The Flight to Moscow

The flight to Moscow

My flight started at Cape Town International Airport on the evening of the 27th. This overnight flight with Emirates has a late dinner and then you have the opportunity to sleep on the flight. I didn't really expect to eat so late so I didn't eat anything at the airport and I only realized later that once you've gone through security, boarded the plane and gone through the takeoff procedure by the time we ate dinner it was 10pm. The quality of food on Emirates flights is really good but the portions are small. Due to the fact that my plane landed the next morning breakfast was served at 4am which was also not my ideal time to eat again. All in all the whole experience was a bit nerve wrecking. One does not get a lot of sleep on an overnight plane and the window seat although it provided the best view was extremely cold to sit next to. I was lucky enough to be seated next to a lovely lady from Cape Town who was going to go work in the UK, we were both going to switch to different connections in Dubai. She shared a lovely travel cappuccino with me and the company was very welcome.

EMIRATES MENU

EMIRATES BLANKET

Apart from the classic Emirates blanket, you are also provided with a little overnight kit that you get to keep. The kit consists of a sleep mask, some earplugs, some socks, a toothbrush, a sticker that you can use to indicate whether you would like to be served breakfast or not etc.

On screen, you have the option to watch tv, music, the news, movies, but also to see in real time the distance from your destination and where in the flight you are.

THE ON PLANE SCREEN

FLYING INTO DUBAI

DUBAI LANDING STRIP

My flight landed in Dubai the next morning and I had about an hour to switch planes to get on my flight to Moscow. Dubai is deathly warm and even in the airport, the air-conditioning does not do much for the scorching heat. I'm pretty sure if you wanted to you could fry an egg on the runway.

Dubai airport is exceptionally big and one has to treck quite the distance between gates. I had a few minutes to freshen up in the bathroom between flights and I was very grateful that forward-thinking me packed some essentials. The advise you to not drink the water anywhere so there I was in the bathroom at Dubai airport brushing my teeth with the bottled water I got on the plane.

MY BAG CONTENTS

My flight to Moscow had fewer people who were traveling internationally and more native Russians. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a very nice Russian engineer on his way back to his family home. He gave me some information about which areas we were flying over and gave me his dessert. I have to say the chocolate mousse we had on that daytime flight was delicious.

Flying over Georgia

GEORGIA

We flew somewhere over the Persian Gulf, Iran and then Georgia. Georgia is a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia, is a former Soviet republic that’s home to Caucasus Mountain villages and the Black Sea. Some of the images I took of Georgia shows there Mountainous areas.

MAP

GEORGIA

Apparently, Emirates has two flight options to either fly over Iraq or to fly over Iran. 

Relations between Iran and most of the Gulf countries have been strained for a few years. Its been a year since Qatar’s neighbors plus Egypt severed ties with the Gulf state, cut off exports, expelled their citizens and banned Qatari flights from using their airports and airspace.

This came from the fact that Qatar was deemed to be too friendly to Iran. The UAE was one of those who closed their airspace to Qatar and this might have soured their relationship with Iran thus making it more likely that Emirates flies over Iraq. 

Another consideration is the fact that the overflight fees for Emirates over Iraq is cheaper. The slightly longer flight over Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain would consume more fuel but will still be cheaper than crossing Iran.

Flying into Russia

RUSSIAN FARMLAND

RUSSIAN FARMLAND

The first couple of thousand kms that you fly into Russia you can see the expanse of farmlands that produces Russias food. Due to sanctions from the west, Russia has had to rely on itself for food production more and local produce can be found everywhere. You can see the large-scale farming when flying in over Russia and it's beautiful. Russia's boom in the agricultural sector has recently made it a large exporter of wheat.

Flying into Moscow my plane landed at the DME. Moscow Domodedovo Airport is an international airport located on the territory of Domodedovo, Moscow Oblast, Russia, 42 kilometers south-southeast from the center of Moscow. DME is one of three international airports in Moscow. The city is built with a circular metro line and the airports are spread out over this circle. From the airport, you can take an Aeroexpress train into the city center and then transfer to the normal metro station.

VIEW OF MOSCOW

DME AIRPORT