dubai in transit

touchdown in dubai.. i've been sitting out the front of my departures gate for a solid hour or so now.. at first staring blankly at the wall, then finally pulling out my laptop only to find that i have about 1/3 of battery power left and.. WIFI!!!! granted, it's pretty slow and freezes a lot but it's funny how i actually feel 'connected' all of a sudden as opposed to being just one of the hundreds of nameless blank faces stuck in transit..

airports are interesting places. i've personally never been to dubai before and the place is huge.. it's a bit of a blur when you're traveling alone.. a mirriad of corridors and arabic signposts, people either shoving to get through or stopping to sniff the perfume samples that are repeatedly thrust in the general direction of your face. buy this! buy that! discount watches! cheap electronics!! i feel like i'm in a sophisticated glass marketplace.. my backpack weighs a ton and i'm clutching it to my chest as though every passer-by is  a potential thief. [no one touches my camera.. grr...] and then after each section of winding corridors, i find myself standing in the midst of chaos. it's 5:30am and this airport may as well be a busy metropolitan crossing in the middle of rush hour in NYC..

i pretty much just keep my eyes fixed on the signs marking the way to gate 231.. [how many damn gates are there here anyway??] soon as i'm there it's just a matter of finding a seat and thank goodness one of the stretchy chairs is freed up just as i arrive. SCORE. a flight to Jedda is about to leave and there is literally a sea of white and black burkhas all shuffling through. they seem to blend into the one entity, it's unreal.. 

i'm seated in front of a moving walkway watching travelers make their way down the terminal. it's slightly hypnotizing in a weird way.. and to think that every one of these people has a story, an origin and a destination is mind-blowing.. i realise that just picking a different number to the one scrawled on my crumpled piece of paper would see me arriving in a random country on the far side of the earth and experiencing an entirely different world.. the possibilities are endless.. thoughts of more travel, adventure, wanderlust.. physically seeing and touching the places i'd lose myself in whilst flipping through my parents' photo books as a kid.. despite being tired, grubby, probably smelly and looking like a fluorescent hobo in my cargo pants and surf life saving shirt, i'm grinning and excited for what lies ahead.. (:

here's a few phone snaps..

5:30am, foggy dubai airport through the glass

gate 231