Everything happens for the best

Day 1

Nearly missed the 12:00 midnight flight from dubai (fashionably late doesn't quite work at the airports).

The Aeroasia plane turned out to be a tiny Boeing 737. The damn thing was scary when it took off, it was actually shaking and making funny noises. On the positive side though, the airhostesses were fit as fcuk, which is rather unusual if you've ever flown in a Pakistani airlines.

The good thing about flying in smaller aircraft is that they fly a bit low, which means you can always see the ground underneath unless there's a thick cloud cover. Flying over Dubai at night is as beaufitul as it gets. Nakheel's 'World' Islands were visible as little white dots in the big black ocean. It's a 90 minute flight and you don't get to see much once you've left Dubai as it flies over the ocean until it reaches Karachi.

Got to Khi Airport at 3:00 am local time. The flight was a bit late. Karachi has a small but very neat little airport. The building is beautiful actually, probably one of the most modern airports in South Asia (after Lahore Airport, which I've never seen). Its got excellent facilities, great coffee shops, a big duty free store, internet access, and the staff is extremely professional and helpful.

I was met with two immigration officials upon entering the airport, holding a card with my name on it. For a second I thought whether I should just walk past! I didn't have anything illegal on me (not this time) and my visa etc was in order. So anyway, went with them, shitting myself, as they took me through the immigration counter and customs and out to the visitors area. It turned out that a mate of mine who knew I was coming, had 'arranged' all of this, as coming out of the airport can take up to half an hour. In Karachi, life can be very sweet if you know the right people.

Anyways, got back to my mate's place around 5 after we took a couple of stops along the way. Also saw the KFC that had been torched a day before on the way, in response to a bomb that went off at a mosque. I could swear the place smelt like burnt chicken.

Day 2

By the time I slept it was 7:30 am, knowing that I had to wake up around 10 and pick Henna up from her friend's house at 11.

The thing is, her parents didn't know we meet. Infact her Dad didn't even know I existed. She usually had to tell them she's off to college or to some friends house and I'd pick her up from there.

So I did pick her up at 11, spent the day together, dropped her off at 6 and then slept like a mofo for the rest of the evening. The next day was spent lazing around too, I was supposed to fly back that night and we didn't have any plans to meet up again but when Henna called me around 5ish, I knew I just had to see her one more time.

Day 3

So I picked her up, this time we went to a shopping mall as I had to buy a few DVDs (pirated ofcourse, its amazing how many movies you can pick up for £20. Well, 22 in total, most of which had 2-3 movies in them so I actually ended up with 50 movies in proper DVD format for just £20. Can't really beat that.

On the way back I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice two blokes on a motorcycle following us. I was too busy making out with Henna as we stopped on the traffic lights. Just as I had dropped her off at her friend's house, these two arsewipes appeared on that same bike out of nowhere and asked me nicely to step out. I did. They began asking me about what I was doing there and what my name was etc. I was like.. 'and who are you??' thats when he pulled out what looked like a police badge.

Now, Pakistan has strict laws banning indecent acts in public. Making out with someone in your car counts as public indecency.

I was officially shitting myself.

Not becuase of myself, but because of the consequences Henna might have to face if her parents knew she was spotted making out with some bloke in a car somwhere. Her parents are very strict when it comes to their little girl going out in the big bad world meeting big bad men. Like most muslim parents are actually.

Anyways, so there were these two 'policemen' quizzing in the street in front of Henna's friends house. The fat one (there's always a fat one) then asked me what am I willing to do to make sure Henna's parents don't find out? I told him to fuck off. Literally. And then this arsehole pulls out a shiny piece of metal which in an instant I recognised as a fire-arm, my hands automatically in my pockets handing him over my phone and my wallet with its entire contents.

You don't argue with someone who has a gun. That's just plain stupid.

Anyways, I get home to find my dad running around like a headless chicken, worried as he had thought I was arrested. Those bastards had rung both my dad and Henna's dad to scam some more money off them, saying that they'll file charges against us both for public indecency if they didn't pay em off. They'd gotten Henna's number from my phone obviously.

I was like........ what the fook!!!!!!!! They had told Henna's dad what we were upto. And she hadn't denied it, she was too scared.

The shit had hit the fan.

Day 4

But as they say, everything happens for the best right? My dad told Henna's family not to worry about those wankers as they weren't really police, infact he asked them to come over to our place and they shat themselves and never called again. On the positive side, in true Muslim tradition, my dad had a long chat with hers and they invited us for dinner the next day, when it was decided finally that we will get engaged on November the 5th.

Day 5

Back to Dubai.