Bye-Bye Sudan

I am writing this post from the international airport in Doha, Qatar.

Before I continue , let me write "Bye-bye Sudan". I was glad to have left Sudan.

When I was at Khartoum airport this afternoon, the check-in process was utterly chaotic. People were jostling about and porters waiting like hungry vultures. There was no system or signboards to guide anyone where to check-in.

Around the check-in area, I took a photo. Immediately two guys (porters) pounced on me and one grabbed my camera. One guy said "No photo" while another said "Fullus, Fullus". In Arabic , fullus is money. They were asking for money!. I replied "No fullus!" and refused to give any money to them. Seeing that they won't be gettting any money from me, the guy who held my camera returned it to me.

As far as the check-in process, luckily I had an "agent" who helped us through the airport basically from the beginning. He waited until we were safely go through the last X-ray machine to the departure lounge. Thank you,sir!

Inside the departure lounge, there were no announcements nor were there any signboards giving the flight number information.

One can tell how well a country is run and managed by conditions in their international airports. Well run airports with smooth arrival and departure process indicate the country is likely to be well run with proper procedures and regulations. Think of Singapore, New York or even KLIA (Malaysia). Contrast these airports with airports in Khartoum, Cairo and New Delhi, you get the picture.

Doha airport is a brand new airport. They are trying hard to compete with Dubai as a duty free shopping airport. I made my own contribution towards this aspiration by buying a 4GB iPod Nano. I paid USD 290 (RM 1100). I think I got it at a good price - it costs about RM 1300 or more in Malaysia.

The guy who sold it to me is a filipino. It is the same in every international airport in the Middle East. Most of the workers in the sales line are filipinos or filipinas. The general workers like cleaners are either Indians or Bangladeshi. The bussiness lounge where I am using this PC has Filipina or other non-Arab personnel.