
father-in-law’s sedate, paneled study adaptive re-use
by converting it into Fatimah’s nursery. Living at
“Mara” was like being in a sublimely lusurious hotel
but with the warmth of a large, cheerful family.
Not quite as grand as “Mara”, Islamabad’s “Fortalice
Boutique ” was just as elegant what with chandeliers,
a sweeping main staircase, lots of carved panels and
grills and marble slabs. When the original owners
lived there, they probably had an enviable collection
of art and a fine library like my in-laws. The
elderly waiter in a brocade vest, probably the family
mayordomo, guided us through the menu and explained
special features of the house.
After my mother-in-law passed away, late last year,
her children did not quite know what to do with the
palatial “MARA”. I was afraid it would suffer the fate
of other ancestral homes so I suggested that they
turn it into a boutique hotel much like the
“Fortalice” of Islamabad.