Istanbul to Qatar to Dubai to Colombo in 22 hours.

Our wait in Qatar ended up being as stressful as it was successful. Somehow we managed to avoid paying $35 each for visas and, buzzing, set about destroying our sleep patterns exploring Doha's (awesome) airport! An hour before the flight left however, our luck changed... The FlyDubai officials who had previously assured us that everything would be fine, suddenly decided that they would not let us board the plane without the credit card I had paid with, which was located at the time in my checked baggage! We were told we'd have to buy new flights and reorganise all our subsequent travel. Groggy and baffled, we tried to reason with them, but time was ticking and the boarding window came and went...

Luckily, the one thing Qatar officials cannot handle is female hysteria. Five minutes after turning on the waterworks we were being ushered to the gate! Unbelievably, we continued our journey, financially unscathed.