Seeing as we are going down memory lane, Dave......Qatar reminds that I once hired (with instructor) a 172 from Fujairah - which ran on Mogas despite high temperatures (no Avgas in UAE). We went into Omani airspace for while then touch and goed at Sharjah, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi before returning to Fujairah. On the way back, we saw something that could have come out of the Bible - a vertical "pillar of cloud" which stretched from the sand (where it was throwing up eddies of sand) up to many thousands of feet above us, and I could see lightning flashes within it. Whilst I wanted to give it a very good berth, the instructor kept wanting me to go nearer as more direct to his home base. No way! Doubt if Dubai would let you do it today as they are so busy, but there wasn't a fee at any of the airports. Happy days.