Dubai international airport – Randries! (from Tamil நன்றி)

OK in short no milk – I had a cold so milk isn’t the best thing for that, and I needed a shower. And that’s where this story begins … I had planned to go to the G-Force hotel and use their gym, but my flight was a little delayed and I found free showers right next to my departure gate. Yep, you read right ‘free’ showers with soap – towels, however, you had to buy from duty-free! So I dried myself with my emergency t-shirt! I tried to brush my teeth with my emergency toothpaste only to discover it had become solid! Huh!
The Tamil attendant spoke very little English or Arabic. It seemed his job was to keep the room clean, which he did very well, and redirect visitors who were looking for the rest room – which took more time than the cleaning. I asked the attendant how to say thank you in Tamil (what? you’re surprised?) – randri he said, with a lot of ‘r’ rolling. Although I checked Omniglot which lists thank you as நன்றி (nandri) rather than randri. Still I’m sticking with Randri, so showers in airports, especially free ones, are henceforth called, by me anyway, ‘randries’!

Interested that so many people had to be turned away from the showers I looked up to the signage which clearly wasn’t working.

Randri Showers Dubai International Airport

I’m guessing the confusion was the ‘male’ icon and word, which without the shower symbol would often be used for male restroom. This sign can look like restroom and showers. Perhaps changing to a symbol with a ‘male’ under a ‘shower’ might work better. And a sign by the entrance redirecting visitors to the rest rooms would give my new Tamil friend much more free time!