Above: Breakfast in Peshawar of mango, yoghurt, omelette and toast.
Leaving Peshawar
Today was meant to be an easy day with just a two hour flight. I got to the airport mid-morning, a bit earlier than planned (it was getting hot in the room due to another power cut).
Security was very tight and I was dropped off at the roadside and walked into the airport grounds; the queues for the taxi entry was too long. I found out later that Europe doesn’t allow flights from Peshawar as it was too much of a “risk”.
I arranged to meet Marie at the airport for our 1215 flight to Karachi. Our meeting time was 1.5h prior to the flight; so it was 1045. She hadn’t turned up by this time so I proceeded airside without her, meaning that she would have trouble checking-in as her ticket was paid on my credit card.
I had earlier apologised to her for accusing her and asked if she had borrowed the money by accident. Then I asked if she would like to repay me. She said she hadn’t borrowed or taken the money.
I had to go through Customs to get airside (even though it was a domestic flight). Because I was in local attire, Customs thought I was Afghan (there is a wide range in appearance with Afghans, as with Pakistanis). He asked if I was carrying narcotics! I guess, Peshawar is high security for more than just terrorism; there’s also the drug trade.
My final photo in Peshawar is this colourful salesman.
Drama at the airport
Marie eventually turned up around 1115, only 1h prior to departure, or 15 minutes before close-off. She had been denied check-in without me there to present my credit card. She managed to talk her way into the departure lounge to look for me, with a security officer accompanying her.
I was in the gents. They called out to me. I thought if I waited a few more minutes, the flight could close and I could get the refund back on my credit card to partially offset my loss … except that there was an hour’s delay to the flight due to Karachi airport having been closed earlier.
Eventually I had to come out from the gents. I asked her to pay me the EUR200 so I would check her in. She wouldn’t so I walked off to take a seat further away. The security guy was about to lead her away when she changed her mind. She opened her wallet, gave me 2x EUR100 and said, “Here, is this like the notes that you had?”, knowing clearly that I had 4x EUR50. I took the money and accompanied her back out to check-in.
While waiting to be checked-in:
- She accused me of blackmail and extortion.
- She hinted that now that I had her money, she could have me arrested for theft.
- She said “What about tomorrow’s flight to Dubai? Do I have to pay you another EUR200 to check-in for that?” I calmly said “No, you booked that flight yourself so you will be fine”.
It was still “deny, deny, deny”. With her, there’s always excuses for her little suspicious antics … individually these excuses are plausible but on an accumulated basis, it paints a different picture. To me, the picture is now clear enough.
Coming back through security a second time, the officers were a little curious about the situation as she had caused a bit of a scene looking for me, since she couldn’t check-in without me. I apologised to them for the inconvenience and explained that she had stolen my money and that was the reason I went in without her.
While waiting for the delayed flight, she walked past me and spat at me. I took it calmly and turned around to the people around me and said “She stole my money”. As we were playing to a largely male audience, I had the their sympathy. Her behaviour was very unbecoming for a woman in Pakistan and that gave me the upper hand with public opinion.
Boarding for our flight took place at a walkout stand. The Pakistan Airlines man at the bottom of the stairs said, “Don’t sit next to her, find another seat, she was looking and waiting for you”. No worries as I had that all sorted with the call centre yesterday.
This was followed by a technical fault on the newish B777-200 which took another hour to fix. Fortunately, unlike our previous jet flight on PIA, the ground air-conditioning worked well in keeping us cool during the wait.
We were offered a hot meal on the short 1h45 flight (actually 1h25 flying time). The meal was a bonus as on our first jet flight of similar duration, we were only given a sandwich and a cake. However, the chicken had bones; I’ve never had any inflight meal with bones before. I always thought inflight food was supposed to be boneless to reduce choking hazard; wrong!
Final night in Pakistan
At Karachi, she got to the baggage carousel first. Unknown to me she had lifted my bag off the carousel and placed on top of it some gifts which I had given to her some weeks back. It was in an envelope marked “Shame on you; Fatwa Maudit” (whatever that means).
“Present” from my former travel companion.
My priority upon exiting the baggage hall was to find the money changers. I immediately changed her 2x EUR100 into 4x EUR50 in case she accused me of stealing her 2x EUR100 and had noted down the serial numbers. I then taxied to Crown Inn hotel (where we had stayed at the beginning), getting there around 1730, to find that she had checked-in just before. I told the receptionist not to give out my room details to her.
As I have to leave the hotel around 0900 tomorrow, this is little more than just a nightstop with a room-service dinner. Just enough time to relax, clean my shoes which were grubby from the glacier walk, grab dinner and relax.
The Crown Inn seemed a lot nicer than our first stay; it was partially due to a nicer room being allocated but also due to the relative nature compared to everywhere else we had just been.
It had been an eventful day with the theft and the aftermath. The day had disappeared quickly with a leisurely morning, event-filled airport drama, flight delay and a short flight.
Meat was hard to find in the rural areas. Nice to get a good meaty meal back in Karachi for dinner.
Looking back
There’s not a shred of doubt that Marie stole the money. I guess that’s why I’m so calm with everything that I’ve done because I’m doing the right thing. However, I feel that I’m “on the run from her” as I don’t want any more confrontation. She is furiously acting like she’s been wronged:
- It could be away of pretending she’s innocent.
- Maybe there is an underlying sense of entitlement that she can steal from “friends”.
- Perhaps it is the anger at being caught out for a change as she claims to get away with a fair bit.
Surprisingly in the recent days I’ve had no sleepless nights. I don’t feel scarred from recent events.
I was handling three crises simultaneously:
- Loss of baggage
- Loss of money
- Betrayal by a friend.
I think I must be a lot stronger than I look and act. And the fact that I know that I am right.