Baggage recovery plan

Making my great escape

Marie slept for 12 hours last night; from 1800 to 0600, which is quite normal for her after strong heat exposure.  At breakfast she growled at the waiter and called him stupid within his earshot.  I told her off for being so rude and her excuse was that he didn’t understand her. 

I said that it wasn’t an excuse as it isn’t an English-speaking country (without saying that her accent can be hard to understand at times).  She then said, she was only being rude once where as Pakistanis have been rude to her all the time, staring at her breasts.  Errr … I did warn her about wearing a T-shirt with no bra and nipples poking out.  Simply not acceptable in this country.

After breakfast, I continued plotting various ways to reunite us with our luggage.  As usual, she was playing Solitaire on her iPhone.  Showing a hint of interest in our shrinking timeline left in Pakistan, she asked me what date it was.  I asked her to look on her iPhone (as I was busy thinking, texting the airline and the guesthouse back in Gilgit).  She retorted sarcastically “Thanks for your help”.

I counted from one to ten, went to the bathroom for a wee and collected my toothbrush.  I had planned for the possibility of going our separate ways and chickened out from an earlier opportunity to escape when she was in the bathroom. But I used that time to put my belongings into my daypack.

I walked out of the hotel room and said “I know you took my EUR200; I don’t want to see you ever again”.  I walked briskly down the hallway and down the stairs.  I didn’t want to run as I could easily fall down those uneven steps.

She caught up with me.  She said her wallet was still in my bag, denied the theft and we had to go back to the room to talk this through.  I think panic had set in as she hadn’t actively participated in the planning and research for this trip and she would be all alone with no one to rely on.

I found her wallet (which had 2x EUR100 which she referred to once in a while as if to distinguish it from my 4x EUR50) and threw it on the floor.  As she picked it up, I quickly resumed my flight down the stairs.  I could hear her gaining on me so I ducked into the restaurant to hide and let her overtake me to the ground floor.

After a few minutes, I continued down to reception where she was talking frantically to them asking for my whereabouts.  I knew I had to put on a good show as I didn’t want the hotel to think I was planning to leave without paying the bill:

Me:  Assalamualaikum and good morning.  I am checking out now but Madam may be staying longer … I’m not sure.  It is up to Madam.  So I will pay you now for last night and night before, OK?
Receptionist:  OK.
Me:  It is PKR5000, ji (yes)?
Receptionist:  Yes.
Me:  Yek, Do, Teen, Char, Panj, ji?  (One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Yes?) (Counting out the PKR1000 notes.)
Receptionist:  Thank you.  Is there a problem?
Me:  Madam stole my money so I don’t want to travel with her anymore.
Receptionist:  (shocked look)
Me:  (shaking hands with Receptionist) Shukria, Allah hafez (Thank you, God be with you).

I walked out of the hotel onto the road.  Yesterday’s taxi driver asked if I wanted to go sightseeing.  Marie was still frantic.  I said, “No” and tried to walk away.  Seeing Marie in a distraught state, he asked me what was going on.  I repeated “Madam stole my money so I don’t want to travel with her anymore”.

I walked down the road.  She followed me briefly in a sorry state attracting the attention of passers by.  I found a hotel down the road but they couldn’t take me (or wouldn’t being a foreigner).  I found a second one within a couple of minutes afterwards.

Once settled into my new room, I was shocked at how calm, cool and smooth I had been back at the reception of the previous hotel. There was a little bit of post-traumatic feeling in me.  However, I didn’t dwell on it or gloat as I still had the baggage crisis to resolve.

I had a few emails from Marie today, saying how she is now a wreck, how I had her bagtag receipt still and I had abused my power over her (as I had the guidebooks and a local SIM).  I assured her that I will include her baggage in my efforts to recover mine.  As for my supposed abuse of power … well, whose fault is it for not having the travel guide and research?  And whose fault is it for having an iPhone which requires a different-sized SIM and is also locked to the Orange network?

Baggage recovery plan

I kept checking the departures listing for the airport on my phone; the flight to Gilgit didn’t go until about 1.5h later than scheduled. Like yesterday, it was cancelled subsequently so I guess it turned back.

The airline baggage person had suggested that we get a friend to put the luggage on a bus down to Pindi (Rawalpindi). We had thought of that too and his advice was to fax our bagtags and tickets up to Gilgit. We contacted Medina Guesthouse where we had stayed. They had a contact at the airport and managed to get our bags simply by my SMS advice of the bagtag numbers.

I managed to arrange for the guesthouse to send the baggage down by bus.  Yippee!  Alhamdulillah!

Shah Faisal Mosque

I taxied to the Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, which is a gift from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. I asked the taxi driver if it was Sunni or Shia; he replied that it was Sunni. It was designed by a Turkish architect and it is easy to not realise the size until you see people relative to it. The style, to me, is a little dated now. That kind of modern geometric design is rather 70s but it is still impressive.

Irfan at Medina Guesthouse advised by SMS that he had put the luggage on the Natco bus departing at 1430 and should arrive in the morning. Alhamdulillah!

I offered to reimburse him for the cost of the bus cartage and taxi, plus a little for all the trouble. I sent him PKR4000 which is nearly double what he incurred, by Easypaisa which is a mobile-phone based funds transfer mechanism operated from kiosks around town.