This modern love ... breaks me
I know that the UAE is trying to set all sorts of records for different extravagant things but one that I hadn’t counted on was the speed of passport control, about as long as it takes to open a passport, stamp it and rearrange your pristine white robes. Who needs landing cards anyway, they would only slow you down. Even when I had something to declare there was nowhere to do it. The whole thing took about as much time as I got to spend with Saija a couple of nights later.
An advantage to a religious intolerance of alcohol is that energy has to be put into flavoursome substitutes. My favourite surrogate were the fantastic yoghurt drinks that were on offer-strawberry, mango, and one with passionfruit were some that I sampled and it would be unfair to nominate one above the others.
Essential reading for anyone interested in this region, actually everyone, is Wilfred Theisinger’s Arabian Sands.
People are probably getting sick of being told how great Emirates is. I know that two of my colleagues have already been extolling their virtues to the world. And bear in mind that I am still going to write good things about them even though their baggage handlers broke my pack.
One of the biggest improvements is just the Airbus A340 that they fly with a 2-4-2 seat formation as well as being a lot quieter and feeling much smoother than the Boeing 747. Then the food actually tastes like food and there’s a lot of it, always good. You also have to respect the large investment to bring all flights live coverage of the football fest in Germany. On the flight to Hamburg I caught the Argentina-Cote d’Ivoire and Trinidad & Tobago-Sweden games that I had missed while out with Saija the night before. Basically they cover everything good food, comprehensive entertainment, quality service and of course free drinks. I could even be updating this through a wi-fi connection but there are too many movies to watch and someone nice to talk to in the seat next door. Sorry.
My sister had recommended sitting on the right hand side of the plane when leaving Dubai which I managed to swing and was rewarded with stunning views of Iran – no nuclear facilities spotted just in case you were wondering Donald. Dubai airport is pretty nuts and totally dominated by Emirates which made check-in both straightforward and confusing. Not quite as mystifying as arrival however, I think that I went through immigration while on one of those moving walkways it was that fast.
The flight took us up in between Iran and Iraq then up to Poland before heading west to Hamburg. It’s amazing how developed the whole plain is, even the woods seem to be in geometric shapes and you have to wonder how they have survived there. It also seemed as though there were little villages spaced about 10km apart crisscrossing the whole area.
When one of the power companies in New Zealand tried to install a wind turbine in some remote outpost there was huge outcry from the three people and five dogs that lived there about noise and visual pollution. At the same time as they ran their fan heaters all winter in their un-insulated houses. Here there are wind turbines everywhere, spinning away incessantly even though there doesn’t appear to be any wind. The future is now, get on board ;)
‘Hi Grader”
An advantage to a religious intolerance of alcohol is that energy has to be put into flavoursome substitutes. My favourite surrogate were the fantastic yoghurt drinks that were on offer-strawberry, mango, and one with passionfruit were some that I sampled and it would be unfair to nominate one above the others.
Essential reading for anyone interested in this region, actually everyone, is Wilfred Theisinger’s Arabian Sands.
People are probably getting sick of being told how great Emirates is. I know that two of my colleagues have already been extolling their virtues to the world. And bear in mind that I am still going to write good things about them even though their baggage handlers broke my pack.
One of the biggest improvements is just the Airbus A340 that they fly with a 2-4-2 seat formation as well as being a lot quieter and feeling much smoother than the Boeing 747. Then the food actually tastes like food and there’s a lot of it, always good. You also have to respect the large investment to bring all flights live coverage of the football fest in Germany. On the flight to Hamburg I caught the Argentina-Cote d’Ivoire and Trinidad & Tobago-Sweden games that I had missed while out with Saija the night before. Basically they cover everything good food, comprehensive entertainment, quality service and of course free drinks. I could even be updating this through a wi-fi connection but there are too many movies to watch and someone nice to talk to in the seat next door. Sorry.
My sister had recommended sitting on the right hand side of the plane when leaving Dubai which I managed to swing and was rewarded with stunning views of Iran – no nuclear facilities spotted just in case you were wondering Donald. Dubai airport is pretty nuts and totally dominated by Emirates which made check-in both straightforward and confusing. Not quite as mystifying as arrival however, I think that I went through immigration while on one of those moving walkways it was that fast.
The flight took us up in between Iran and Iraq then up to Poland before heading west to Hamburg. It’s amazing how developed the whole plain is, even the woods seem to be in geometric shapes and you have to wonder how they have survived there. It also seemed as though there were little villages spaced about 10km apart crisscrossing the whole area.
When one of the power companies in New Zealand tried to install a wind turbine in some remote outpost there was huge outcry from the three people and five dogs that lived there about noise and visual pollution. At the same time as they ran their fan heaters all winter in their un-insulated houses. Here there are wind turbines everywhere, spinning away incessantly even though there doesn’t appear to be any wind. The future is now, get on board ;)
‘Hi Grader”
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home