Dubai Airport Redux

It wasn't nearly as bad coming back as going.  From Kabul to Seattle, counting from taking the car to the airport to getting to our hotel, was 44 hours.  From Atlanta back to Kabul, even with the long layover in Dubai, it was maybe 30 hours or so.  We were allowed to babysit our last day in Atlanta, packing furiously during the times when the baby was napping, occasionally dashing frantically back and forth between the crib and our room.  That may explain why I have dirty diapers in my suitcase.  When we got here the shust was extraordinarily bad; you felt it with each breath, and it was only accentuated by the cold, dry weather.  The sky was completely obscured even during mid-day. 

We have begun to have problems with Dubai airport.  Even for a short layover, you have to go through immigration, and the last three times, even though we have valid visas, we have been sent to secondary screening and have to wait a half hour until someone finally stamps our passports.  They also stopped us at customs, though they waved us on when they saw the diplomatic passport.  It was surprising to see the degree of bustle at 3 a.m. within the airport itself.  All the shops were open, all the restaurants and juice places and coffee shops.  And the prayer room is co-located with the same doorway as the bathroom.

We were trying to transfer terminals to get to our flight, so we followed the erratic signage to "Terminal E" for transfers.  Sure, you can take your own bag to the other terminal - that's what we did the last time - but we decided to see if it was better to pay the baggage handling service to do it for you.  Once we finally found the right counter - the directions we were given varied considerably depending on whom we asked - we were told the cost was $82.  That sounded a little steep, but I thought, it's late, I'm tired, it's a travel expense - why not.  Then the clerk told us, no credit cards, only cash.  Well, I still had it, just barely.  And then she said, Per person.  So we said, under our breaths, Screw it, carried our suitcases out the first airport, took a $20 cab ride to the second one, and checked our bags ourselves.  Then we spent the next five dead of the night hours drinking coffee and reading.