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Kishing the Persian Gulf
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Kish
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Kish
is a coral Island in the Persian Gulf, 18 km off the southern coast of
Iran. It is a 20 minutes flight from Dubai by jet aircraft; 40 minutes by
turboprop.
Kish is perhaps the most visited city in the Middle
East, after Dubai, being the favored destination for a “visa run” – a
nearby place where you can go to and stay till you get a visa to return to
the United Arab Emirates; a place where you are admitted with no questions
asked, with no visa formalities. A place that is peaceful and safe, where
there is practically no crime; and yet a place where emotions run high and
where many people despair the tension that has gripped them in their wait
for the visa.
An entry visas is Issued at the time of arrival at the Kish airport or sea
ports and is valid for 14 days. Entry visas can be extended at least 3
days before their expiry.
Engineers, lawyers, bankers, welders, construction workers, housemaids,
whores – you can find them all at Kish.......waiting patiently for that all
important fax that will enable them to pack their bags and begin a new
life in the United Arab Emirates.
Indians, Pakistanis, Yemenis, Somalis, Palestinians, Hindus, Muslims,
Christians…………the list goes on and on. It’s a gathering of humanity on a
massive scale.
Because of the trauma associated with such a trip, most people remember
the visit to Kish as a nightmare. Some return smitten by its charms.
My own journey to Kish began quite abruptly when I got a job in Dubai and
was asked by my company to “change my visa status”. I had, till then, been
on a visit visa valid for 60 days and which would expire on the 28th of
July 2002.
I had heard about Kish, of course. I had several friends who had made the
visa run to Kish who returned to tell tales of the horrors that they had
to face – bad aircraft with tightly packed seats, bad food and
communication facilities at Kish, chaos at the hotel, visa faxes that
magically disappeared and had to be re-faxed several times, long queues at
the airline office to get a return seat…………the complaints went on and on.
I had called various travel agents in the city and each had given me a
different version of the airfares and rules prevailing. One message that
they all delivered with different levels of clarity was that a deposit had
to be made with the airline prior to catching the flight. Various agencies
reported various amounts that needed to be deposited, ranging from Dirhams
500 to Dirhams 1000 (US$ 136 - $272).
It was therefore with some trepidation that I set out to the office of
Kish Air to book my ticket.
The office of Kish Air was then in Deira, near the Fish Roundabout, next to Hotel Claridges (Telephone number 04-2720006). If you have heard of Murphy’s Law
(“If anything can go wrong, it will”) and then visit Kish Air’s office,
you will get the distinct impression that Murphy discovered his universal
law while waiting to buy a ticket to Kish.
On 5th July when I went to purchase a ticket and sat in front of the
ticketing assistant she just stared at me. “I want a ticket to Kish” I
said. No response. “Is something wrong?” I asked. She finally responded
with the terse statement “no ticket stock”. I gathered that the ticket
stock is kept in a safe upstairs and everyone was waiting for this stock
impatiently – the ticketing clerks, the passengers, the visitors who had
come with the passengers and so on. It appeared that Kish Airlines had
sold out their stock of tickets! “I wonder whether I will have to buy a
ticket on the black market” I remember thinking. It seemed aberrant that
during the slack summer season flights to Kish could command a
premium due to a shortage in ticket stock.
Just then there was a squeal from one of the ticketing assistants. Some
blank tickets had been found in her table drawer – they had apparently
worked their way to the back of the drawer and out of sight. The other
ticketing assistants gave her dirty stares and glares to which she replied defiantly
with dirty stares and glares of her own. Calm finally prevailed and the ticketing
assistants got down to their business of issuing tickets.
The ticketing assistant had arbitrarily booked me on the afternoon flight
leaving Dubai at 2.30 pm the next day. I would have preferred going to
Kish by the very last flight in view of all the negative publicity that I
had heard about it but my opinion on this sensitive matter was not
solicited. I was brusquely asked to pay Dirhams 450. I was told that this
was for a return ticket to Kish plus one night’s stay in their hotel
(Hotel Farabi) plus free breakfast. I was asked whether I would pay the
deposit of Dirhams 1500 then and there or whether I would pay at the
airport. “At the airport” I mumbled, took my ticket and left.
Flights to Kish depart from Terminal 2 in Ghusais. They do not appear to
be rigid regarding checking in two hours before the flight. Two hours
before the flight, I found the office of Kish Air still locked. None of
their personnel had turned up. When I checked at the airport information
counter desk they told me that the flight had been rescheduled to 1530
hours.
The Kish Air personnel finally arrived at 1430 hours, an hour before
departure. All passengers tickets were taken and checked against a printed
chart to see if the tickets issued matched with the names on the chart. To
no one’s surprise several names were missing. Mine included. I later
calculated that about 10 out of 50 names were missing – a good 20%!
Those traveling to Kish without a return ticket to their home country need
to leave a deposit of Dh. 1500 with Kish Air. This money will be refunded
when you return to Dubai and may be collected after showing the original
visa along with the entry stamp. Some people who go to Kish are unable to
get a visa to return to the UAE. In such cases the deposit is used to
purchase a ticket for them to their home country.
On a different note, this Dh. 1500 must represent a significant source of
interest free funds to Kish Air! Just imagine 500 people paying them Dh.
1500 a day. That’s Dh. 750,000 a day!
I must say that the Check-in Assistant at the airport was quiet polite and
friendly. He apologized for my name not being in the chart and offered to
check me in, then and there, for the 1830 hours flight. I readily accepted
his offer since I had come to know by then that one of the Kish Air
flights of that afternoon had also been cancelled and I wanted to take no
more chances. If I missed my flight, my company would still have made a
visa application the next day – the process having gone out of their
control and into the hands of a Public Relations Office (PRO) – one of
those persons whose sole station in life is to visit the Labor and
Immigration department and to apply for visas. These guys brook no delay
and will apply for your visa even if it is brought to their attention that
you have not departed the country and are still “hanging around”. Such
applications are inevitably rejected by the computers and create havoc in
the system – if a visa gets rejected, this information shows up everywhere
and the concerned officials have no interest in finding out why this was
so. Visa rejection is big trouble in the UAE. You could even lose your new
job before you get it!
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I learned that the aircraft to Kish was a Fokker
50 turboprop. I have flown in the smaller Fokker 28s in India and
quite like the aircraft.
One is bussed to the aircraft in Terminal 2
(unlike Terminal 1 which has aerobridges). The aircraft has its own
built-in ladder so getting on and off is very swiftly accomplished.
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My seat was 4A, a Window seat. However, I found someone
else sitting in my seat. When I showed him my ticket and
pointed out that this was my seat he loftily replied that this was a
free-seating flight and that I could sit anywhere. An aisle seat in the
first row was vacant so I took that.
It offered me a pretty good view of the cockpit. I was
amazed to note that the cockpit was in fact at a much higher level than
the cabin – the pilots were sitting several feet higher than the
passengers! You can see this also in the photograph of the Fokker 50
aircraft above.
Since Kish is an Iranian Island, Kish Air must conform to Iranian rules.
One rigid rule is that women must be fully clothed and not show any bit of
bare arm or leg. The stewardess looked like a female Captain in her
uniform. It was a very dark blue. She had a gold stripe at the wrists. She
wore trousers and shoes and her hair was covered by a cap. The steward, on
the other hand, was very casually dressed in a plain bush shirt and
trousers. It seemed very incongruous.
Kish Air appears to have a person on each flight that I can best describe
as a “plain clothes policeman ”. He is seated just outside the cockpit.
Maybe he is a security officer placed there to prevent a hijack. Whatever
it is, he just sits there ominously doing nothing.
This person seemed to be a battle scarred veteran. His head was shaved
bald and I could see several scars on his skull. On one of them I counted
seven stitches. I wondered where he got these scars.
A little while after the plane had taken off I got up to go to the toilet.
This is forward, in the Fokker 50. As I got up the “security officer”
abruptly did likewise. Maybe he thought I was about to hijack the flight!
I told him that I wished to visit the toilet. This seemed to reassure him
– he pointed at the toilet and then sat down again. I noticed a similar
“security officer” on the return flight.
When we left Dubai, it was very hot. The temperature may have been around
38 degrees Celsius. The first thing that struck me as I got off the plane
at Kish was how pleasant it was. There was a refreshingly cool wind blowing.
There were several women on the flight to Kish. I had seen many of them in
the departure lounge - beauties with big breasts and haughty looks dressed in tight tops
and jeans. When I saw them again at Hotel Farabi, I could hardly recognize
them - the makeup was off, they were dressed in a shapeless black gown and a
scarf covered their head. They would again undergo a metamorphosis when
they reached Dubai and would revert to their beautiful haughty selves.
One must open ones bags for examination but the customs check is
perfunctory. Liquor is not allowed into Kish and someone told me that if
you are caught trying to smuggle alcohol in, the authorities arrest you
and shave your head etc. How true this is I do not know. Don’t take any
chances, though. It’s not worth it.
As one exits the airport there is a money exchange counter. I avoided it
figuring that the exchange rate would be better in the city than at the
airport. I was soon to find out that UAE currency is widely accepted. I
never saw any Iranian bank notes or coins when I was at Kish. I even got
small change back in UAE fils.
The drive to the hotel takes just a few minutes. Roads are deserted and
traffic is normally thin. However, unlike Dubai where cars hurtle around
at high speed, the pace at Kish is more sedate. Cars rarely exceed 80 kmph
here.
Hotel Farabi is managed by Kish Airlines. The first thing they do at the
reception is to take your passport and issue you an ID card and a room
key. If you lose either the key or the ID card you are charged Dh. 100
(about US $ 27).
I was allotted room # 408. When I got there I found that there were two
beds placed in the drawing room and another three beds in the bed room. I
selected what appeared to be the cleanest bed and put some stuff on it to
identify that it had been taken.
The bathroom (there was only one) was quite clean and what we call back
home “Indian style” – there is no commode; you squat on the floor.
Soon another person, a guy called Liju, entered the room. He had also been
on the same flight. He was here to get a new visit visa. Apparently he had
spent three months in Dubai hunting for a job unsuccessfully. He would
return to Dubai on another visit visa to give it one more shot.
I found two restaurants near Farabi. The first one was a budget restaurant
where they had only five or six dishes (the menu was scrawled on a board
on the wall – chicken curry: Dh. 7; chicken fry: Dh. 7 and so on.
Chapppatis (Indian bread) were served free of cost. The quality of the food was
bad.
I was up quite early the next morning. Breakfast is supposed to be served
between 8 and 10 am but at 9 am the hotel restaurant had not opened! I was
quite hungry and walked to the restaurant where I had had dinner the
previous night. The board said “Open” but the door was locked. When I
knocked repeatedly, it was opened by a sleepy waiter yawning loudly. The
hotel restaurant finally opened for business at around 9.30 am.
Breakfast here is a joke. You get large oval shaped bread (Iranian bread),
a pat of butter and jam. Tea is served black with sugar – I saw no milk
around. You need to use both hands to tear the bread into pieces – it’s
that tough. .
By now I had made a friend in Kenroy Ferrier. He told me his story over
breakfast.
He had been working as a service engineer with a well known manufacturer
of scooters in India. A family friend based in the UAE offered to get him
a job in the company where he worked. The job appeared 100% certain and
the friend kept egging Kenroy to come to the UAE and take up the job.
Based on these assurances Kenroy resigned and winged his way to the UAE.
However, soon after getting here he was told that there “were some
problems” in getting the job. Three months later and still with no job in
hand he realized that he had better do something quickly or return to
India. Kenroy decided to give it one more go and was in Kish on a “visa
run”. He would return to Dubai to again try for a job.
When Kenroy heard that I was from Bangalore, he introduced me to another
guy (Sandy) from Bangalore. Sandy in turn introduced me to his room-mate (Baiju).
Soon the four of us were friends.
With nothing much to do in our hotel the four of us decided to take a tour
of Kish. We checked with the Manager of the hotel who told us that a two
hour tour by taxi would cost us Dh. 40. He advised us to take a ‘Dalaho
Taxi’ (one of several taxi companies that operate in Kish) as they are
more reliable. We soon found ourselves being driven around by Farzad, a
friendly Iranian who had come to Kish three years earlier in search of a
job.
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