It took close to 3 hours when we landed in Karachi, Pakistan. I had to help her fill up the embarkation form in Karachi as we would have to go out of the airport to our hotel which was few miles away from the airport.

Karachi is the largest city, and the main seaport and financial center of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 13 million. Karachi is the most populous city in the country, one of the world’s largest cities in terms of population and also the 10th largest urban agglomeration in the world.

Karachi is Pakistan’s premier center of banking, industry, economic activity and trade and is home to Pakistan’s largest corporations, including those involved in textiles, shipping, automotive industry, entertainment, the arts, fashion, advertising, publishing, software development and medical research. The city is a major hub of higher education in South Asia and the wider Muslim world.

We reached the hotel and when came to get the room she told me that she would not be able to stay in this foreign country alone in the room. She held my hand tight and told me to get one room. I was kind of surprised by her decision but I realized that she rather stay with a stranger whom she did not know even four hours before than staying in a room alone especially in a foreign country.

I asked her few times just to make sure she really wanted me to be in the same room with her and she told me that she thought she was taking the right decision after talking to me for three hours and it seemed to her that I was a good guy and will not take advantage of the situation. I of course, assured her that I was not a bad person.

The Hotel front desk did not even ask us a single question about her and I being in the same room as I was sure they thought that we were a couple especially the way she was holding me tight. The front desk told us that our flight to Baghdad, Iraq would be in the morning 6.30 a.m. and they will wake us up about an hour and half earlier so that we can get ready for the flight.

We went to the room in that hotel. There was a bed and a sofa in the room. A beautifully decorated hotel room and it felt so good to sit down on the bed. She sat down on the sofa and I told her to freshen up so that we could go to the shops in that hotel ground. I could go out to the city as I did few times whenever I was going to that same direction but I decided not to as I never went inside the city with a young woman with me. In last few times what I did was just bribed $10 to the door man and he would call a Taxi for me to go inside the city and bring me back but this time I just did not want to take the risk..what if..?

She freshened up and came out of the bathroom and I was looking at her with an amazed eyes. She was looking very pretty and I complemented her on her looks. She seemed to be a very shy person. I changed and took her to see the adjacent shopping center. She was very happy to go to the stores as being first time out of the country. She told me that she saw some of the designs in the magazines. She was very excited to look through the shopping center. I noticed that she was so happy and she did not realize that I was actually looking at her so happy face. Her eyes were sparkled with the gem stones on some of the dresses in different stores.

She was like a child in a amusement park. The bright lights of the stores make her look like a glowing face with a 1000 volt smile. I told her not to go crazy and ask her if she wanted to buy something from the stores. She said with a very strong and determined voice,”Of course.” I was impressed by her boldness but then again she was very sweet ever since I knew her. I told her,” This time lets go to buy something..you were so happy that I did not want you to stop.”

So we stopped and looked around to decide which stores should we go. I just hold her hand and pulled her into a store full of gorgeous clothing and all the the imaginable accessories for women. I told her that if we bought everything she needed from one place we might get better price. She just shook her head and followed me. She was asking me all the prices written in Urdu and with my little Urdu which I learned from my Pakistani friends..I tried to explain to her and the sales girl explained to me in English and Urdu the rest.

Finally she chose one beautiful dress for her which was so heavy. She asked me if the dress was beautiful. I was kind of surprised that she wanted my decision. I told her that it was beautiful .The dress was full of gems and it was pretty expensive. Once she set her mind into the dress , she then bought matching shoes, purse, thin glass bangles, then some imitation golden bangles and few other things. When the bill came I took my wallet out and she noticed that I was about to pay.

She literally hold my hand and snatch away my wallet and put the wallet inside her purse. It happened so fast that I did not get time to pull it way. She said in Bengali,”No way..you are not paying for me. I have lot of money with me as my parents and my husband gave me enough money to spend.Please don’t do that otherwise I will not buy any.”

The store persons did not understand the whole situation but they understood that much that she did not want me to pay for her stuff. One of them told me,” Brother..you pay all the time..let Vabi (Sister-in-law, in Indian Sub continent we always try to make a relationship with everyone we come across. I remember I would call my Grand father’s friend as Grand father..my father’s friend as uncle, my mother’s friend as aunt and so on.) pay this time. I smiled and let her pay for the stuff.

She thanked me for choosing her dress and matching accessories for her. She even told me that she would not have bought those had I not chose for her.

I did not want to take a risk of going out of the hotel to the city to do shopping so I secretly decided to take her to see the beach called the Clifton Beach. We got the voucher for our dinner but I just could not resist not taking her to see the beautiful Clifton Beach. I remember there was a shopping area including a food court next to the beach. I told her to drop the package in the room and then we would go for the dinner. So we off to the room.