After the usual horrendous domestic flight (SFO-SeaTac, hour late, jammed to the gills, crying babies etc. etc. etc.) I boarded an Emirates flight to Dubai, and we traveled right over the North Pole. No signs of Santa and the elves hard at work.
Nice plane and nice flight, which is appreciated considering it’s 14 hours in the air. When they dim the lights for sleeping, the ceiling lights up like twinkling stars. Only mishap was brushing my teeth with hand lotion. A very nice basket of little tubes right next to the complimentary tooth brushes led me to believe they went together. Since the writing was in Arabic I just assumed so. I still have the taste of lotion in my mouth.
Coming into Dubai, the desert was very disappointing. Looked like Nevada from the air. I was hoping to see a panorama of sand sweeping into dust storms, but no such luck. Did see a beautiful 8-line highway with two cars on it. No doubt they were a Mercedes and a Bentley.
Got into the airport just in time for the evening Muslim prayer blasting over the loudspeakers. Nobody bowed facing Mecca, though. (For Dubiaians, that means facing more or less west.) Could be because all the help is imported from Malaysia, Philippines etc. Big news on CNN (yes CNN, not al-Jazeera) was that oil prices were up 15%! Now they can build 50 more water parks and import some more penguins for their indoor skating rinks. Vegas has nothing on this place. Talk about money to burn.
OK, now on to Bangalore. Only another 5-hour flight and then 2 hours of traffic to the hotel and I’m there.
Sherry & George 