oh my: dubai!

The plan was a quick weekend in Dubai - leave Qatar Friday morning, fly back Saturday night. I packed just my camera bag (in which I kept my wallet and passports - I have two, soon to be three passports these days) and a backgammon board (in which I cunningly stowed a bikini and a pair of boxers to sleep in). All went acceptably well for a group of eight - it took some time to figure out lodging and desired activities, but we sampled a good smattering in the short time we were there.

My Traveling Companions, AKA the Seven Dwarves
(It is impossible to get a good picture of seven people)

Lost in the Dubai Metro System (shiny but regrettably unfinished)

Highlights include Barasti at Le Meridian (surprising and laid back beach bar with sheesha and young folks from all over the world and beanbags on the beach), Jumeirah (basically Reston Town Center with more food, more Europeans, and beaches), and the wholesale district near the port.

Mosque and cargo.

Lovely dhows from Iran full of refrigerators, couches, and men who hung their laundry all over the colorful boats.

A Dubai must-see is the indoor ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates. We only ended up going here because the other metro stops were not open yet, but this snowflake planter of palm fronds outside the window to the ski slope was worth it.


Then we went to watch the sunset on the beach, but it turns out that Nagheel Harbor is not really a harbor and that the metro never gets close enough to the beach to walk - you have to take a cab anyways. But I did get to see the sunset over transmission lines which was very industrial and awesome in its own right.

The only reason I would start this post with "The plan was", of course, is that things did not go according to plan. I ended up with an extra day in Fabulous Dubai after glimpsing a hot air balloon launch pad at Ibn Battula Mall three hours prior to our departing flight (and right after taking the sunset photo above). Naturally, I could not think of a more perfect way to bid adieu to this sprawling full busy diverse Gulf metropolis than by seeing it from the sky. The more perfect way, I realized later, would have been to see it from the sky one hour earlier. I started to get nervous around 6:09 after we bought tickets for the balloon and went looking for food to eat during the ride (oh, how charming, a picnic in a hot air balloon!). At 6:30, armed with a baguette, figs, and brie, we finally stepped on board. Nevermind that our flight was departing at 8:20 PM from an airport at least one hour away. We would be taking the world's fastest metro! Everything would be fine!

Taken from the balloon - southern end of Dubai, the real skyline is way north of this point but it was pretty.

After disembarking, the attendant had us take a shortcut of stepping stones (which saved us maybe 20 seconds) towards the metro stop, but I think they secretly knew we weren't going to make it. We'd overestimated the speed of the metro in our calculations (forty five minutes to Terminal 3, not twenty). An hour and a half of rush rush rushing to the airport and trying unsucessfully to trick our way to the gate ensued. No dice. Inquiries about buses or boats to Doha were met with chuckles and we had to suck it up and buy a one-way ticket on flydubai for the next day. I spent my bonus day in Dubai playing a lot of backgammon, eating fresh dates, and getting to the airport early . . . enough.

Hopefully Egypt will not have any fiascoes (along with the Lost Passport in Syria, I'm 0 for 2 in botch-free journies so far), but I am certainly learning - about how to make the most of arguably unsavory situations, how to do it better the next time around, and also a good bit about myself in having to deal fully with the consequences of my mistakes. And the fiascoes have been both fun and funny. The adventure is in the uncertainty you embrace - either with intention or by clueless default.