Dubai - Part I - Arrival

After 20+ hours in transit, I've made it to Dubai. The Hilton Jumeirah hotel is lovely, and right the beach (as if I actually brought and would wear a swimsuit).

My body clock tells me it's three in the afternoon, but exhausted. There is an 8 hour negative time difference from New York to Dubai. I dozed a bit on the flight from NY to Paris, but I stubbornly refused to get my pillow out of my carry-on until well into the 4th hour, and by then there was really no sleeping. The 3 hour layover in Charles de Gaulle cemented just how much I despise that airport and the people who work there. It didn't really matter that my connecting flight was a 30 minute walk away from my landing gate, and there were no signs directing me to the correct gate. It really didn't matter that I had to go through security AGAIN, and there were 500+ people being funneled through 2 security scanners (I flew business and got in the priority line). The Air France lounge was marginally acceptable, but what really killed me was the absolute and utter lack of information at the boarding gate. At no point were we told that the airplane (a Boing 787) was too big to get to the gate, so we'd need to climb down three flights (with our carry-on), get on overcrowded buses and be driven to our plane, and then climb up another two flights to board the damn thing. The gate agents spoke so quickly and dismissively in English that they may have been chattering in Urdu for all I was able to understand them.

I was able to sleep on the second leg - I got my pillow out as soon as I found my seat, and I think I was out before we left Paris airspace. I woke just as we were entering Iraqi airspace - seeing Basra and Baghdad on the air map was unnerving, to say the least.

It took a while for my luggage to arrive - long enough that I was concerned that it may have not made it onto the flight from Paris. Going through Dubai customs was odd - the immigration agent didn't even ask me the purpose of my visit.

I finally got out of the airport, met my driver and got underway. What surprised me was not the heat, but the humidity. I was not expecting a desert country so be so, well, moist. It took about an hour to get to the hotel - huge traffic problems in this neighborhood, even after midnight.

First thing first - unpacked the computer, signed up for internet service (500 dirham for the week - ouch), and used the VOIP to call Dad. He's fine - and I was glad to be able to talk with him so easily. Now - what to eat? I'm starving. And then time for bed - I'll want to get a good night's sleep - so I can go to the souks tomorrow. Fabric and gold...