Log margin notes:
On the way back home, the Lost Nav was blown off course by Emirates Airlines' changing schedules. It could have been a ploy to get me to spend money in Dubai.
I learned of the layover days before, but I still headed to the Delhi airport thinking that my Asian adventuring was over.
Still, the flight change left me with a 10-hour layover and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to see another part of the world. In Delhi I met two guys headed to San Francisco, who also had pretty serious layovers, and we decided from the Delhi airport to hit the town in the broke desert Disney.
First thing's first: The terminal in Dubai is huge. The showcase building never runs out of long clean corridors, massive high ceilings supported by marble-looking pillars, glass elevators and adds one indoor waterfall. The Emirates terminal is supposedly the largest air terminal in the world.
Friendly, young and Western-styled immigration officers told the Americans that no visas were necessary to head out into town for a few hours. The Indian passport holders were sent off for an ID check before their passports were stamped.
A quick security check of my carry-on bag was conducted through passport control. Apparently, it is not permissible to bring matches into Dubai.
The three of us headed into town to see the Dubai Mall and the tallest building in the world the Burj Khalifa (2,717 ft).
The taxi ride through the night highways reminded me of Florida... wide highways lined with shopping strips, glass buildings and Western fastfood joints.
When we arrived it seemed that the Dubai Mall is just a mall. It's a big, nice mall, with an ice rink and a little aquarium. It's clean, it smells good, but it's a mall. Maybe it's a big deal for all of the tourists I saw there. There were more tourists than locals. The style of dress ran the range from women's burkas and men's white dishadasha robes and shora headdress to average Western.
After a quick trip around one of the mall's levels, we decided on some dinner.
We made our way outside to a man-made pond that separated the mall... from another mall. A broad selection of outdoor cafes lined both sides of the pond and tourists gathered on a bridge to watch a water show provided by the pond's fountains right at the foot of the Khalifa tower.
The Vegas-style show ended in a few minutes and we sat down to some moderately priced Middle Eastern food.
The next stop was a hotel for a cold beverage before it was time to get back on the plane for a 14-hour half-day of pain. (Hotels are the only businesses allowed to serve alcohol.)
The hotel, a monument to what a traditional Arabian palace must certainly look like, also boasted its own pond and a view of the new off-shore, sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab hotel.
We sat on beanbag chairs at the hip outdoor patio bar while fancy society swells from Europe and West Asia drank fruity drinks and smoked hukkahs in the 60F degree air.
The Dubai experience was only a few hours and it was plenty for me to feel I had seen all there was to see in the Arabian peninsula's no-gambling tribute to Las Vegas phony glamor and excess.
On the way back from the outdoor bar I remembered the first conversation I had in India. I met a friend named Madhur in the Mumbai airport. He told me Mumbai was dirty and hectic and I should leave quickly or I'll never want to come back to India. He also told me I should someday make a point to visit Dubai.
I told him I had a few months to spend in India, one month back in New York and then 27 months in Morocco.
So when would I ever go all the way to Dubai?
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