Dubai vs. Dammam

December 14, 2006

Dubai is the extreme opposite of Saudi. I spent 12 hours in the Dubai airport on the way to Uganda. It’s the ultimate materialistic heaven. If you must spend 12 hours in an airport, Dubai isn’t a bad place to do it. However, since it was the middle of the night, my mind was on sleeping, not shopping. My flight, which was supposed to leave at 2:30 in the morning, was delayed until 8:00 AM. I tried the “quiet lounge” chairs which were excruciatingly uncomfortable and finally settled for curling up on the floor under some chairs along the main center isle of the terminal.

Kenya Airways is a classic third-world country airline. Before the plane ever left the ground, there was no toilet paper in the loo. My bag didn’t show up in Uganda.