five hour layover a bit easier for a destination frequently visited by
planeloads of non-tourists from India, who can not even get a transit
visa on arrival. I would have loved to pop into town but was told not
to expect different than Dubai or Las Vegas - namely a rapidly built
set of skycrapers arranged in the desert in such a way that one would
have to drive everywhere.
The duty-free shopping has world-class selection, but many prices
probably north of "high street" ones on many items. All the duty free
is dual prices in US dollars at the 3.6 exchange rate, and there is
also a big deal made about $125 raffle tickets to win $1million or a
luxury car.
The food court is easily the worst I have seen any any airport, first
or third world: they are bad impersenations of American diners where a
single fried egg or a coffee latte would each cost just under $6.
The mad rush of different ethnic groups of people zipping through here
from one part of the continent to the other, the uneven development,
and high prices for imitations of foreign things (I could not find any
"local" food items for sale, except maybe the $18 bag of pistachios)
seem to be traits of a "gold rush" town. People still seem to be
coming here to work (and I think oil and real estate are the main
draws), but I'm still waiting for the first pedestrian city in the
Gulf...
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