8 miles up, and down to hidey hole

For the last part of the flight into Dubai, the flightpath skirted close to the Saudi-Iraqi border. Was sat on the left hand side of the plane again so I didn't get a view into Iraq. We were flying at 41,000ft at the time (7.77miles up), the highest that I can remember seeing. Certainly the big twins usually cruise than 4 engine jets, but how high do they normally (or abnormally) go to?


Dubai Airport duty free shops

Dubai airport to me is highly overrated. Duty free heaven? Maybe I am looking at the wrong shops, but I didn't find the choice or prices there to be all that good. No Wifi APs anywhere too. Most of the eating areas are not non-smoking too. Thought I would have to sit on the floor next to a pillar with power sockets again like last time. This time I struck lucky in the Irish Bar place near gate 22. At the extreme righthand corner next to the visible kitchen, there is a little alcove with two power sockets. Another guy with an old Mac laptop was there too. Yeah us poor guys not on Pentium-Ms who have to keep the batteries topped up. The waiters joked that it looked like a mini internet cafe. We told him that if they install free WiFi they probably would have to beat the customers away with a stick.

Location 25°N 55°E