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“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just landed in Cairo. Thank you for travelling with us, we hope you had a pleasant flight” With this call, my suffering of 2.15 hours of flight came to an end. As we prepared to get off the plane, all passengers were eager for a taste of the homeland; while I [...]

Cops, Laces and The Accelerator

Once, in a cold summer night of 2005, we were on our way back to Abbotabad from Naran valley in northern Pakistan, after a tiresome but wonderful journey. Even in summers, it was as cold as winter. We were driving the jeep as fast as we possibly could because we couldn’t bear the chilly winds [...]

Where the Streets Have Strange Names

My first ever introduction to Finland , never mind Helsinki , dates back to the early 1980s in the back of my grandfather’s car on the way to Kiltonga Nature Reserve just outside Belfast . The purpose of our visit was to feed the resident ducks or ‘Drakey Lakeys’ as I called them. These rubbernecking [...]

The Nervous Traveller Begins a Trip to Spain

The preparations for travelling to Spain began months ago. I printed out my pre-prepared list of items to take and began adding and subtracting items as I visualised the journey plan. At 4:30am on a cold February morning I dragged myself out of bed, check my list, every item I’ve packed already is ticked, I [...]

The Nervous Traveller

Who would have thought 100 years ago that everyday thousands of people would be willingly sealed into giant metal tubes and hurled across the sky at a height of 11,000 metres (36,000 feet), at unbelievable speeds by lethal exploding chemicals? All this in the full knowledge that if even one bolt on the plane has [...]

Ticket for Jhelum, Please…

No. No? No…no ticket for Jhelum. Why not? Not possible for ticket to Jhelum. But the ‘Pindi bus, it goes thro Jhelum. Not possible. But it does go thro Jhelum, look, on the map in your brochure, Jhelum. No, not possible. Why is it not possible if your bus goes thro the bloody place? Because of ladies. Ladies? Yes, not possible because of ladies. What is the ladies [...]