My Airport Friends...

I was actually dreading the trip to Egypt..... I had only just barely settled back in Tripoli after my Ethiopia / Sudan / Rome / Romania trip, when I had to fly off to Cairo for a one day meeting..... its no fun waiting 2hrs at the airport, enduring a 3hr night flight, arriving at the hotel and 4am and picked up at 8am for your one day intense meeting....

However, these hours at the Tripoli Airport have actually finally paid back.....

My first nice surprise was in the airport lounge.... as the tripoli duty free mainly consists of one shop selling chocolates, perfumes and cigarettes I no longer find any interest in lingering in that shop.... so I decided to get myself a juice and chocolate, sit at the bar and enjoy a cigarette and my book..... surprise surprise... the bar man recognised me and would refuse to let me pay for my juice and chocolate.... I am still trying to get used to this type of Libyan generosity, as I have encountered it many times, however it is very sincere and it is rude not to accept so I accepted and decided to be polite and engage in some football conversation before making myself comfortable with my book and goodies....

The second surprise was when boarding the plane... the chief steward recognised me as soon as I boarded my egypt air flight from Tripoli.... he looks at my boarding pass... then and me... and goes 'you are a frequent traveller with us right?' and I go 'yes' so he nicely takes my bags to my seat and throughout the flight continuously asks me whether I am ok and need anything.... wow!!!! first class treatment in economy class :)

Finally, and actually the best one is when I arrived in Tripoli. After enduring 2hrs of Cairo Traffic, 2hrs of Cairo Airport waiting and 3hrs of flight next to two libyans who I think thought they would die of hunger in the plane, as all they did was eat the stinky packed lunch the wife had prepared..... the last thing you would feel like is actually getting to the Tripoli airport and having to wait in a 3/4 hour queue at immigration.....

Luck strikes again... as I waited in the long queue, the guy who checks the passport, and who has actually checked and stamped my passport 100 times, recognised me from the back of the queue. He waved and beckoned to go next to him in the immigration counter. At first I thought he was waving at some important diplomat behind me.... but then he did it again, and I skipped the long queue and put my passport straight into the hands of the guy.

The other guy at the counter also recognised me and goes 'ara min hawn' which is Maltese for 'look who is here'. After exchanging greetings and queries about family and work, the guys stamped my passport without the 5minute look through my passport and a further 5minute stare at my visa...... wow!!! I was so happy.... well I somehow felt bad for the people who had been in that queue for the past 30minutes...... but I was so tired I didn't really care that much then!!!!

I should carry around with me little presents to give to these people. I know they don't do this for anything in return. Coming from the western world that doesn't usually work like this, I still find it a bit awkward and hard to get used to people being very nice and doing things just cause they want to.... the shopkeeper in a grocer in Tripoli put chocolates in my shopping cart every now and then, the vegetable man gives me fruit and carries my bags all the way to my car, the pearl seller offers me tea while shopping in his shop(including very nice discounts), and I also got an invitation to dinner with the family of the guy I bought my father's suitcase from.... and I feel so bad I don't do anything in return for them, however I feel that it is a bit adictive... when people do nice things for you, it makes you happy and somehow makes you want to do nice things for other people... some kind of a ping pong effect.......