Ali Reza dropped me at Ekbatan 1 at almost 500pm, with a promise to pick up at 700pm....."go shopping" he said. I ended up spending the next 2 hours in Ekbatan wondering around, watching Iranians go on their daily life. Ekbatan was almost like a deserted town when I arrived. It was close to 600pm when suddenly everything came to life.....all the shops started to open...suddenly people came and went.....young and old. Ali Reza said that shoppers close their shops at lunch time, go home to rest and re-open in late afternoon...usually until 1100pm. That's why Ekbatan comes to life only after 600pm.
It was interesting to see some road-siders selling their stuff....from pirated CDs to cheap clothes to imitation sunglasses to kids toys......hey, it's just like at home.....if not for the Farsi.
Two road-side vendors preparing their goods
Ekbatan's coming to life.....on the right is a masjid
Ali Reza came at 5mins past 700pm (I had just finished with my Asar prayer at the masjid) and took me to Ekbatan 2 taxi office to get a taxi to IKA. I arrived at IKA at about 815pm......performed maghrib prayers at the musalla....and went upstairs to check in.
I thought if I checked in on-line for my flight home, I wouldn't have to face the hassle of checking in at the counter. So wrong I was.......I arrived at the counters and failed to find the baggage drop counters to check-in my luggage.....So, I had to stand in the line for 1 hour to check my luggage in....when I finally finished the check in and had my passport stamped by the customs, it was almost boarding time......so, I had to fight off hunger and went straight to the boarding gate. And I spent the next 2 hours trying to get some sleep but I only dozed off for not more than 10 minutes.....so I watched the reruns of The 70's Show, 30 Rock and also Shark.....not bad actually....
When the Airbus A330-200 arrived ni Dubai.....we had to take the airport bus to the main terminal.....the announcer said that an Emirates dedicated terminal is still under construction....so, the plane will park some distance away from the main terminals and the passengers would have to take a bus to reach the terminals.
Lining up at the customs counters was ok.....baggage collection was also ok....the only problem was....I stood at the wrong carousel for more than 10mins before I realized it.....I collected my bag and went out to catch the cab.
It was almost 130am but the taxi stop was so congested that the airport staffs had to take control......I'll let the pictures tell it......
Sea of people at DXB taxi pick-up area
Sea of taxies........I also saw a few lady cabbies....
People were still lining up when we headed out of DXB
I arrived home at almost 230am....thanks to the sleepy cabby....I hope he'll be ok....
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