Re: What to do during flights and transits?
I usually do that myself when I travel alone. Although you really come across extremely weird people sometimes.
I remember one flight in particular, when I took a connecting flight from Amman to Karachi which had a short 40 minute stop in Dubai. (August 2001) I had heared a lot of stories about Dubai and on that day they all seemed to be true. That was actually my first impression of Dubaians. Thankfully that impression has changed a lot in the meantime, especially since I moved to Dubai myself.
But on that particular flight, the people that boarded the plane in Dubai were mostly plain Paindoos. Every single one of them had one of those "Made in Taiwan" kind of tape recorders in his hand. Almost half of them were wearing Dhotis. I was like: Ye main kahaan aa gaya hoon?
The guy who sat down next to me seemed to be somewhat of an exception at first sight. I started talking with him during the flight when he told me that he runs a business in Dubai. But when they distributed the disembarkation cards to be filled out, he asked me whether I could fill it for him. I told him that he has the option of writing his details in Urdu on the other side of the card. And he was like: "Sir, mujhai Urdu bhi parhni likhni nahi aati." I didn't say anything and filled the card for him. Obviously his businessman story was just made up.