Himalayas & China 2005: 2 - Costa Rica to Dubai, UAE

The start from Costa Rica was smooth. My tradition of starting all journeys with a delayed flight was honoured, although this delay was only about an hour while the crew of the aircraft extracted themselves from an accident originated traffic jam on the freeway. A further delay of half an hour while waiting to land in Newark cut waiting time there from three hours to just over an hour.

We both had upgrades from Costa Rica to London, so the six and a half hour flight across the Atlantic was very comfortable. An excellent meal was served, accompanied by copious quantities of various alcoholic beverages. This led to a short but good sleep on seats that reclined almost to horizontal.

Once at London's Gatwick airport we transferred by bus to the terminal our Emirates flight was to leave from. We checked in with an outfit that represented several airlines to get our Emirates boarding passes, but they informed us that our reservations had been cancelled in August because they had not been confirmed. This was quite interesting news, as the flight was a code share with Continental, had a Continental flight number, the tickets were paid for on May 3, reconfirmed at the Continental office in June, then reconfirmed in mid August when the upgrades on the Continental flights were arranged. A confirmed printout including the Emirates flight was emailed to me a week before we left. I had it with me and presented it to them.

We soon had a representative of Emirates on the phone, but all she had was a long speech as to why it was everyone else's fault except theirs. I finally cut her off, saying I wasn't interested, what I wanted to know is whether we are on the flight or not. The flight was not full so after all this there was no problem. The dear lady then went on to say that another confirmed Emirates flight on which we are ticketed, from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur, would not be available to us. I told her I would sort it in Dubai, where the airline is based.

I had an exit row seat in the economy section with about ten feet of space for my legs. Marilynn settled down in an area with several empty seats were she could stretch out to sleep. Emirates is one of the worlds better airlines, in spite of Mrs. Doom & Gloom in London. In Emirates economy, everything is included. Headsets, chocolate bars, newspapers, drinks (yes, this Arab airline offers a full range of beer, wines and liquor at no charge), printed meal menus, enough pillows and blankets to go around and great service. In addition, there are individual touch screen TV screens with a selection of a dozen movies. Passengers can start the movie of their choice whenever they want, fast forward or back up, pause and so on. There are also dozens of games, many music and entertainment channels, plus channels that tune in external cameras pointed both ahead and straight down from the aircraft.

The flight was the longest hop of the day - almost seven hours, and being tired to begin with it seemed even longer. We were delighted to arrive in Dubai, on time, at 8 PM. We sailed right through immigration, where no visas or forms are required for Canadians. The taxis here are metered, and not expensive. The ride from the airport to the Sheraton Deira was less than $10.

To take advantage of our last opportunity to sleep in for a while, I took a sleeping pill which had been recommended by a doctor friend in Canada. It worked well - I was in a deep sleep when around 3 AM the fire alarms when off. At first I thought I was in Costa Rica and it was the guesthouse alarm, but then announcements in Arabic and English made it clear we were to evacuate the hotel. We threw on some cloths, grabbed our valuables and walked out of the building. Fortunately we were on the first floor.

The first sign that this was no drill was the smoke filled lobby. Outside there were fire trucks and firemen all over the place. People were talking to others the way they will do in times of an emergency - the guest list read like the United Nations. No one panicked - everything was very orderly.

When permitted back into the building we realized that we didn't take a room key in our haste to leave, so while Marilynn headed to the desk to get one I had a look at an exit stairway near our room. The stair well was full of smoke, and water was pouring down from the floor about where the fire had been located. Just as well we didn't choose that route!

That was it for sleep for me - after trying to go back to sleep for a couple of hours I gave up. At 5 AM I took my laptop and the newspaper down to the lobby where I had breakfast. It was less than comforting to read in the paper that the Taliban killed seven people in Afghanistan simply because they had voters cards!

Marilynn slept until around 10:30. We headed to the lounge to have some lunch where Mr. Rajeev of Gulf & World Travel, the Bestway Tours contact in the area, met us with our tickets to Kabul for tomorrow morning. We'll have to be at the airport at 4 AM for the flight! He said things had quietened down in Afghanistan, that there were not the amount of problems initially expected with the election, and that things were more or less normal.

We discussed the comments of the woman in England about having no Emirates flight from Dubai. He took a copy of the tickets and said he would look into it. As Marilynn had been thwarted in her shopping - all the souks (market places) close from 1:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon - so we checked out of the Sheraton and taxied to the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, which is within sight of the airport. It was an even nicer hotel than the Sheraton, and much less costly. I called Mr. Rajeev with the room number, and he was back to us shortly with the information that Emirates will discontinue our flight effective October 29, 4 days before we were to fly on it. He said Emirates will endorse the ticket over to Malaysian Airlines, apologized for not being able to take us to their office, and gave us their location nearest to our hotel.

A short taxi ride took us to the Emirates office, where a highly discriminatory numbered card system had us promptly served, as our tickets are business class. They seemed highly efficient as they contacted Malaysian, made our bookings, redid the itinerary and handed us everything without fuss or charge. The only minor problem that I discovered later that night at the hotel is that the booking is for the wrong date - it is for the day after we were supposed to travel. No time to do anything about it now - we'll have to find someone to make the change along our route.

Across from the airline office was a department store, so we walked over. Marilynn requires a long dress and long sleeves blouse, as we are told being covered is very important in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. She was able to buy both items for the equivalent of about $22. Back at the hotel we had an excellent meal at one of several gourmet restaurant, and made an early night of it.

Dubai has all the appearances of a very progressive and prosperous place. Most unskilled jobs are done by people from poorer countries working here on permits. There is construction everywhere, and no sign of poverty where we travelled. There are a number of mega projects on the go; everything from skyscrapers to high tech industrial parks to giant theme amusement parks. "Invest in Dubai" signs are everywhere. Dress is westernized in many cases, with only a few women dressed in conservative Muslim clothing. There is no shortage of bars, restaurants or nightclubs. On our next trip through we will plan more time here to explore Dubai and the surrounding Emirates more thoroughly. It is interesting to note that Dubai alone receives four times the number of tourists each year than Costa Rica does!

People here live in air conditioning, as outside temperatures are currently around 40 degrees C. Most places over compensate by having Arctic level air conditioning - so we are freezing inside and sweltering outside. It seems a good combination for getting a cold! English is widely spoken - signs are either bi-lingual or in English only. The most popular radio stations use English.

Our wakeup call is for 3 AM -- so tomorrow the true adventure begins. More when facilities are available to get off another email!