Traveling in certain areas of the world is a challenge. Getting in and out of NYC or Paris is a piece of cake. Getting in and out of places like Islamabad or Harare give the impression you live at the end of the world. To fly from Islamabad to our small unknown little town in Upstate New York is quite and adventure. My recent trip for home leave (as can be expected) was no exception.
Leave Pakistan. This is easy. Get on a plane. Yet flights fly at strange hours and our flight left at 4am meaning getting to the airport at 2am which is less then ideal but we refrain from whinging. The nearest accessible hub from Islamabad is Dubai which is where we take our 3 hour flight to.
Kill Time. Emirates is famous for long layovers and travelers are destined by airline to spend hours in the Dubai airport. The terminal has certain areas where passengers informally congregate on the floor attempting to sleep off the layover and jetleg. We had hotel vouchers so we spent part of our 18 hour layover sleeping in comfortable beds in the city. The rest of the time we spent on a desert safari tour, the highlight being driving up and down sand doons. A BBQ dinner, camel rides, Arabian dancing and 4 cans of Pepsi all enjoyed in the desert round out the evening before heading back to the airport for our midnight flight to Amsterdam.
Enjoy European Perfume. After the 6 hour flight from Dubai on Dutch carrier KLM, you arrive in what I've nominated Europe's finest airport, Amsterdam. It's organized beautifully, has a distinguished non-chaotic sophistication and is a delightful place to kill a little time, or 3 hours to be exact. One of the most important stops in the terminal is the perfume shop, and after sampling the latest labels touted by Kate Winslet and Sarah Jessica Parker, spraying on the tester to cover the famous traveler's scent touted by cross continental travelers.
Prepare, for the worst. Immigration into the United States is unpleasant, sometimes mean but that's just the way it is (ie. you've got to deal with it, it's the world we live in). We make our American entry in Detroit since our carrier is Northwest, we've been doing Detroit for going on 6 years and know it well. After the decently painless immigration process, we fulful the tradition of a McDonalds snack at a gate across from a mammoth screen TV blaring Americans news in American accents. There's a shuttle service which runs the length of the terminal, which my bros and I ride back and forth to kill time.
Puke bag. The jet from Detroit to our upstate New York home often induces "motion discomfort" as the end of the epic journey arrives. It's an hour long flight which everyone without a doubt sleeps through because they're exhausted.
The end arrives. It's not a bad trip and now with personal TVs on the flights, it's easy to catch up on the latest movies and music so the flight time goes by fast. It's a long trip though and when you finally arrive you're dirty (maybe sandy from the Arabian desert). When you crash on your bed finally home, it can almost seem worth it.
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