Trip to Pakistan

In November I had another trip to Pakistan; first one with my daughter. I traveled with Qatar Air which is known as the only 5-Star airline in Gulf and surrounding regions. The flight was as usual, however, the staff was very good, even at airport. They asked us to hand the stroller (baby-pram) at the gate of the plane. Folding the pram was a long effort since I was doing it for the first time and the staff also struggled with it. My daughter was presented with a stuffed plane model with vibration feature. Older children were given small school bags with coloring stuff. We had to change plane at Doha, Qatar.

The first flight was from Munich to Doha. It took us 4 hours even with the fastest train to reach Munich airport. The airport is cleverly designed in that there are two runways on both sides of the terminal, so they can be used simultaneously. And passengers have to walk less because of reduced building size. However, the small walk between terminal 1 and terminal 2 is bad on a rainy day. Food on the plane was as usual German style. They provided us a basinet for my daughter in the plane. It is a rectangular box fitted on a table in front of the front seats. A child can easily jump out of the basinet, so constant care was to be taken, but still it was very helpful.

Doha airport is a small one lacking boarding tunnels. After a small security check, we went upstairs to wait, only to come downstairs on the other side and board a bus to the next plane. It was going to Lahore and thus completely full with a lot of families. Hence we couldn't obtain a front seat and so no basinet. We were given two seats from a row of 4 seats. Another lady was sitting beside us with her baby. The steward moved her somewhere else, since this row had only 5 oxygen masks and thus only one baby could sit there. We landed in Lahore at about 3 am. There was a banner there that passengers from some Swine Flu infected countries can get tested here.

Our return flight also started at about 4 am. Changing the plane again at Doha, we landed on Frankfurt airport. Then we went underground to the fast trains (ICE) station. They have separate train stations for fast and for normal trains at Frankfurt airport. There we tried to board a fast train, but it was full. Then we waited for half an hour for the next train, but it was full too. I went to the booking office to reserve seats, but it was not possible for the next two train connections, since it was Friday afternoon and everybody was travelling for the weekend. So we boarded the next train and stood in the aisle. After reaching our city, we asked multiple big and small taxies, but noone would take us since we had luggage, a pram and a baby. Some didn't have a baby-seat and some thought the luggage was too much. Finally we got a minibus from a company and reached home.

Afraid of flying? Well, you should be...

... when they are making three planes take-off at once!!!

This is Frankfurt airport with 3 planes taking off (along with their shadows):



I don't know how long will they keep this current view of Frankfurt airport on google maps, as I have been seeing it for an year or so. So enjoy...


View Larger Map

Travelling to Pakistan on Saudi Air through Riyadh

This time around, I wanted to travel to Pakistan with Emirates Air, since my wife expected to fly back with me and i was thinking of touring Dubai. But this year, the ticket prices were too high as compared to last time. All airlines were offering above 700 euros prices. At last Saudi Air came to the rescue and offered a ticket in 550 euros. This was probably their debut flight. They too had a very busy schedule and I could barely get a seat in it for my required dates. The agent promised a seat for me, however, it required me to stay on Riyadh airport for 7 hours without hotel. I had to accept. But a few days before flight, the agent indicated that there are no seats from Riyadh to Lahore and I have to go to Islamabad. This required only a 1.5 hours stay in Riyadh. I had to accept it.

On my flight day, a friend was driving to Frankfurt airport and he offered to take me along. I took the offer although I would have to spend a few extra hours at the airport but would avoid the hassle of train change etc. I asked the airport staff if there is an internet connection on the airport, but it was too expensive. Then I asked for a power plug to charge my laptop and they prompted me to use the plug they use for charging their airport transport vehicles. So there I laid down on a long rest seat watching the Matrix. It didn't seem like a good idea for me to watch a movie with heavy gun fights on such a location, but never mind. When I passed through the security check point, I was overconfident. The security door didn't like that and protested. So they ran their handy scanner over my body and it too kept the view of its bigger cousin. I took everything out of my pockets, but it kept on buzzing near my feet and on my legs. So the guy asked me to came aside and take off my shoes. Then he felt my whole socks and I admired his courage (or strong smell nerves) :) I had put some money in polythene and put in my socks, but he ignored it and let me go. During boarding, my hand carry was over-weight (on the confidence of their membership, whose card arrived only after my departure), so the lady said that I'll get in trouble at the boarding gate. So, i waited to go last in the gate and avoided her while boarding.

The plane from Frankfurt to Riyadh was a Boeing 777 with personalized on-seat entertainment system. And the plane from Riyadh to Islamabad was a Boeing 747 also with the entertainment system, but this one was not friends with the remote control and was working for hearing-disabled people :) They distributed menu choice lists on both flights. Food was German-style in first flight and Pakistani style in second flight. Riyadh airport is beautiful but is under development as a new World's second largest airport. They have a beautiful fountain in the middle. The 747 to Islamabad was jam-packed. From there I took a Daewoo inter-city Bus to Lahore.

Receiving fellows from Pakistan in Germany

Last week we got news that about 52 Pakistanis were coming to Germany on scholarship from HEC. That is the largest we have ever heard of. We decided to welcome them and guide them as usual on Frankfurt airport. They were supposed to reach Frankfurt on Sunday at 5 pm. 4 other persons beside me were also coming from different cities. I took 4 friends from my city (a weekend ticket can be used by upto 5 people to travel around Germany). We first went to Mainz, the capital of our state (Rhineland Palatinate), did some sight-seeing, took lots of photos and went to Frankfurt city. Once off the train, we scavaged the streets for Pakistani restaurants. One of us found one and we entered among greetings from its Pakistani owner. We ordered daal, chicken curry, paey and chicken tikka with fresh roti and naan. After filling ourselves till the top, we took tea, paid 32 euros and took the 20-min train to Frankfurt airport.

We walked through terminal one to the skyline train, which took us to terminal 2 where the PIA flight was scheduled to land. The flight had landed earlier than expected. We were greeted by other hosts and we waited for the arrivals. Soon came two Pakistani guys pushing their luggage carts, with first arrival looks on their face. We asked if they were HEC scholars and asked them to park the cart along one wall. We handed them the contact list to fill and also the small info broshure we had prepared. And then started the long flux of arrivals and the space soon became overwhelmed. We asked hem to group according to destination. They had their studies in different studies but have to do 2 months course divided in 4 cities of Germany. So they formed 4 groups. Biggest was the group for Dortmund (about 20 students) which was sent off first with two guides to the integrated train station. Then was the group for Berlin consisting of 10 students sent also with two guides. The Frankfurt group of 8 students was handed over to a local Pakistani, and then the group of 4 students for Munich was sent with one guide. So in total, we had about 40 people, as some stayed behind for various reasons.

I then escorted the last group (Munich). We saw the Berlin group who were going up the escalators in a seemingly wrong direction. I inquired from the airport staff and before changing direction, saw the Berlin group coming down again. I told them to follow and went towards the train station. The Berlin group got a little behind. I purchased tickets for the Munich group and left them at the station with a guide to return. On my return I saw the Dortmund group going towards the train station, so I went with them again to see them off. Meanwhile i got news that Berlin group was sent off in train. We then gathered and returned to Frankfurt city train station where we again met with some Frankfurt people. From there we five took the train back to our city Kaiserslautern. It was fun when the new arrivals asked us whether we were hired by HEC or DAAD for the purpose. Others who heard about our trip asked if we had someone known among the group. Of course we had; they were all Pakistanis there!