Realised i missed out on describing the airport, so i guess this will be a double post today ^-^. Airports are really important places and amazingly, they do affect my impression of the place.
Dubai airport is really a mixed cup of tea for me. The beautiful sands that greeted me as i made my descent reinforced the beautiful image that i had of Dubai from all the aggressive advertising that it had launched. Yup, its not the desert kind of sand that one comes to expect but the soft silky beach-like type of sand.
BUT the scene that leaves the deepest impression on me is not the sands but the customs area of the transit zone. To summarise it in 1 word, it was CHAOTIC. Yes and that is what i meant when i said the airport quality can easily affect the impression. Being centrally located between Europe and Asia, Dubai is no doubt one busy airport but it's no excuse for the lack of ordeliness when faced with a large transit crowd. There was no queue, no directions and people were cutting queue here and there. And to make things worse, the queue were so long that it almost stretched out of the building proper. (Gosh, it reminded me of the scenario at Johor customs... Eeewwwww...) To make things worse, i actually found myself having to walk across the whole transit terminal looking for a toilet. There were only like 3 to 4 toilets and all had long queues forming. (Yes, i m talking about the male toilet...) Yup, so poor me was like almost crawling in my attempt to find a loo to relieve my stomachache =( Nevertheless, on the other hand, i must admit that the cleaners are pretty effective in maintaining the cleaniness of the toilets despite the high turnover. It was almost real-time cleaning for the moment one finishes his business, the cleaner will go into the cubicle and clean the place up. Talked about efficiency, it at least negated part of the unhappiness that had been accumulating.
With nature's call settled, i began my exploration of the airport. Maybe it's because i haven't been to enough airport yet but the transit area really seemed very crowded to me. People were lying on the floor, chairs and everywhere, trying to catch 40 winks as tey await their next flight. Families were like holding a picnic (but without the food). Haha... Went to the duty free shop to take a look. Can't comen much on the price though cos they were all in either local currency or US dollars and i had absolutely no idea how to convert, being a travel rookie. Oh but one ting io realised is that the lonely planet guide book there is slightly cheaper than our local prices, so for people who are going to transit at Dubai in the future, u can always leave the purchase till u reach the airport =)
Airport rating : 3 and a half stars
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