After travelling a combined 22 hours: 14 hours to Abu Dhabi, a three hour stop over there and another 4 hours to Lahore, I was about to kill someone when we arrived early Monday morning on July 19th.
It was 3am when Eithad airways touched down in Lahore. The airport looked different after 17 years. Last time, I literally walked off the plane and onto the tarmac with gunmen posted at all four points of the plane. This time I walked off the plane, through the gate and into a mass of gunmen protecting every point towards customs. We were told to look for the sign with my husband's name on it. Luckily I had learned to read and write Urdu as a child because there was no way he could read the sign even if it hit him in the face!
Yes, we had VIP connection - or so I thought. My impression of the 'protocol' service was that we would bypass customs and get our luggage at the exit door to the airport. Protocol service got us to the front of the custom line with an officer rolling his eyes and demanding I fill out everyone's form. Then we all had to eyeball some camera and then move forward to the luggage carousel to collect all 10 suitcases.
My husband's cousins were there to greet us and helped collect the luggage. I took the younger twin to the washroom and met a poor cleaning woman in the less-than-clean looking bathroom. My daughter was eyeing the woman, dressed in rags but smiling a toothless smile. She was extremely sweet by asking us if we wanted the raised toilet or the potty on the ground. I waited for my daughter while the woman gave me her blessings and told me how lovely we both were. I dug into my pocket and remembered I had no rupees. I pulled out an American dollar bill (worth 85 rupees) and gave it to her, apologizing that I did not carry their currency. She almost jumped me with joy.
When we came out, our cousins laughed and slapped my back (NEVER touch a jetlagged woman!) when I told them how much I gave her. I didn't care...I arrived safely and that was all that mattered to me. Safety being the operative word for the entire trip, or lack thereof that is.
When we walked out of the airport into the parking lot, we were all hit by the heat wave. Over 40 celcius heat at 4am in the morning, fogging up my video camera and the girls' glasses. They looked over at me in horror and I just shook my head.
And this was only...the beginning.
Squeeze me?
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