Cosima Underwater

After more than twenty hours spent in airplanes and airports, we have arrived in Hong Kong. This time we flew via Doha, the capital of Qatar, which is one of the booming Emirates located at the Persian Gulf. In the past, I have also changed planes in Muscat (first time that I saw a hunting falcon being checked in for a flight), Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Dubai. All these places have lots of sand, lots of oil and gas, and lots of newly built skyscrapers. Their oil has made them very rich, but they also try to diversify their economies with aggressive investments into tourism and other service sectors. The nice byproduct of this is that their state airlines offer plane tickets at very low prices.

My seat neighbor on the Berlin to Doha flight was a woman living in Dubai and working for a German manufacturer of desalination plants. She told me that the income tax in Dubai is at zero percent, but that it has become very difficult to find affordable housing. The property market is booming, and Dubai has become one big construction site.

Newly built islands off the Dubai shore

I have been to Dubai a couple of years ago on a one-night layover to Hong Kong. Little man was still a baby when we stayed at the then newest hotel in town, and he went crazy about all the gold and glitter around him. His greatest joy was lying on the bed and throwing his arms and legs about, while watching his reflections in the huge mosaic mirror above him.

This time it was Doha, and all I can say is that their airport terminal is nice but will be soon too small for the quantities of passengers channeled through it. During our six hour wait I discovered that obesity is becoming a world-wide phenomena, and after a look at the offerings of the two restaurants at the terminal (French fries with various fried meat), I knew why. Passengers came from Europe, Africa, the Gulf region, India, and the rest of Asia, and to pass time, I compared fashion styles. Europe was mostly represented by jeans and a few saggy jogging pants, Africa by colorful local garb, the Gulf by black georgette abayas (Islamic overgarment) with artful embroidery, India and Pakistan by salwar kameez (long shirt and roomy pants), and fellow Asians by all sorts of casual wear. Isn’t it curious that some dress up for travel, while some dress down? You won’t see me in 5 inch heels in an airplane, but baggy jogging pants paired off with flip flops don’t seem right either. Especially if you haven’t washed your feet for days, like the guy who sat behind me on the eight and a half hour flight to Hong Kong. To survive, I directed the air jet directly to my nose. In terms of ripeness, his feet were similar to old Appenzeller or Harzer… not young Gouda, that’s for sure.