Hiroshima Travelogue- Episode 2

June 31, 2013

We fly over Isfahan, Shiraz, the Persian Gulf and the United Arab Emirates before we land at Dubai Airport. We arrive at a bright city. The airport is itself a shiny, great, picturesque and colorful city; it has this gigantic metal-glass hall filled with big and small shops, passages and people of all races. We walk about the airport during the few hours we have to wait. The airport is built on what was once a desert and has now turned into the ticket to success for the Emirates as a transit zone. They have perfectly hit the target, as it is evident in the color of everyone walking, sitting or sleeping at the very hall. A representative of every nationality, language and race can be found here. Everyone is either leaving or has just arrived. They all need an inn to change their roadsters and rest for a while.

The Boeings have linked west to the east. There are so many of them out there, as there are up in the sky or even in the world. While hanging about the airport's hall, which is like Berlan Alley in Tehran (a famous commercial hub in Tehran), I begin to think that people are so much eager to create a paradise, but…

At the time of praying, we enter one of the three or four small praying rooms designed along this magnificent hall.

Having been awake all night long, there we are in the next morning. The flight is delayed and at 9.30 we get to the half-full Boeing to head directly to Tokyo. I see Dubai dusty as we take off. It's no flashy up in the air. Thanks to Edison's invention, its nights are better than the day.

We have 11 hours of flight ahead of us. A screen shows our route to the east. We pass over Oman Sea. Pakistan, North India, China, Korea, and Japan Sea are the following skies we will fly through. The screen shows Qibla from time to time. It soon gets dark. We say our noon and evening prayers at the plane's tail.

We land at an airport near the city. The main airport is far from Tokyo. We find residence, thanks to the Iranian ambassador, somewhere at the embassy My fellow travelers get in their accommodations. Moretza and I head to the 5th floor.

We wake to the sound of crickets the next morning.

To be continued…

By Habibollah Behboudi
Translated into English by Abbas Hajihashemi