A flight over Bahrain. Not without adventures.

The idea to fly to Dubai came, as it usually does for me, spontaneously. I was looking at airline tickets and offered to buy two-way tickets only for 200$. In addition, the opportunity to gain experience in flight of the largest airline of Bahrain - Gulf Air.

The flight had a layover, but it was all with the same airline (which turned out to be a huge plus but you’ll read about it later). The connecting time was an hour, which was quite enough if the layover was at an uncrowded airport.

Departure from Moscow

As usual, the flight was delayed in Domodedovo. And the longer it was delayed, the more adrenaline and emotion was generated. After an hour, the plane finally took off. The whole flight was a hope that we would arrive earlier or that the connecting flight would be delayed.

On the plane during the flight, a group of irritable and nervous people was organized on the same topic. One man became a star as he has been in such a situation before with this flight - he was offered a hotel stay in the city and tickets for a new flight the next day based on his past experience. I was not so pleased with this arrangement - I had to fly back in two days, paid stay in Dubai which was significantly more expensive than the price of the flight itself. The biggest problem, however, was that at the moment Bahrain did not allow citizens of our country due to COVID restrictions, and I had to go into quarantine.

The plane landed with only a 15 minute delay. Amazing. Hope filled everyone's eyes, and the Russian-speaking crowd rushed to storm the customs checkpoint for the connecting flight. Then it was a run to the right gate.

It needs to be said that the new Bahrain airport in Manama was not small at all. The transition took 20 minutes. Arriving at the right place, we found Pakistanis waiting for their departure from this gate to a completely different flight. Unfortunately, our plane departed exactly on time.

Well, what to do, we headed over to the information desk which directed us to the airline representative. There were about 20 people. The airline representative had to resolve several issues and then reported that the airline organized a separate flight in three hours. He gave us meal tickets and sent us to chill.

As you can see, the service was just great. During this time, I managed to walk around the airport, work and eat some really tasty sandwiches.

Just as promised, they opened the boarding for a special flight - it was a brand new A320neo. A completely empty plane brought us to Dubai in an hour.

Ironically, the delay ended up being a huge plus - those who arrived on time spent the same 2-3 hours waiting in line at Dubai Airport for the Covid test. We arrived late at night, when there were no other parallel flights, and passed the test without any line.

Return flight to Moscow

Everything going back was much clearer, with no flight delays, but there were other adventures.

Our customs service was extremely sceptical about some of the passengers on our flight, many of whom were asked very strictly. They didn't even recognize me by photo in my passport, and sent me to a separate room for communication and confirmation of identity. In total, it took 40 minutes to go through. Well, what can I say, it's all for a lifetime memory.

After all, that is why we travel, right? :)