International travel is something I equally dread and love. In my four trips to India, I have gone through, London, Doha, Frankfurt and Dubai and each time is a fascinating and aggravating experience. Everyone is flustered and confused, but this also makes folks friendlier than normal I think. It truly is the global community, with folks from all over the world in one place united by their efforts to get from their point A to their point B.
There is often a moment of hesitation before speaking to a stranger at international airports- despite your best efforts to figure out where someone is from based on appearance, is not safe to assume what language they speak. I had a funny experience in Dubai where I made friends with a woman from Brazil that was working in the UAE. My Portuguese is really bad and my Arabic is nonexisitent and her English was pretty bad, so we settled on using Spanish for small talk. We had an interesting half an hour conversation in a language that neither of us knew well, but both knew well enough to bridge the gap and have a great chat.
I think traveling alone during my trips to India actually makes my experiences better at airports. Since I don’t have a travel companion, I’m always looking for someone to chat with and am probably more outgoing than I’d be otherwise. I’ve hung with troops in plainclothes from several countries, contractors, both military and civilian, backpackers, laborers, business people and about everyone in between- I’ve found it to be a fascinating slice of our global community.
Check out some pics below from Dubai Airport, I thought it was one of the nicer international airports I’ve seen- I’m hoping on the way back to maybe even get to leave the airport and explore the city for a few hours!!!
Indoor Palms!
Golden Palms!
Cool Golden Sun Thingies!
The Biggest Duty-Free Ever!
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