Day 1.

Outside Terminal 2 at Dubai International Airport at 1am for my early morning flight to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.


And through to the Marharba lounge after passing through immigration and security.


This morning's fight was a simple direct flight on Flydubai (FZ) from Dubai (DXB) to Asmara (ASM). With it's relative close proximity to Dubai I had been wanting to visit Eritrea for quite a while. A few years ago when I was looking at ways to get there, there was only the choice of flying via Cairo on EgyptAir (MS) for ~$1000, or on infrequent direct flights on Eritrean Airlines (B8) for ~$600. In 2014 both Turkish Airlines (TK) and Qatar Airways (QR) started up flights to Asmara for ~$600 from Dubai. Then Flydubai (FZ) started flying to Asmara and I managed to get a return ticket for $220 during one of their frequent sales.


Waiting at the gates before boarding the bus to the plane. I had managed to get a few hours sleep at home prior so wasn't too tired despite the very early hour.


And boarding our flight just after 3am. The flight was mostly Eritreans and a handful of Italians.