A Day Out with Family to PAF Museum, Karachi

It's been a long time since my family and I had an outing together to some nice place, especially for our kids. Finally, after a long discussion, we decided to visit PAF (Pakistan Air Force) museum on last Sunday. The main reason to pick this attraction was my Wife. She is very fond of this place as she had special memories of this particular place, specially attached to her late Father. They used to visit this place a lot. Since we got married, we went to many places but not this one. We planned couple of times but it got postponed due to some other issues but now, finally, we went to PAF museum. Another reason was our kids, they like those fighter jets and planes a lot.

I always try to plan things earlier and in doing so, I check each and every thing on internet before going in order to save time and avoid confusions. I did the same, the museum opens at 9 am and it is a good sign for us because we don’t like crowded places and people in our city wake up late so we decided to visit as early as possible. Still we managed to reach there by 1 pm as it is not easy with the kids. We did breakfast at home and got ready for the ride. My Parents, family of @shrazi and my family, cannot fit in a single cab so we booked two cabs. My Father bought the tickets. Entry fee is reasonable. We were happy to see that not much people were around when we reached there. I am ok with the crowd but my bro Shabhai don’t like much crowded place, he wants private tours where there is no one else and just our family enjoying the tour hehehe I remember that last time we visited this place was in 2002-2003 and it was an event organized by my elder brother’s company. It is totally changed now, 20 years is a big time.

It was a nice sunny day as we reached there by 1 pm. it has a big parking area, nice and clean. Good to see such type of parking area, very well maintained and disciplined and why not, after all it is under Army authorities. We entered and the first thing we did was finding a nice and suitable place to settle down first. There are huts at the sideways so I rushed to the empty ones to occupy the cleaner one. As people were arriving so it would become harder to find an empty huts later on. The contingency plan was a sheet to place in the shadow area if we won’t find any suitable place to sit.

While we were checking other huts, My Mother started walking around with my Nephew, the elder son of Shabhai. I just cannot share the feeling and excitement I saw on the faces of our kids, they were so much happy to see so many planes and jets at one place. Without wasting any time, my Nephew, who was too much excited, took this opportunity to explore the area with his Grandmother. My Parents who lived and did everything for their children, now lives and do everything for their grandchildren. Watching them going a bit distance, we followed both of them so can take pictures and explore together while Shabhai was left behind all alone in the hut to take care of the belongings.

There are so many fighter jets and planes and each have their own history and story which was written on the board placed near the respective plane. Honestly, I didn’t read any single one of them properly because I was looking after the kids and following them and taking their pictures with each of their liked planes. Different colors were attracting kids and they were truly enjoying the atmosphere and making those moments special by doing some crazy stuffs.

The youngest member of our family, my second son, was walking around so well. In fact, he was running and my Wife was running behind him to make sure he won’t get hurt or fall down. The open area looks like a heaven to my kids, running here and there, watching those planes closely.

We had a good walk till the end of the park and there was an archives gallery, an indoor museum. Shabhai joined us there as my Father went back and took the responsibility in the hut. We had a fun time with a statue holding flag at the front of the museum. My Niece, daughter of Shabhai, got a bit scared of that statue. She was not ready to stand beside that statue lol still Shabhai managed to make her stand there and I captured those moments.

We went inside the gallery. WOWOW it was really nice place. Once again, very well maintained, so clean and organized. There were so many models/dummies showing the dress code of Pakistan Air Force. Different kinds of small models of planes showing when they were used and in what year then went grounded. There was a big, a real big military plane placed beside the statue of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of our nation and his sister, Fatima Ali Jinnah. It was looking amazing. We had a couple of pictures with them and then we moved forward.

This PAF Museum was inaugurated in 1997, the time when Pakistan turned 50 years old. We got so tired but kids were so energetic and still running around the place to explore more. we took a different route to go back to our hut. My little one was not giving up but I was happy to see that he was obeying my orders. He was just trying to copy his elder brothers lol

My Sister in Law showed our kids the beauty of nature, colorful flowers planted across the park.

My Nephew liked this plane the most because of its colors.
A picture with a soldier, as he was passing by, I requested if we can have a picture and he agreed. Picture of the day.

These two planes looks more attractive to my elder son, he was eagerly waiting for all of us to reach to this plane. My Nephew and my son posed in a salute position and in winning position as if they conquered and completed some special task of the day.

Kids even don’t know what are these and how dangerous they are, the weapons used in Air Force.

Different object vehicles and maybe some signal machines, all of these models and objects were awesome. Now, we are back to our hut. Amusement Park or a fun land, having rides for kids, was not opened till that time.

We had a good refreshment/snacks in the hut. Slices with the tea, fruit for my Mother, kids had juices with biscuits. We got refreshed, toilets were very clean. I must say, the whole place was in very good condition, not even a single piece of wrapper flying around. Good to see such kind of cleanliness and it should be followed at other places too.

Last item to visit was a helicopter, we all spent a bit of time with helicopter and then, we went to a souvenir shop. They have a good variety of items related to Pakistan Air Force in reasonable prices, not much expensive. We bought couple of small F16 models for the kids as a souvenir.

Not just kids but all of us had a very good time together. These types of museums play an important role in building a strong bond between Army and young kids. I just love these places because I always wanted to be a soldier and I want the same enthusiasm in my kids for Army. It was a memorable day out with family and we very much enjoyed our day together.

All above pictures are taken through my Father's cell phone TECNO KG5k.