I am about to take my first ever trip to Pakistan.
I'm here at Sharjah Airport in the UAE
and I'm boarding a flight to Karachi with Serene Air.
A very small Pakistani Airline.
I think they have like seven aircraft or something like that,
and are mostly
a domestic airline.
But the UAE is very close to Karachi.
We're only like 2 hours flight away.
So, yeah, I think it's a budget airline
It's only 250 Dirhams a.k.a 70 US Dollars,
but I do have LoungeKey free with my credit card
so I can use third party lounges, in airports like this.
Sir boarding time will be 3 o'clock, Gate 5.
Okay. - Anyway, I'll do announcements.
Thank you! - Thank you!
Thank you!
Okay, let's check out this
airport lounge.
Third party lounges, they can be good, bad or average.
This one at least is quiet.
But how's the food gonna be?
I don't know, I think we are getting some food
on the aircraft, but being a budget airline,
I'm not expecting much so, hopefully I can get some
good breakfast here.
It's like 2:00 a.m. or 2:30 a.m. right now.
Yer man's a wee bit peckish.
Okay, is there food in these things.
No, empty, empty.
They're all empty. Oh no!
Is this an à la carte?
Is this an à la carte menu?
Okay, can I have some Chicken Biryani and Dal?
We have right now Arabic choice and Continental.
Ah, so you don't have the Indian choice?
Indian and this this one, we run out already. We have this two.
Ah, okay.
What is Lamb Machboos? That's like lamb and rice?
Or? - Yeah. Yeah, lamb and rice.
Oh, that's sounds good.
These are full sets.
Oh, it's a full set, it comes as a full set? Okay.
I will take the Arabic choice please. Thank you!
I will take a seat over here somewhere. - Okay.
Okay.
So this is Lamb Machboos. - Yeah.
It looks exactly like a Lamb Biryani.
So, I guess that's what Machboos is.
It's a Arabic version of a Biryani, maybe Arabic spices.
Is this some Raita? No, that's a dessert.
With an Indian Biryani they give you some, like,
curd on the side like a yogurt to dip it in
to, like, cool it down with the spice.
Fortunately, I didn't do that, that's some sort of kinda, like,
chocolate and cream dessert.
Okay, it comes with... Looks like a tomato sauce.
I'll try it plain first.
Mmm
Meat very tender and yeah, it's not
spicy like an Indian Biryani.
It's very subtle.
Yeah, you're getting more of that meaty taste.
I think there's some maybe, chopped coriander or something,
on top. It's, yeah, it's a very light,
very light taste, which is
probably what you want before you board a flight, right?
You don't wanna be having an ultra
spicy curry before you
are trapped in a seat that you can't move out of for several hours.
Mmm
I'll try it with the sauce.
Yeah, it tastes like a
tomato pizza sauce. It tastes like the kinda,
the kind of sauce you would get on a tomato pizza.
It's nice though. Let's try it together.
Mmm
It's good, it's good.
Mmm
So, the Serene Air, I'm expecting it to be a budget airline.
They don't specifically market themselves as such,
but, the actual price of the ticket is less than the actual budget
airlines like Air Arabia and Fly Dubai.
So, I'm paying 250 Dirhams for this flight
and Air Arabia flies the same route for 300 Dirhams.
But they actually market themselves as a budget airline and it's,
you know, it's one of those things, if you want to check-in a bag
you have to pay extra.
You have to pay extra if want to use
a credit card to book it probably.
All those kind of things. But this Serene Air,
no, it was like the price it was advertised was the price that you paid.
So, I didn't check a bag, like
everything I brought with me is in my backpack.
But if I wanted to check like a 20 kilogram
luggage, I could have done that for free and yeah.
I think they might actually have like in flight meal for free.
Although I'm not expecting much on a 2 hour flight,
on a $70 flight.
So, yeah, I'm having breakfast here in the lounge,
thanks to my LoungeKey.
Mmm
Nice.
The machboos was lovely.
Now, I'm gonna try and find somewhere to chillax.
I think there's people in all these little pods.
What do we have here? Some model aircraft.
Some Egyptian Air, Egypt Air.
Some Air Arabia.
Okay, I've got about another half an hour or so before
I have to check into the flight so,
I'll find somewhere quiet.
Oh, look they got all of these little lounge chairs,
where you can kinda like
lie with your feet up.
But, it looks like they're all taken.
I'll probably just chill here.
[Airport announcement] Air-India Express announces the boarding call of IX136 to Delhi. Please proceed to Gate 7.
[Airport announcement] Announcing the boarding call of Indigo Airlines to Delhi.
So, this is the backpack that
I take with me everywhere I go.
It's the North Face
Router, it's called or "Rowter"
if you're American but, yeah, I bought this 2 years ago
and it's still in perfect condition, I love it.
Nice and comfortable.
Flight is boarding now.
I'm in 2F.
I believe this is a 737-800 that we're boarding.
This is me in here.
Is there space? - Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, thank you.
Well, more leg room than I thought.
Dunno if these are extra leg room seats or not.
The man who was checking me in,
he was... - Do you want leg space?
Is this extra leg space already or?
No, no, no, we have it at the middle of the cabin.
Ah, okay. I think this is fine. This is actually
quite a lot.
I wondered if the man who checked me in,
he was a viewer of my videos
and he offered me a seat in the second row.
So, I wondered if this was extra leg room, but apparently it's not.
So, yeah, pleasantly surprised with what I thought it's gonna be
a budget airline. More room than
I'm used to on cheap tickets.
So, this is what has been unloaded from the aircraft,
there, are all this massive boxes.
So, looks like they probably use this
also for cargo,
as well.
Flight doesn't look too busy.
Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of Serene Air Captain someone and his crew,
welcome you on board. We shall be flying at 39,000 feet
and our flight time to Karachi will be 1 hour and 40 minutes, insha'Allah.
Do you want to have breakfast?
Huh?
Breakfast food is coming.
Oh, you have breakfast? Okay, sure, sure.
Thank you!
I was just getting settled in to sleep and she says,
it's breakfast time already.
Okay.
Thank you!
Let's see what we've got.
It's looks like, I thought it was an omelette,
but it looks like it's,
I don't know, some kind of egg and vegetables
and I don't know what this is.
Yeah, this is some sort of scrambled eggs with
vegetables and masala
and this, I don't know. Let's try it.
It's like mashed potato and chicken,
covered in bread crumbs and fried.
It's nice.
Thank you!
You can see here,
there's Chinese characters underneath the stickers.
So, I guess Serene Air, they probably bought
this aircraft second hand from one of the Chinese airlines.
The bathroom, a wee bit small,
a wee bit wee.
I'm gonna take a wee in a minute.
It's a wee bit wee, it's a wee bit cramped but it is nice and clean
and, yeah, this flight overall, I'm enjoying it.
Loads of leg room, the meal was nice,
hardly any passengers,
so, it's a nice quiet, relaxing flight.
Fantastic, for 70 bucks.
Now, excuse me.
Brilliant! I have arrived,
here at McDonald's!
Here at Jinnah International Airport.
A cheeky wee Coke Z
to get freshened up,
before the real adventures in Karachi begin.
This arm goes behind his neck.
Healthy food? - Yeah.
What's the name for the camel? Woah! - Cheryl.
Ohh, haha.
Pakistan zindabad. - Scotland zindabad.
Pakistan zindabad.
Let's try not to hit the horse.
Hey, Bro!