Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

While returning to the U.S. a dozen years ago from a reporting assignment in Kabul, I had a long layover at the Dubai International Airport and got to know it well — its ebb and flow from quiet to clamor and back, as passengers from all over the planet arrived and left.

With hours to fill between flights, I roamed for miles around this colossal airport, the busiest international hub in the world . I marveled at the gold shops, wandered past the McDonald's and Starbucks, browsed the camel's milk chocolate and Cuban cigars, rested in the Zen Garden. I heard Arabic, Hindi, English, Chinese and French. I spritzed myself with perfume at the duty-free shops and

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