I guess its a little unfortunate to land in Gatwick the day after you have been in Dubai International, well, unfortunate on Gatwick AND myself for that matter.
The extremes seen between Dubai's no expense spared philosophy and poor old Gatwicks no expense spent really highlights the difference between the economies of the two countries. There are toilets and prayer rooms about every 300 yards in Dubai, complete with attendants. I had to ask where the toilets were in Gatwick and was told to use the two disabled loos with huge doors next to the departures drop off point, I had to chuckle.
Instead of people walking around with "can i help you?" on their blue shirts as in Dubai you have the fluorescent "Don't speak to me I am important" bibs in Gatwick..oh and not forgetting son of Adolf patrolling the drop off point with his armband and ever present bib making sure you say goodbye to your loved ones within 15 seconds or you get a ticket, he even stood over the top of one family with his arms crossed and his foot tapping as they said their tearful goodbyes just in case they broke said rule.
It would be better not to ask me about the queue to passport control, it took longer than the flight from Dubai to get a casual look at my passport from someone who could barely speak English, ironic that his very smart Arabian counterpart spoke perfect English. Not to worry I thought, I can go get a coffee and a nice sandwich. Well no, you can get a Costa coffee and no sandwich, so from Dubai with more shops than you find in a city centre to 3 shops take it or leave it in Gatwick, what a total embarrassment, the ferry terminal on Manly has better facilities than this so called International Airport.
Still, all was not lost, the sun was shining and it was 5 degrees warmer in the UK than in Sydney, but no surprise it was 12 degrees cooler than in Dubai!. Surely we can beat those Arabs at something? well of course we can, the queues were bigger... for everything. By the time I had enjoyed a little stop and go fun on the M25 I was crying into my steering wheel in the knowledge i had returned to this third world country and am now planning to sneak back over to Dubai on Friday and seek asylum.
One thing that hasn't improved with age is aircraft food. I only took the top off the "scrambled egg and sausage" before hurriedly putting it back on in case i actually decided I may be hungry, as I did so i swear I heard it growl at me. The coffee should have been ordered by the slice and the water (of which you are reminded to drink plenty) was warmer than a firefly's armpit. The wonderful sky waitresses busied themselves and did their usual sterling job, but if you sit a little too far away from the trolly starting point you WILL lose out because they never return if they run out, something i noticed on more than one occasion, but knowing what was on the trollies I don't feel as if i was mistreated in any way!.
On the return from Dubai just over the Black Sea we hit some turbulence, this continued in bursts of 10 minutes or so until we reached the Channel, another reason i was happy I fought to put the lid back on my scrambled egg and sausage as seeing it more than once would have been a frightening prospect even for the hungriest of weary travelers.
So, all in all it was a fantastic time in Oz, even though a lot of that time was spent inside writing my first novel and editing, I thoroughly reccomend going if you get the opportunity and Dubai is worth it as the first stop if only for the spectacle of that amazing airport, it is however a stark reminder of just how blaze we have become in the UK about our world status, we are not even close, sorry Gatwick no cigar, in fact not even a tatty old roll-up.
The extremes seen between Dubai's no expense spared philosophy and poor old Gatwicks no expense spent really highlights the difference between the economies of the two countries. There are toilets and prayer rooms about every 300 yards in Dubai, complete with attendants. I had to ask where the toilets were in Gatwick and was told to use the two disabled loos with huge doors next to the departures drop off point, I had to chuckle.
Instead of people walking around with "can i help you?" on their blue shirts as in Dubai you have the fluorescent "Don't speak to me I am important" bibs in Gatwick..oh and not forgetting son of Adolf patrolling the drop off point with his armband and ever present bib making sure you say goodbye to your loved ones within 15 seconds or you get a ticket, he even stood over the top of one family with his arms crossed and his foot tapping as they said their tearful goodbyes just in case they broke said rule.
It would be better not to ask me about the queue to passport control, it took longer than the flight from Dubai to get a casual look at my passport from someone who could barely speak English, ironic that his very smart Arabian counterpart spoke perfect English. Not to worry I thought, I can go get a coffee and a nice sandwich. Well no, you can get a Costa coffee and no sandwich, so from Dubai with more shops than you find in a city centre to 3 shops take it or leave it in Gatwick, what a total embarrassment, the ferry terminal on Manly has better facilities than this so called International Airport.
Still, all was not lost, the sun was shining and it was 5 degrees warmer in the UK than in Sydney, but no surprise it was 12 degrees cooler than in Dubai!. Surely we can beat those Arabs at something? well of course we can, the queues were bigger... for everything. By the time I had enjoyed a little stop and go fun on the M25 I was crying into my steering wheel in the knowledge i had returned to this third world country and am now planning to sneak back over to Dubai on Friday and seek asylum.
One thing that hasn't improved with age is aircraft food. I only took the top off the "scrambled egg and sausage" before hurriedly putting it back on in case i actually decided I may be hungry, as I did so i swear I heard it growl at me. The coffee should have been ordered by the slice and the water (of which you are reminded to drink plenty) was warmer than a firefly's armpit. The wonderful sky waitresses busied themselves and did their usual sterling job, but if you sit a little too far away from the trolly starting point you WILL lose out because they never return if they run out, something i noticed on more than one occasion, but knowing what was on the trollies I don't feel as if i was mistreated in any way!.
On the return from Dubai just over the Black Sea we hit some turbulence, this continued in bursts of 10 minutes or so until we reached the Channel, another reason i was happy I fought to put the lid back on my scrambled egg and sausage as seeing it more than once would have been a frightening prospect even for the hungriest of weary travelers.
So, all in all it was a fantastic time in Oz, even though a lot of that time was spent inside writing my first novel and editing, I thoroughly reccomend going if you get the opportunity and Dubai is worth it as the first stop if only for the spectacle of that amazing airport, it is however a stark reminder of just how blaze we have become in the UK about our world status, we are not even close, sorry Gatwick no cigar, in fact not even a tatty old roll-up.
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| Dubai (DXB) Int. lounge area. |
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