SaimasCharityTravels

“Baji, baji,baji”… the first words being shouted at me as i my passport was handed back to me and i walked past the immigration desks, translated in English means sister and it was the porters trying to get my attention so they could assist me with my bags.  A very useful service to have but they are not short of knowing i was a foreigner and if not already familiar with the process, could have me tip them very generously.

As i stepped out of the airport onto Pakistani ground, i was pretty taken aback by the heat which I’m sure many of us have experienced before in various holiday destinations, but when you have left your own country at 9’degrees heavy rain showers and winds to walking into a very humid 36-degrees it was pretty overwhelming.  I took a deep breath and at that moment realised i would have to say goodbye to the freshest of air and say hello to smog, pollution and high temperatures for the next 15 days, a trip i was very much looking forward to.

The journey from the airport to my uncle’s house took approximately 40-45mins, the traffic was unbelievable and experience was just as impressive.  Not a single road had lines painted on them, and the direction in which the car drives is down to the driver and what i mean by this, is if you imagine cars driving on the left-hand side of the road all going in one direction, you would have drivers on exactly the same side driving in the opposite direction, beeping their horns and weaving in and out, it felt on a number of occasions i would be in a head on collision and felt there was no way i would survive these roads, it really was a miracle accidents do not happen more frequently if at all!  As we drove on there were many stalls along the road side, fruit stalls, fresh flower stalls, vegetable stalls, there were donkeys which looked to be holding the tables up for many of the different fruit and vegetables being sold.  Goats and chickens roaming around the grounds and motorcycles seemed to be the easiest form of transport to weave in and out of traffic, but even then i would see so many families on one bike and children of all ages, no helmets, no seats belts just all sat holding onto one another.

Having visited Pakistan almost 8years ago, not much had changed the traffic had gotten worse and the health and safety was still non existent, which to me felt like the only way to experience this lifestyle and experience a country for what is really is, which is something i have come to learn more about.