In the third part of this series, Dr Fouzia Saeed recalls her travels

Traveling is a significant part of my life. The thrill of adventure is one thing, but I guess ‘sameness’ in life is something that I always have a hard time with. I inherited the love of traveling from my father. He always encouraged us to venture out and brought us books about other countries. I got to see some interesting countries in my school years with my family and when I got into collage, my younger brother and I teamed up for adventures of our own. I remember even when I was in the States for my education; I would save up and venture out by myself, to whichever country matched up my budget. I visited Mexico, Jamaica, Canada and many others that were close to the States. When I returned to Pakistan I continued my adventures.

The other thing which I love about traveling is the newness of every moment. It keeps my mind and senses alert. There are so many stimuli around – the scenery, the new faces and the culture. I am addicted to that feeling. It is almost like I touch the essence of life when I am traveling.

Sometimes my parents would insist that I stay with some relatives or friends in the countries where I was traveling, just for security purposes. This helps when you’re traveling on a tight budget and I sometimes agreed to it. Once I was going to Africa and Nairobi was my first stop over. I stayed with some distant relatives there, very warm and welcoming people. But I just couldn’t get them out of their shock of a young girl backpacking across Africa. They quickly became over protective, which is one of the reasons why I stopped staying with friends and family on my trips. A guest at their house mentioned that ‘these English medium young girls and boys do not see any difference in traveling through Africa and Europe’.

I was planning to go to visit Lake Nakuru because I had seen pictures of the lovely pink flamingos that lived there. My relatives were adamant that I would not go there without arranging a proper tourist company’s tour because it was far away in the middle of a forest. I hate such bus tours. I had made no plans arrange one. I do what I have to, to go where I want to.

The next day, I woke early and quietly got out of the house before anyone else got up and left for Lake Nakuru on my own. I took a regular local bus to the last town at the edge of the jungle and roamed around the town to look for options. I found a Sikh Bhai who drove a cab. I arranged with him to drive me into the forest up to the lake and he agreed. The sight was magical. I had a great day. When I came back later that day and called my relatives from a bus stop in some part of Nairobi, they were frantic and rushed over to pick me up. They got mad at me because where I got off from the bus was not a very dignified area of Nairobi and they were obsessed with how they could tell my parents if I had gotten lost or injured in the forest. Later, I learned that their guest, who was telling me that a young woman cannot travel alone, got mugged while walking on the main street in downtown Nairobi in the middle of the day! I told them when it comes to criminal activity it doesn’t matter if it is a man or a woman, if you are alone or in a group or whether it is day or night, so why put all the burden on poor women and curtail their mobility.

Author (right) with a woman in Massai Mara, Kenya

In front of the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

Adventures in the Bahamas – author in her diving suit

Author (right), with a friend in Samarkand

Flamingos at Lake Nakuru

Diving excursion in South Burma – with her husband Paul