Stepping off the plane I take a breath of hot Arabian air,
It catches me unaware, like stepping into a sauna,
I pause and deliberately fill up my lungs.
Aboard the shuttle bus, people are clutching on to their coloured ticket holders,
These differentiate transfers and arrivals,
We shuttle past a hanger full of luggage, and staff sat around chatting,
Suitcases are in piles on the floor, it worries me, my rucksack has to make it to another plane in half an hour.
The whole airport tarmac is alive and buzzing, polar to the clinical appearance of Heathrow’s tarmac,
Here, a 4 lane ring road circles the aircrafts and runways,
We stop at a red light to let a helicopter cross (!), a jam of 30 vehicles builds up either side,
One in particular grabs my attention, a luggage train made up of 7 luggage trailers, snaking side to side, and a tiny pulling vehicle at the front being shaken around by the momentum of it’s tail.
After this eventful 10 minute shuttle service from aircraft to airport, we arrive at transfers, here I wait for a 2 hour delay,
Perhaps they lost my rucksack.