Ayesha and Sean’s wedding week is finally over!
Saturday night, there was a huge party with hundred’s of guests, all there to honour the bride and groom but Sunday was indeed a day of rest.
The guests have all gone home and we had a good night sleep after a week of parties, late dinners and wedding events, all orchestrated by Naila, the bride’s mom. By tbis point, she must be looking for a rest as well!
This was the first day since we arrived in Karachi that we all did not have a full schedule. So we slept in and got up late. Only things on our schedule were packing and a lunch with Mariam, the rich heiress, who allegedly owned a part of the Toyota franchise in PK and Turhan her husband took us out for lunch.
We went to a restaurant along the waterfront area, near Clifton Beach, called Cafe Aylanto, which was about 15 minutes drive from the Club, through some pretty heavy traffic
Food was described as continental, but there was a bit of interpretation with the spice palette of Pakistan clearly in mind. I had chicken breast with kalamata olives and and Cheryl had chicken parmesan that was also spiced as well. The desserts were glorious as well. Of course, the prices were at the high end, with prices being on par with high end restaurants in any major city.
After lunch. we took the opportunity to enlist one of the restaurant staff to take a family portrait with all the attendees. It turned out well and was a good shot of all the families who attended the wedding.
Turned out that we were within 400m of Clifton Beach. And on the way back, at the north end of Shahrah-e-Attar, there were a large number of people milling about, likely leaving one of the nearby Shrines, and both the road and the sidewalks were crammed with cars and people, it was one of the few times that it felt a bit unsafe and our driver told me to put my camera down to not attract attention.
Luckily, the traffic and people jam cleared in a few minutes and we were on our way back to the Club.
We’d been advised to provide some tips to the staff at the Club and to the household staff who helped during the wedding and the events of the week. We were given a wide range of tip amounts, but to be honest, I just made it easy for myself by handing out 1000 PKR notes from the ATM at the Club.
We gave out tips to the Bistro staff, and the staff who cleaned and tidied the room. Apparently the word got around to the night staff, as one knocked on the door and said that he was the night staff, clearly looking for a tip as well. It seems that tips are a large amount and are important to individuals that are not really paid a large salary at all…
After lunch, we finished our packing and had a light dinner before turning in early to get a good nights sleep before our flights out on Monday, noontime.
Campbell Family Travels 