40 before 40 – on a Pakistani Passport

“First blog post”… this makes me nervous and excited at the same time. I always liked sharing my experiences, especially the ones that can help someone or motivate someone to do something new and exciting. The idea of having a blog took many shapes and forms. Shall I really do it, shall I wait, would I be able to keep it up-to-date, will anyone read it, will it actually help anyone? All these questions going in circles. But then you just gotta bee-gin!

But one thing was always clear that friends and family do come to me for either travel or food advice. So, this knowledge potentially can or should benefit more people. And then it happened that I decided to have a blog for something that excites me the most and that helped me learn more than anything else.

I guess the travel bug was always in me since the very beginning. The idea itself kind of always thrilled me even before I got a chance to explore slight bits of this beautiful world. I still recall when I was in early years of my primary school and the teacher would ask the class that what would you all like to become when you grow up. And I would go like, air hostess (did not know the word stewardess at that time ;)). Now if you grew up in more westernize society, it might not sound strange, but from the culture I come from, my teachers, parents, uncles and aunts found it a bit weird. And for two reasons. First, in country like Pakistan, every young kid is taught or expected to look forward to becoming a pilot, teacher, engineer or doctor (doctor and teacher especially if you are a girl). And secondly, stewardess, being a job where a woman is most of the time away from home, is not preferred by the families as a career choice for a woman (and you can be sure that having the privilege to be a working woman by your own choice is still not something that every Pakistani woman or girl gets).

But keeping the society discussion aside, of course there was always a WHY coming up for me to answer, and I would go like, “Because I can travel the whole world”. Little did I know that there are many other ways to travel, other than being an air hostess. But at such a young age, that seemed like the easiest option.

(On a side note: I ended up choosing a different career path by choice, but still think being stewardess is super cool.)

Now why do I tell all this?

I did travel quite a bit within Pakistan, but it was not that early that I got a chance to travel outside the country. And that happened at the age of 20 when I travelled to India as a part of a delegation from my university. And that was not only a wow-ed experience, but it made me make a funny wish that I want to do “40 before 40” – i.e. I want to travel to 40 countries before I turn 40 🙂

Silly as it may sound, it always encouraged me to travel. And luckily enough, the way followed the will quicker than I thought. And now I am already done with 40, right when I turn 30. And that made me think, hmmmm, what is the next big chapter of this wish. That is when I decided to share these experiences with more people, and hopefully motivate them to make their own adventures happen. And I will soon share more on how I managed those trips on a Pakistani passport as it can get difficult at times and there are places where I just could not go as I did not have enough time to get visa, or places where I went but I had to spend twice on visa than the travel ticket itself because I had to go to other cities or sometimes back to Pakistan to get the visa. But, at the end, it was all absolutely worth it. It’s a pity that sometimes some of us need so many permissions to just make travel happen. But the more people travel, the more there is hope that people will think about making it easier for everyone.

So, this blog, which is super close to my heart, will not only give you travel updates and tips&tricks, but also will give you a friend who will be there for you in case you need help planning your next trip. The bee travelista will always be one email away to make sure you have a guided path!

I would need another long post on this journey to 40 countries (on not-so-easy passport) and why traveling is one of the best forms of learning. But for now, let’s BEE-gin and explore these 40 countries with the travel bee.

P.S. If you want to know what those 40 countries are which will slowly be coming to this blog, follow @beetravelista on Instagram – and – if you like it, promote it through your social networks as well :). I will reveal those 40 countries once I reach 1000 followers. And with that, you will be able to pick which country out of those 40 should be next on the blog, plus option to win some exciting travel souvenirs. YEAHHHH!!!

Meanwhile, I make sure that my list continues beyond 40 😉

Happy traveling to all of us!

Buzzing off for now,

Bee Travelista