pitstop Dubai

From the land of Du_bhai!!!!!
Every pitstop is to be enjoyed... more than a temporary break in the thrill of the race, it’s a chance to realign, learn and get ready for the next lap.
Almost a year after I denied (actually vehemently fought back) the offered to take up an assignment in the Middle East, in what I can say a 180 degrees turn in situation; I willingly agreed to take up an assignment in Dubai.
After a dramatic weekend marked my frantic calls between the travel desk back home and the airlines, I managed to board the flight from Bangalore. As I began to ease up, the next twist in the tale came up. My flight reached late and I missed the connecting flight from Bahrain. Managed to get the next flight (some 3hrs latter) to Dubai but the uncertainty was not going to end till finally walked out of Dubai airport. I was so happy to see the person from the hotel who had come for the pickup.
As I finally reached the hotel and slumped on the bed, I sat thinking, the uncertainty and pain apart, I did know a lot more than I would have, if the things would have gone the normal way. If put it in the way we put it in my profession, normal/happy flows have to be captured but the challenge lies in capturing the exception flows. The robustness of a process/system is known only when things start going wrong. Well professional gyan apart, here are a few interesting things I came across:
1. For Dubai, most of the times, you get the visa on arrival and this information has to be there with the airlines with which you are travelling. Or else, they just won’t let you board the flight. Got to know after I had to return once from the airport because someone in the travel desk had goofed up and I did not know because when things go right you need not know!!! Anyway, I (and my friends who had gone to the airport to drop me off) did need a full day sleep after a day of hectic packing and a full night of partying. (we figured out that was the best way to stay awake and leave for airport at 3.30 in the morning)
2. BIAL (Bangalore International Airport) authorities have done one great thing. I am so happy they have a free wi-fi in the departure lobby. And I just could not miss the chance to test my ASUS p527. The speed was great. Just had to send an sms to a number and you got a uid and pwd. I mention this because I could not connect to the wifi at Bahrain Intl airport, though my phone did detect a free network.
3. The day I was sitting with that guy from travel desk to get my tickets done, I asked him if 1hr is safe enough for transit between 2 flights. He said Bahrain is a small airport and anyway its in the same terminal so don’t worry. Well you should. If it an airport where you are landing for the first time, you WILL take time to figure things out and flights do miss their schedules. So use your head, don’t listen to some joker who pretends to know more than he does. But if you do land up in a situation like I did, the airlines/airport will have a ‘transfer desk’ that would handle situations like these. They would route you through the next available flight without charging you. But I guess that’s when you have boarding passes for both the parts of the journey with you.
4. In Dubai airport you have to collect the original visa papers (if it is visa on arrival), go for a retina scan and then proceed to the customs/immigration. No one really told me that I have to go to a certain counter in the airport to collect my visa!!!
5. In Dubai airport, there is a duty free shopping area after you cross the immigration and collect your baggage.. can be valuable information especially if you plan to pick up some stocks at the last minute.
PS: when you try to log in into blogger from dubai, the page comes up in Arabic.. but thankfully I could spot a box on the top left corner that let me change it into English :)