Random thoughts on the Middle East

Random images of the Middle East




Shrouded women

Robed men

Hard to keep my eyes open one minute more

Being in a muslim country

Arabic writing on street signs, billboards

How clean Dubai is – no graffiti, no trash

The men in the airport – their (surely they aren’t called hats, but I don’t know the term) hats - the long flowing Arabian head pieces – are held on to their heads with a lacy net piece.

Men wearing sandals under their long white robes

Some sort of bean (like pintos) dish for breakfast. People were putting chopped red onions, parsley, some chopped white thing on it, all in a bowl.

Women with only slits of eyes showing

The name Emirates EVERYWHERE.

No internet.

No free Wifi.

Not being able to get a text sent out from my Blackberry.

The incredibily long walk from the front of the airport (where the shuttle dropped us off) to Gate 206, then taking a shuttle to an entirely different part of the airport where we climbed up the old-fashioned stair ramp into the plane and thinking two thoughts:

1. That the handrail on the ramp was hot enough to burn my hands

2. That the Dubai Tourism Board doesn’t care what our opinion of the airport is on departure. There was such a dramatic difference between our entry gate (with the marble and Grecian columns) and the tacky shuttle where we stood like cattle) that it cannot possible have been unplanned.

The plane is FILLED with soccer fans. The man sitting in front of us said “Why would ANYONE want to go to Cape Town unless they were going to the World Cup?”



A grandpa and his 10 year old grandson, off on a big adventure to the game.

Hearing just about every imaginable language on the shuttle, the blending of people and smells.

All of the little pieces I wanted to remember to write here but are now gone from my tired brain.

Another 9 hour flight.

But, we are almost there.