Today I said goodbye to my mother and the staff at Zamorins and departed for the Kochi airport at 4:30am. I knew that if all went well, in 36 short hours I'd be home in my own bed :)
Travel went smoothly through India, emigration had no issues with me departing the country. A four hour flight brought me to Dubai, UAE, where I had the problem/fortune to have a 13 hour layover.
I had heard a great many things about Dubai from friends and colleagues. I think the most accurate description I heard was
that it is like Vegas with less debauchery. Everything is larger than life. It has the single largest mall, the tallest building, the only 7 star hotel, and hosts of other "only"'s in the world. Given such a short timeframe, I knew I would have to optimize my time well. Given the fact that the ayurvedic is supposed to leave you physically spent for some time, I decided I'd skip the indoor snow skiing. I checked into the Riviera Hotel in the Deira part of town to have a home base and a place to shower later in the day. From there, I started walking down Baniyas Road in the 105 degree heat. I figured I'd cross over Dubai Creek and see some of the sites in Bur Dubai. I took the abra (water taxi) across for UAE 1. It was a pretty cool way to travel, with a nice breeze. I took to the streets in search of the Dubai Museum, which I found promptly. I've discovered I can only stay in museums about 51 minutes before running out of patience. Fortunately, this place was air-conditioned and interesting, so I survived my limit and learned a fair amount about the immediate area. There had been some semblance of civilization
in the area for thousands of years, mostly semi-nomadic bedouins that survived in the arid desert through wile and intelligence. Oil was discovered in 1966, which forever transformed the area into a land of wealth. Some of the recent leaders showed significant foresight in utilizing that oil wealth to attract other enterprises and entrepreneurs to build their businesses in the area. There's no sales tax and in general a lot of tax breaks compared with other areas. After leaving the museum, I utilized that no sales tax rule in order to go to Dubai Mall and purchase Raechel a small present :)
After that, I decided I'd play the par-3 course at Dubai Creek Country Club. Like everything else, the clubhouse there was ridiculous in terms of it's scale and design. Fortunately, the greens fee and rentals were very reasonably priced, I managed to only put down about $60 US to cover the entire experience. Afterwards I had a fruit cocktail for dinner (stomach isn't ready for meat just yet) on the waterfront, and headed back to the hotel for a shower. A few hours later, I was on my 14 hour flight back to DC, and another 3 hours to home.
What a trip. I am completely exhausted and worn out, but very happy to be home :)
Holy cow summer is FLYING by! We are having a great time with Frank and Lucy, our new puppies ~ including experiencing new dog friendly spots in Raleigh. It does make me very sad that we cannot easily travel with them and cannot introduce them to everyone! So come visit NC :)
