Dubai

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I woke when the hot sun leapt the balcony and splayed over the floor of my hotel room. I opened the glass door and for a while watched this part of Dubai - Deira, the markety, bustling part - wake up. My priority for the day, as it is most days, was to arrange my next travelling leg.

After some quick research on the web I caught an airconditioned bus to find the main Emirates Airlines building, where Sri Lankan Airlines also had an office. My revised plan, since I decided to pass on Pakistan, had been to (regretfully) fly to Bangkok from Dubai to resume my surface travel. There were no direct flights, but one of the cheaper indirect alternatives stopped tantalisingly in Colombo.

I had been very briefly to Sri Lanka in 1990 on way to my first trip to Europe and had always wanted to return. That time I had stayed in the capital, but I thought with four days I could see a little more of that poor but beautiful country (the size of Tasmania, population of Australia), see hopefully something of the beaches, as the monsoons at this time of the year have swung to the north. Last time I was there the country was halfway through its 36 year civil war. I clearly remember, through the eyes of someone who had never before left the safety of his own country, the young government soldiers crowding the airport with their fresh faces and primed machine guns.

The airline ticket office was closed for their siesta by the time I arrived, but another agent in the same building was able to sell me the right ticket. I returned to the market area via Metro Line 1 (Metro Line 2, although on all the maps, is yet to be built) which was like entering a spacious marble luxury department store, complete with white-robed and very helpful assistants. I later caught one of the great little wooden passenger traghetti across the Dubai Creek (30 cents), after some confusion with directions from an official. I had thought he was shooing me away, with his palm-down, finger flicking action. But I should have known in much of the world that means "come this way", and the palm-up version actually means go away. How confusing - isn't there some international agency to sort this one out?

I wandered the old souk and bought some souvenirs (I had not thought how I was going to carry them, though). The atmosphere was very relaxed, and I was starting to get used to seeing other tourists around, including black, Asian and Chinese people - I had seen none in Iran I suddenly realised! At sunset I walked up the Creek towards the Persian Gulf (not the 'Arabian Gulf', after years of lobbying by Iran), enjoying the competing calls to prayer, and the beautiful views of the old wind towers, built for centuries like big square chimneys on top of houses to catch the breezes.

Monday 2 November

A lazy morning repacking my backpack, which I then left with the hotel reception and set out to find the big glossy Dubai that had been in my mind's image of the city but yet not seen. It was hot again (!) so I aimed to visit a beach park at some stage as well. I walked too far in the heat, feeling the sun despite my newly acquired Arab head-dress, and spent time resting in the airconditioned bus shelters - but buses were seldom.

Eventually I got to Dubai Beach and could see from there clearly the modern glistening skyline I had expected all along. That was close enough, I reasoned, so headed onto the beach. The water was clear and calm, and there was a big expanse of sand to frame it. The visiting European women flaunting their bikinis was a major culture shock for me, after weeks of modesty, when even my own knees had not seen the light of day. The sea was warm and very relaxing, as I swam in my newly and cheaply acquired bathers (although the shop only had one size, and that happened to be XXXL). The sun set as a huge red balloon.

That evening I caught a quick bus to the airport, which is so close to town - Iranian bus station developers take note. The pre-check-in xray procedures were hastened by an official placing the 'checked' stickers onto bags and cases before they went through the machine. Interesting.

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