Picking up from where I ended my second Ayyam-e-Aza post, as promised, I’m beginning my travel log of the trip to Syria last month.
**************
I came back to my house from Zameer Akhtar’s after seeing that he was fine and recovering well, I sat down on my computer and did some last minute net surfing. Stayed up all night. Took a bath and got ready at four and we left our house for the airport. My father was staying back in Karachi and only me, my sister and mother were going. We met my aunts and their familes at the airport and together it was a group of sixteen that checked in and went on to the waiting lounge. Everyone was making fun of my bruise but they couldn’t get the better of me.
Our flight plan was to go to Abu Dhabi and then catch another flight to Damascus. We were flying with Etihad Airways. The first flight was at 6:25 a.m., almost empty and we had the leisure of choosing seats at will. The airhostesses were hot! 
Plane started moving and we could see the tarmac and runway on screens fixed behind all seats. The take off speed was damn slow. Hell, I can drive faster!
Karachi looked cool at night, full of lights: blessings of KESC.
I took my mp3 player to Syria and me and my cousin listened to Nauhas throughout the journey. Apart from that, I took my camera and external hard drive. I also convinced my cousin to take his handycam and laptop along which turned out to be a very good idea.
After sometime, food was served. The table was attached to the handrest of the seats, rather in it. It was very uncomfortable, too close to my stomach and even after extending it forward, I was unable to comfortably use my hands at such close range. The table was low too and was resting on my knees. Disadvantages of being tall… 
They had liquor on the plane. Had my mom not been with me, I would have taken the liberty of trying some. Haha, just kidding!
The food was, well, pathetic! They had a paratha, two rolls with achar chicken type qeema in them, two kababs, fruits (papaya to be exact), tea, butter, jam and…Shezan juice? Being the jugaroo that I am, I managed to have a good meal by emptying qeema from the rolls and eating it with the paratha.
We reached Abu Dhabi airport at God-Knows-What local time, after a flight of 1.5 hours. We had been told that it would be a stay of another 1.5 hours before the next flight but the rude shock we got was that the stay was more than 4 bloody hours!
With the women sleeping in the mosque and the males trying to find places to sleep:
my cousin and I set off to explore the airport. We went to the duty-free section and found all kinds of stuff available there. Liquor, pork, etc, you name it! We thought about buying cigs but nobody was selling single packs, just completely packed bars. We found Burger King and ordered some nugget like things. They were serving hamburgers there as well.
Abu Dhabi airport is huge but I like Jinnah Terminal better. Desi stuff! And the city is not near the airport. At least, I didn’t find one. The only good thing I found about the place is the Wireless Internet Facility.
Oops, sorry, wrong picture!
The time for the next flight came. I thought the first plane was bad, the second one was downright microscopic! Not even enough space to spread my legs properly. And once the plane started to move, the engines made strange noises like someone was trying to start a car. The take off speed was more satisfying this time.
Took some pics from the plane. During the first flight, I was hesitant to take out my camera and take some snaps, worried about the high frequency noise signals being produced interferring with the plane’s navigation system and making it crash. During the second flight, I thought what the heck, let’s crash!
The food in this flight was absolutely pathetic! I mean, baked fish? Looked more like a roasted octopus to me. And tasted like sponge. My friend’s mom was right. Etihad food sucks like hell!
Don’t know if I should be complaining or not. It could’ve been as bad as this:
Although the leg space does seem adjustable in this plane…
When we were about to land, I tried to find the shrine of Bibi Zainab (S.A.) from the sky but to no avail. Later on, I learned that it was in one of the suburbs of Damascus named Muhalla-e-Zainabia, not Damascus itself.
Landed at 3:15 p.m. local time. My uncle was there to pick us up, with a huge bus. I tried to stay awake on the way to the hotel but fell asleep in a few minutes.
Recent Comments