Good-bye Britain, Hello Pakistan

[lady_karelia]

And what a long day it was! I awoke at 5.30 yesterday, out of sheer excitement of going on holiday, of boarding a plane after 3.5 years, of going to another continent. The kids woke up shortly after, so we got ready in a leisurely way, then took off to the airport. Check-in went uneventful, the staff at Kuwait Airways are truly polite and helpful. In no time we said our good-byes to hubby, went through passport control and boarded the plane. Six hours later we landed in Kuwait International Airport, with 3 hours to kill before getting on the next plane which would take us to Islamabad. The Arabs in the airport stared blatantly, but not in a malicious way. It was probably more curiosity. Once the stares got a bit much, so I glared at them which stopped the staring almost immediately. Half of the airport was closed for refurbishment, so we had a choice of eating at the one place that was open or not at all. We chose the former as we were all hungry. Then we walked through the duty free shop, which was entirely over-priced for my taste. Then another hour of sheer boredom and finally we were called to board the plane. We counted 8 females, including myself and Sara, and a few hundred males, it was an Airbus 310 and packed to the last seat. The flight attendant’s attention was absolutely impeccable. I got all the coffee I could ask for, and more, the kids were given toys, and we all received vegetarian meals. It might be an Arab Airlines, but I’d recommend them to anyone travelling long-haul. We landed at just after 4am local time, sailed through passport control since I had the audacity to make the status of ‘woman travelling with children’ *snigger*, so I simply walked to the front of the queue. Barely out of passport control, we were greeted by our friend’s friend who conveniently works at Customs, and as soon as we picked up our luggage, he took us through Customs, outside of which we were greeted by hubby’s best friend and his son who took us first to ‘our’ home (another friend’s home who is abroad for now), then brought us back to his home where his wife was overjoyed to see us again, after nearly 10 years. We had breakfast there, then went back to sleep for a few hours.