Earlier this week, we had to pick up an interior designer from the European wing of the consultancy and so I went with our company driver to pick him up late night at the Sharjah International Airport. Of course if he would have come to Abu Dhabi then we would not have to drive all the way to Sharjah, but we were driving late night and the traffic had eased up and well petrol is not that big a deal over here.
Anyway I thought lets go as next week we are boarding flights from here itself for the much vaunted break needed from the summer that is hitting 48°C by 10 in the morning .We went after our naan and houmos dinner washed down by a 7-Up and a little bit more drinks in the car dashboard for the journey .I had picked up a book just in case it gets late and the flights are delayed.
The long desolate airport road stretch
The whole airport itself is a throw back to simpler times in the gulf. The airport lounges, the trolleys and the closely stuck triple dome structure of the airport are still in the early 90s mode. No extravagance, just efficiently adequate and charming. Elsewhere and quite closely, it is radically different. Dubai Airport is the busiest in the world and now it has 360 arrival and departure gates. Yes 3..6..0 . That many. There was a time in 60s when the Dubai airport (below) was the bare minimum airstrip. Quite a remarkable turnaround it has been. Now the Emirates and Etihad airways are the best in the world .But we were at Sharjah. The tiny little emirate just nestled around the corner of the ostentatious Dubai.
We reached by 10 and went in and started the wait from the floor 1 aisle waiting area aisle. We kept looking at the ticker screen for arrivals and it was not flashing our flight number yet .We hanged around a bit , went to the airline office just to confirm and it was delayed from 11.30 to 1.30 am. Fantastic ! We had to wait, so we also contemplated a quick bite, but after going through the counters of the immaculately neat and terribly overpriced outlets of McDonalds and Baskin Robbins, we decided, its better to keep our Dirhams in our wallet and walk away. There was so much time to kill now and once you are at the airport you can not sleep. So after a few desultory trips to the duty free shop and chatting up with the money exchange lady at Travelex, we did people watching from the first floor. The airport had a judicious race mix - Arabs, Asians, Filipinos, Europeans and Africans from all over the places – Karachi, Kiev, Manila, Jeddah, Calicut and Nairobi. You may surmise that Sharjah is a hub that connects the smaller cities around the world. But incidentally, the Sharjah airport is a major cargo hub and is the second biggest in the region.
After a while of roaming around, i told Shereef (who I call Sheriff) – the ever smiling, goggles wielding, pot bellied driver and my company for the night ‘Lets go to the van and get those drinks in the dashboard’. I also wanted to get hold of my Bill Bryson book – Down Under which I got from a second hand book stall when I came here last time and had boarded one my favourite bus fleets – see the pic below.
It was only 11.30, but as soon as went past those sliding doors, into the actual weather, i felt a slap on the face from the humid and hot night breeze. It was like a punch made of hot microwave air. Added to that it’s sticky, sandy, hot and a couple of minutes walk is an ordeal the body doesn’t want to take. Shereef was his cool self and giggling at the misery. And once we got there I got those Pringles too. I cranked up the car A/C for some respite.
The view from the floor 1 waiting aisle
Sheriff borrowed my headphones saying it has more quality or clarity, i don’t quite remember even though he had his own (bugger!) and utilised the time to transfer some new songs from my mobile and i got on to munching those 90 chips (Fiery Hot Barbeque Flavour ) in the tin and read Bryson’s amusing and informative Down Under . We idled over and took another hour or so and by the time customs and immigration cleared everything , we caught hold of our designer guy at around 1.52 am and then drove back . Anyway had to come again soon for our flights to India next week.
In just a month’s time the city will get to inaugurate its International terminal. By now, only flights arriving from other cities were flying in. I have always looked up in the air, see a plane in its flight path and feel happy. I just do not know why. Something just bring happiness. For me plane watching is one of them.
