Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes. For some reason, I'm very philosophical about turning old enough to run for President. Totally coincidentally, I ate my birthday dinner at Lincoln. Go figure.
If you're in the DC area and don't have much to do on Friday evening, come by the Devil's Kitchen (basement) of The Big Hunt. We'll be there from 5:30PM until I can't remember how old I am.
Some housekeeping around the blogosphere:
- Visit Mary's blog before it goes in to archive.
- Nithin goes to Kampala, Uganda. He is actually my second friend to go there this month. Weird.
- And Ginger is still on here book review kick.
Today's post doesn't have any profound words or crazy stories. Unlike my last post about Tanzania, I have no strong feelings about Dubai. Was it cool to visit? Yes. Would I go back? I wouldn't go out of my way. The beaches are comparable to anything in the Caribbean. The buildings are like any new major city in the U.S. or Asia (think Houston or Singapore, as opposed to Boston or Kyoto). Sure there is Middle Eastern culture, but I am guessing Tehran (minus the clerics and Ahmadinejad) or Cairo has much richer traditions than Dubai. If you want to party, Beirut knocks Dubai's socks off. In short, I think it may be a decent way stop on the way to Africa or India, but I don't consider it a good destination on it's own.
These pictures were taken from the top floor of the hotel. It is actually restricted to elite hotel guests, but when we went to the top floor and asked the guy working there whether we could take some pictures, he didn't hesitate to welcome us (it probably helped we were the only people there) and indeed showed us the best places to get the best shots.
Some immediate things we noticed. One, it's apparently too high to get a good window washing up here. Two, you really get a good perspective on the half-finished buildings that look like the predecessor to the apocalyptic future. Three, the buildings end and the desert begins very quickly. It's like they haven't heard of suburbs.
Anyways, as you can see, Resha is sad. William is sad as well, but he's just better at hiding it... either that, or we actually did break him at Uhuru.
Now we are both appropriately sad.
You can really tell the Palm is a Palm from up here.
Is it just me, does the above look like the cityscape from Inception?
(Photo courtesy of Plural Tantum)
Anyways, after killing some time at the Dubai Mall, we went back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to the airport.
Unlike our first day in Dubai, we were not quite as shocked by the twelve lane highways anymore.
So, we said goodbye to the Chrysler building's cousin...
... what is apparently the international color for a school bus...
... more half-finished buildings...
.... in the world of tomorrow...
... and re-entered Dubai International Airport.
At the airport, I once again tried to buy some Johnny Walker Gold. However, because we were flying through Addis Ababa, it was not to be. Sad face.
I salute all of my readers (all twelve of you) and thank you for completing this journey with me. It was nice to really think about my trip and put it down for posterity, especially the stories that I am sure I would have forgotten otherwise.
William thanks you for coming on this journey with us as well. He is pretty much recovered now... we think.
Resha definitely enjoyed the journey the most, and is very sad it must end. But so goes life.
We boarded our plane and ironically ate some planes. Seems half-quasi-cannibalistic, half Men In Black locker scene.
Even the salad dressing is festive.
William and I slept... a lot. William was nice enough to take the middle seat.
I eventually woke up, and couldn't resist taking advantage.
I have a hunch he knew what was going on, but didn't care.
And so ends our great Kilimanjaro/Tanzania/Dubai adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
While this could be the end of the blog, have no fear! It is not. I wouldn't just leave you with teasers about Korea, Saskatchewan, and Hawaii without coming through, would I? So, stay tuned to the same bat website on mostly the same bat Mondays and Tuesdays. There's a big world out there, and I'm determined to visit all of it.
Ciao.
