Gate 41 Experience

Every time I see pictures of my travels in London, I can’t keep myself on laughing. It was my first international travel and we were advised by my travel agency to be careful especially that I’m accompanying my nephews who are still minors.

We have to travel for more than 16 hours: a 7 hour flight from Manila to Dubai, then a 3 hour stopover in Dubai International Airport and finally a 6 hour connecting flight to Birmingham in the UK. We were booked with Emirates Airlines, the flag carrier of Dubai.

It was in Dubai airport that we were virtually lost. I thought it is just an ordinary airport like NAIA in Manila but the airport is huge. We arrived in gate 2 and our connecting flight is in gate 41. Since it's our first time to be in Dubai, we were so excited to see the place. We were not aware that we only have 3 hours stopover. We already wasted one hour walking and sightseeing the place until… we were lost.

I’m just lost that I don’t know where to go next. I was looking for signs of Gate 41 but I can’t see one. We just keep on walking and walking until we saw this beautiful young Moslem lady who happens to be one of the crews of Emirates. I asked her “do you know where’s gate 41?”. The woman smiled to me and whispered “gate 41 is in our house, do you want to come with me to our house?” I knew it was a joke and I can’t believe that she was joking with me. I thought they were conservative people. Nevertheless she told us our way. It took us another 30 minutes to be in Gate 41, ready for our next flight.

This coming November, me and my friends will be going to Hongkong for our annual planning. My mom who went to Hongkong for her Heathrow flight last year told me that it is a gigantic airport. This time I’ll make sure that I will not fool around just like what I did in Dubai.