My Paternal family lives in Sukkur which is 8 hours of drive away from Karachi and approx. 470 km. I used to go there with my parents every year when we were kids but when I am grown up, I didn’t get time to plan and last time I went there was in 2018. However, my Paternal Family attended my wedding in 2019 but my youngest Uncle missed it due to not getting leaves from office. Since then, I tried to plan to visit Sukkur so many times but due to many other reasons, it was all unsuccessful. I was missing him as its been a long time I have not seen and met him in person.
Once again, thanks to my eldest bro hehehe he was here with us in Pakistan in September and he planned to visit Sukkur with my Parents. I was not included in the plan however, I shared my wish that I also want to go to Sukkur with my wife and kids to meet my youngest Uncle. My bro was like why you want to go with us, we will just go for one day and it will be hard for you to travel with kids and return without resting much. It became a bit complicated because my eldest bro was thinking about the kids and I was just thinking about myself and my plan. He don’t want to refuse and reject my plan as it looks bad but he asked me to think twice, even he suggested me to go later on for a week or so. Other issue was he hired a car to start journey by Saturday Morning whereas I had a half day at work and I planned to leave for Sukkur at around 4-5pm. We had a lot of discussion and finally, he asked me to hire a car for Saturday Evening for my family but my bro and my parents were too much worried.
As planned, my bro left for Sukkur on Saturday Morning with my sister in law and parents. I had half day at work and then hurriedly went back home to get ready for my journey. I was very much excited. To show my smartness, I tried to hire a car with minimum fare and in this mess, I got a car with CNG/LPG gas tank, it was not on petrol and due to this, my journey got lengthy. This was the first time I came to know about all this that car on petrol runs faster than the car with CNG/LPG gas tank. Also it is not easily found so to refuel it, we need to make more unusual stops. I learned all about it on this trip.
I was very much excited and happy when we started our journey at around 5 pm but just after one hour of drive, our driver had a stop to perform prayers. Its ok to perform prayers but he spent a little more time which made me mad in the start only. I was travelling with kids and I was hoping to reach my destination asap but this driver is going to make me mad and I realized that at the start only. The other thing which was making me crazy was my parents and bro will be waiting for me in Sukkur and due to late hours, they will be getting more worried.
My wife and kids were enjoying the ride and they fall asleep one by one. We passed toll plaza/check posts of Hyderabad and interior Sindh. Driver was looking for fuel stations every now and then. My Bro was in touch with me all the way. My kids didn’t make much trouble in the way and I was so thankful for that.
I was checking the route and time on google maps and I realized that we are behind the timeline, we were not gonna make it in 8 hours to Sukkur. I was hoping to have dinner in Sukkur with family. At around 10:30 pm, I asked the driver to stop at some appropriate family restaurant for dinner. We were very much hungry. Seeing not much help from diver, I checked myself in Google Maps and guided him to the nearby restaurant. Luckily, we found a good one where there were other travelling buses had a stop too which means it’s a family spot. Without wasting time, I ordered the food and instructed him to make it quick. I think just because I told him to make it fast, he delayed the order intentionally which again made me mad but once the food was served, its taste makes me feel good. It was not bad at all. Maybe because I was too hungry, I just loved the food and ate it all. Once again, the driver had a relaxed time out there and spent a little more time in roaming around. It was too much to remain silent and now I have to tell him that please avoid unnecessary delays and take us to Sukkur asap. My Bro was calling me every now and then as he was too much worried, live location do not work on highways/motorways because of continuous disconnection of signals.
It took us almost 10 hours to finally reach Sukkur. There was a surprise waiting for us but it was all ruined due to late arrival. My Bro booked four rooms in a Guest House and he shared the location and asked us to reach directly at given location. It was the location of City Palace Guest House. At around 3 am, we reached there and my bro and sister in law were waiting for us. They were worried because of my kids who were really tired of the journey but no doubt, they also had too much fun on the way and on top of it, now its time to enjoy the resting at Guest House. It was the first time I was in Sukkur with my wife and I think just because of her, he did all this, to make her more comfortable because I never stayed at hotel or guest house in Sukkur before, we used to stay at my uncle’s or aunt’s house. We had a cup of tea and then we went to sleep.
We woke up around 9 in the morning, had breakfast and then as advised and instructed by my Bro, me, my wife and kids went to Uncle’s. it was a very special moment to meet and hug my Uncle. Even my kids were treating him like they know him for a long time. Maybe because he was looking like their Grandfather. We had a good laugh and chat together. They all were happy to see my wife and kids and were amazed that we traveled all the way to meet them. My Bro was not feeling well as it was too hot there so he planned to leave for Karachi back by afternoon. He asked me to have lunch with Uncle and then return to Guest house to pick my Father who will travel back to Karachi with us in one car and my bro, sister in law and my Mother in other car.
We did the same as advised by my bro, had lunch and then returned to Guest house to pick my Father and then we headed to Karachi at around 3 pm. in coming back to Karachi, we didn’t have that much stops and I asked driver to avoid delays as he did previously. He took it serious this time and in 8 hours, we returned back to home in Karachi. It was 30 hours of trip in which 18 hours were on the road and we spent five hours with Uncle but its surely a memorable trip for my wife and my kids but not for my brother hehehe after knowing that he paid PKR 35K for this car, he got angry that this is the amount for a petrol car then why I hired this useless car which took so much time in reaching there and even do not know the routes. Well, my bro was absolutely correct but mistakes do gives us valuable lessons and repeating such mistakes is a crime so I hope that I would not be doing this crime in future.
All above pictures are taken through my cellphone Moto E4.