It was a pleasure landing at the new airport in Doha for our couple of hours transit to Dubai. Alan kindly picked us up at midnight from Dubai airport. Qatar via Doha had a schedule change which got us in after 11pm but it was half the price of flying Emirates from Rome.
I had had a bad head cold for ten days and it was almost gone when it came back with a vengeance leaving me in bed for 2days and I could only manage a walk down to the beach and to the Mall by taxi a couple of times during our week there.
In the six months since we had been in Dubai there had been major new building projects with new appartment buildings and shops springing up all over the city.
Dubai is undertaking the largest shopping “Mall of the World” which they say will be bigger and better than any of the hundred other malls already there!
Alan knows all the good and very reasonable places to eat or from where to get take away. We usually opt for Indian fare or Arabic food which we love and his lovely daughter Samantha came to see us all while we were there.
I do feel sorry for the poor Indian workers who work from 6am to 4pm six days a week in the blazing sun but for them they can earn more money than at home and make a difference to their families back home.
Their transport buses have no windows however the local buses are air conditioned as well as the bus shelters which is something as none of the locals use the bus. They all have large 4WDs or fast sports cars.
We travelled on the 5th November to Muscat flying Emirates. The plane was a great distance from the terminal and we were taken by bus after a very lengthy walk. The flight only took 40minutes and they even managed to give us a simple breakfast and serve coffee.