By Muslimmoms.ca Team

Travelling is probably one of the most exciting things you can do in your life. Going out to experience different landscapes, cultures, foods and traditions really opens your eyes to how much the world has to offer. Now travelling with a family is where the adventure really begins. The Muslimmom.ca team are excited to share with you their travel stories. Funny now, not so much when they happened!

Kids and Marriage?

When I was travelling with my daughters to India. My husband was not with me and my daughters have their fathers surname while I use my maiden name. The lady at the airport raised some routine questions……How are you related to the girls? Do you have a letter from their father etc. In the end she asked me Are you married? which made my daughter turn to me and ask Why is she asking that? Cant she see you have kids? I didnt know how to explain to my daughter that one doesnt necessarily have to be married to have kids.

–         Sadaf Afshan

The Cries That Never End!

We were traveling to Pakistan last year in December by KLM. The first leg of the journey to Amsterdam was absolutely great. No problem with customs, no issues with the air crew and definitely no crying babies on board. The Amsterdam airport was simply beautiful so no issues there as well.

The second leg started with us boarding for Abu Dhabi. This time it was totally a different story with toddlers and crying babies. Anyway, there was a family of five; father, mother, grandmother and three children ages ranging from 8 months to 3 years.

The middle child cried continuously for six hours until we reached Abu Dhabi. The whole time passengers were getting irritated but couldnt do anything. And so were we. The mother was busy with the youngest, eldest was sitting with the grandmother so the father was looking after the middle child, but was a total failure in handling him. Even the flight attendants were visibly irritated as they tried doing so many things to make him quiet. We got off in Abu Dhabi with our heads spinning and air drums still echoing with the cries but thanking our stars that we would not be hearing the cries again. We were so wrong! The last leg to Lahore, the family sat right in front of us and the toddler started crying again. This time I glared at him and guess what? He stopped and went to sleep! Lo! And we were at Peace finally!

–         Aruj Saleem

But I’m Canadian!

For our honeymoon we wanted to go to India and we were so excited! After our wedding in Egypt we headed out the next day to the airport.  All is good, that is until we get to Abu Dhabi and realize we needed a visa to go to India! We were horrified! How could a CANADIAN need a visa to go anywhere?! We searched for any other country they could re-route us to but they were all so expensive! After pretty much an eight hour wait, we found ourselves back where we started… Egypt. We spent a week in a resort town on the Red Sea and it was amazing! We were looking for an adventure but not quite what we had in mind.

–         Mona Ismaeil

Illegal What?

I was all packed up with thirteen huge boxes and three large suitcases, two bored but nervous teens, one sniffling seven year old and a pair of bawling four year old twins. My husband hadnt gotten his visa (he wasnt a citizen we all were) so he wasnt coming with us to Canada. This was not a visit, this was us moving to Canada. I was against it from the start, I did not want to leave without him, but he bought the tickets and said he would follow.

I had a bad feeling but he wouldn’t listen. My three younger daughters started crying nonstop the second he left us at the airport. There I was with the kids and the luggage oh and yes, six large handbags, my stuff was all over and I was trying to keep an eye on everything while standing in line, weighing in the luggage, consoling my crying kids, etc. When I went to the desk where I would show my documents I was told I didnt have NICOPS. I had no idea what those were. They questioned how I had stayed in Pakistan without getting my visa renewed and they wanted to know how my kids got into the country without any visas on their Canadian passports. I informed them my kids were born in Pakistan. It turns out I was an illegal alien all those years in Pakistan and the way the guy talked to me and then called in the head of security I thought they were going to lock me up for illegal residence!

In the end after much talking, and calls made to people nothing could be done. I had to go back to my aunts house with my family. We couldn’t go to our house because we had sold our house. I was an illegal alien with five illegal alien kids being given refuge by my aunt. About a month later we travelled to Canada with husband in tow and NICOPS made. The moral of the story? Husbands should always listen to their wives sixth sense!

– Khaula Mazhar

Stay tuned for a sequel!