Arabian night

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Tuesday 27 November–Wednesday 28 November

So that's it then. No more UK for the next three months.

After what some might call a pretty turbulent year, we were off on a very spontaneous trip of a lifetime. Having booked our flights just a few weeks earlier and moved out of our apartment the day before, things were slightly chaotic.

Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way.

As we walked into Gatwick Airport we could not have been much more excited. Even the news of a two-and-a-half hour delay did little to dent our spirits. When it turned into a three-hour delay, we were still just as excited, albeit it slightly more impatient. When we landed in Dubai for our stopover and discovered that we had missed our connection to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) due to the delay and had to spend the night in an airport hotel, we were finally slightly put out.

We had both already been to Dubai before - me last year and C four years earlier. I had loved the hedonistic side and had loads of fun visiting my friends out there but the surreal nature of the place - extreme wealth and extravagance existing alongside a practically unconcealed slave culture - had got to me quickly and by the time I left, enough was enough.

This time around, as part of a couple, it was even more surreal. Every time C reached to hold my hand, we feared retribution (Biblical reference deliberate). The fact that every single person working in the hotel was from outside the UAE was also slightly odd. The fact that we were not allowed to even hold hands in public as an unmarried couple but were checking into a hotel room together felt really strange.

As we sat down to breakfast (the flight landed at 9.30am) we were surrounded by a table of Arabs on one side and a table of Germans on the other. C smirked. "I am so comfortable being with my Jewish girlfriend right now," he said.

I've only ever stayed in airport hotels a few times in my life but what never fails to surprise me is how they are all - wherever you are in the world - exactly the same. Completely and entirely soulless.

Don't get me wrong. We had fun. But then we always have fun. In Le Meridien, Dubai (naming and shaming), the fun was just that much more difficult to come by. We wandered round the streets in the sunshine (a bit like strolling round a gigantic parking lot). We wandered down to Deira and the old town, to see the Gold and Spice markets and soak up a bit of atmosphere. It just all felt very odd, specially as we couldn't even touch and C was constantly being asked whether his "wife" would like to buy something. I switched my ring to my wedding finger after awhile but the fact it had Hebrew lettering on it probably made this slightly counter-productive.

So, after a strange day of attempting to pretend we weren't whiling away time, eating as much hummus as we could stomach and attempting to stream the Arsenal match online, we went to bed, ready for our 6am wake up call and our flight to Vietnam.

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Comments

[Mich]

Hehe, liked C's comment at brekky about his jewish girlfriend. Sounds like ur having fun, wishing you lots more adventures! :)

[Alex.]

??.
This is fairly racist and offensive blog. The part about the UAE.

[LivLiv]

I am sorry to hear that you found this entry "racist and offensive." My blog is written in a tongue-in-cheek style. Perhaps this was lost on you? It is a completely truthful and accurate record of a version of events that took place on my trip to Dubai late last year. I feel that your statement "racist and offensive" would benefit from some evidence to support these claims which you have thrown around in a rather haphazard, unintelligent style. Many thanks.