Clifton Beach, Karachi..Pakistan

I changed my mind without telling her. Instead of going to the hotel restaurant, I decided to go to the Clifton Beach where there was a great shopping center and a very big food court to have some authentic Pakistani food.

I gave the security guard a $10 bill as a token of appreciation (in other words. Bribe) so that he would not stop us going outside of the hotel premises as she did not have visa to go inside Karachi. I told the security guard to get us a reliable taxi who would take us to Clifton Beach and would brought us back.

The security guard talked to a driver and told us to pay $50 round trip fare plus a little tip. He told us to be back by 10 p.m.

I asked her to get into the taxi but I could see a shadow of hesitation going with me. I asked her again to get into the taxi and she got into the taxi. We started to go towards the Clifton Beach. I went to the Clifton Beach area few times before as I would take a stopover in Karachi every time I pass by Karachi.

I had a very good friend who was a Karachi native who used to go to school with me while I used to live in Florida. He went back to Pakistan to get his MD degree. So Clifton Beach area was a kind of familiar place for me. I did not call him that time as she was with me and I did not want him to ask me any question about her.

So the driver started to drive the taxi towards the Clifton Beach. The driver was a very nice man who started to tell a bit about him being in Bangladesh before 1971 when Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan. He seemed to be sad for that separation and blamed the dirty politicians for breaking the country.

Anyway he came to the Faisal Highway and raised the speed to about 60 miles an hour. It was very comfortable temperature in that time. She sat a bit far away from me and I did not want her to feel uncomfortable with me.

After about 40 minutes we came to Sea View Road and I knew we were close to the beach. We arrived on the board walk few minutes later. I asked the taxi driver to wait for us. I knew we did not have that long time on our hand because the hotel authority might be looking for us if we did not go back by 10 p.m. It was already 8 p.m.

We went to the board walk and walked side by side for few minutes. I noticed that she wanted to hold my hand but she was not brave enough to do that. Our hands touched each others hand few times but it did not go further. The sky was already reddish color..the sun was slowly going down. She told me that she never saw sunset in person. She also told me that she was thankful that I brought her there. She told me to seat for few minutes as she wanted to enjoy and feel the vibe of that beautiful sunset. We sat there..she sat next to me but I could see that there was a bit space between us. She did not notice those small thing but I was not only was with her, I was also observing her behavior.

She seemed to be at ease with me and I did not want that feelings of her being with me safe and sound to go away. We were sitting on the board walk hanging our feet. The golden color sunlight was making her face glowing ..she was happy, there was a fine breeze coming from the Indian Ocean and soothe us ..I told her that I was hungry and I was sure she was hungry too.

I took her to a store where I tried to buy her a little gift but she refused politely saying that she would not feel comfortable if her husband asked her about that. So I did not buy anything for her. We went to the food court and ordered some Shish Kebab and Mango Lassi (Mango with yogurt drink) for both of us.

She was not a big eater but she finished the Lassi. I was looking at her in that dim light of the food court. She was looking like a breath of fresh air in that romantic evening. I was feeling kind of romantic but right away I thought of my wife and I stopped being in a dream and came back to the reality.