From Lahore to Qatar to Incheon

So, I'm here, people! In South Korea! Craziness. Let me tell you how my trip from Lahore was...

My aunt and uncle dropped me at the airport in Lahore after getting me a porter who could lead me around the craziness that is the Lahore Int'l Airport. Okay, so before you even walk into the building, you have to hand your itinerary and passport to this uniformed guy. Then as soon as you step inside the building, you show your passport to another guy. This guy asked me if I was American, I looked at my passport and said, "Yes." He pointed to another guy that was barely further into the building than he was. I walk over and show my shit to this guy who points me ahead. I finally walk more than a few steps into the airport. After doing all that, you have to get your luggage scanned. So, thank goodness for my porter, who put all my stuff on the conveyor, I walk through the little sensory thingy and go off. Go figure. I'm lead into a little dressing room type of thing where a woman pats me down. And I'm out. Then I have to go to the ticket counter.

At this ticket counter there are, like, five people standing around. They all work there. I can barely make my way to the counter without pushing these "extras" around. These guys take my stuff and put it on the weigh thing, 22 kgs each. Awesome. Then my pack. Overweight. I looked at the guys and I was like "Um, I need this stuff. I'm moving, see? And I NEED all of this stuff. It's my life... in a year. I need it." So the guy, who barely understands what I'm saying tells me that he'll do me a favor *smile* and let me move stuff from my pack to my luggage no extra weight. "Really?" I said. "Yea, sure." Said that guy. Um, awesome. Once I did that, I handed my passport and itinerary to the ticket counter. It took awhile, until he looked up and asked how much my bags weighed, "22 kgs each." Then he looked at me again and said that Asia has a weight limit, not a bag limit and that I need to pay extra.

This is when I started to get a bit heated because I was under the impression it wouldn't be a big deal. I had traveled to Thailand (which is in Asia, fyi) and I had 40 kgs then, too. No big deal then, why now? So, I basically put up a fight with the guy that was in charge, saying that I was told it wouldn't be a problem. I had come from Washington D.C. with this much baggage and I didn't see why I shouldn't leave here with this much baggage for the price I've already paid for the ticket. The guy was being just as persistent as I was. About 10 minutes into this "fight" and after this guy asked me to calm down and asked me some random ass question about rain (I think he had a point, I just didn't get how rain had anything to do with my luggage), I broke down and asked how much I needed to pay. So, they told me that they would just tell me that I was only 12 kgs over instead of 22 kgs over (sweet) and that it cost this much rupees per kg. "Um... okay, so HOW MUCH DO I PAY????" I asked. I hadn't asked how much I'd have to pay per kg, I had asked how much do I pay. Sheesh. FINALLY he answered me 10,400 rupees. "Okay, well I only have US dollars." He told there was an exchange thingy "Over there." Thanks... I went over and asked how much 10,400 rupees was in US dollars. "130$" What?!

This is when I started freaking out even more then remembered I had a cell phone to call my uncle just in case. I called him and told him, and he said to come outside that he had money for me. Thank goodness for him, seriously. (This whole time I could've used my credit card, but in my panic and pissed-off-ness I totally forgot I had a credit card...Gotta get a hold of this temper..) When I get the money from him and go back through all that stupid security again, I go back to the counter, present them with the money. They give me my boarding passes and everything else and my porter leads me to the "dump site" aka the conveyor/x-ray thing that all luggage goes on. I pay my nice porter and go through immigration, hand my passport to the guy, who had been seriously inspecting everybody else's passport very thoroughly, but just took mine, looked at it, and handed it back. Easy. Then I go through passport control where the guy does the same thing. THEN I have to put my carry-ons on ANOTHER conveyor thing and I have to get patted down AGAIN. Then I show my carry-ons to someone and I'm finally through. I walk to my gate and as I am doing so, I get bombarded by at least 4 different men at different tiems asking if I wanted to buy something or if I wanted tea or coffee. Annoying.

Once I'm at the gate, I take a seat where I'm facing the rest of the gate area and my back is to nothing. I holler at my parents to tell them I'm good... but, really, I talked for a long time with mi madre. I miss her. Then I popped out my laptop and proceeded to finish "Couples Retreat" which, by the way, has sorta inapprop stuff in it. I shut my laptop just as people were showing up naked on the screen, haha. The flight wasn't until 4:25 am, but people started lining up and getting checked onto the plane at 3:30. Way too early, right? I got a bit worried that I was at the wrong gate, but I checked. Supposedly they wanted to get everyone on then, figures, since Pakistanis take an hour longer than everyone else to do anything.

Heh...So, I take the 3 hour flight, didn't sleep a wink. Land in Qatar and go up to the Hotel Reservations desk. Grab my ish and go through immigration. I had to wait, like, 30 minutes for the bus for the Royal Qatar Hotel, but it was cool (not really, it was hot, but whatever). I get to the hotel and these guys took care of me. Seriously. They called me when I didn't come down to lunch, they called me for my wake up call and they called me 30 minutes until the bus to the airport was leaving. It was awesome. The hotel was nice. Small, but perfect. I spent that 19 hours sleeping and Skyping and catching up on shows that I had missed.

I'm sorry for me getting so short now, but this post is extra long.. The flight to Seoul was good. About 9 hours ish. A bit less than that, but not too bad. I slept most of the way. I tried to wake up and stay awake, but I honestly couldn't. I fell asleep before take-off even. Amaze. And I will leave the rest for the next post where I talk about South Korea! Oof, this was long. Took me a couple days to actually finish it, haha. Sorry for the length! :/ Oh well. You don't have to read it. Hah :)