Air travel for the First Time

Like most of the people from middle class background in Pakistan I have never traveled via airplane to anywhere not even locally. So all the information of how the plane looks like, and how the airports look like from the inside were all confined to the movies and videos but not for long. This time I got the chance to travel by plane and it was not going to be an intercity travel, I was going to London.

It was October 2^nd which was designated to be my flight date and I was supposed to be travelling via the Qatar Airways. I reached the airport and I was quite anxious about the customs and the security check, but i

t was not a big deal. I was through it in less than 20 minutes and I was in the boarding lounge an hour prior to my flight. So I waited and waited. Not just waited, I tried to explore the newly built Islamabad airport too which was unexpectedly really nice. These guys seemed to be much fond of the timings so there was no sighting of my plane which was supposed to depart at 8:30 am.

The plane came at 8:15 am and through the glass wall I was looking at it coming and I was thinking this was supposed to be a smaller plane and how the hell this thing is going to fly. Well, I boarded in the plane and the hell I got seat in the middle of the middle lane. I was disappointed like really disappointed but no, the plane is quite vacant so I asked the pretty air-hostess that if I could change my seat to the window one and she said no problem and I got the window seat :D.

First flight window seat, yeah I was really waiting for the plane to fly, I was really waiting to experience that centrifugal push that I have heard so much of. I fastened the seat belt quite tight as I am on a roller coaster :D, but when the plane took off, I was like, what? Is this what that fuss was all about? Like seriously? Well I removed my belt, inclined my seat and started string out of the window at the infinity waiting for the landing at Hammad International Airport in Doha. It was not bas, I could see the land, I could see another plane flying beside us.

I could see mountains from the top. Yeah they provided me with some breakfast too which was not at all good. One thing that was worth it, a dish named “Pindi Chole”

which were essentially the chick peas, but believe me I am from Rawalpindi and we do not have any such dish there and we are defiantly not that bad in taste.

My flight landed in Doha at about 10 am (Doha time) and there was a transit time of 2 hours. It seemed quite much to me initially but it took me more than one hour to leave my plane and locate the gate from where I have to get boarded on the other plane. I spent the rest of my time wandering about in the building and it seemed more like a shopping mall to me rather then an airport :p

I boarded on the next flight at 12 am and yayyyy again a window seat. Now this was a long flight to London Heathrow airport. Yeah one thing which I observed that the “Faisal Movers” Seats were way comfortable then the plane seats :D. Now it was the time I was started getting home sick. I was looking down from the window and was thinking why I am floating this high from the earth going thousands of miles from my place. I should not be going there, why I am going there. Well I could not jump out of the plane at that moment. So I kept watching the movie on the LCD and some time out side as well.

I landed in London in the evening and from that point a new chapter of life started which I’ll be updating here later :)