Reflections on a Kolkata Education: Dubai .... Pictures Now Posted

So we left Dulles in Washington, D.C. about two hours later than scheduled. Everyone loaded up onto the plane and then we sat at the gate for about two hours waiting for the traffic to clear out from the storms. The flight over wasn’t too bad and as you can see, I got some pretty cool pictures of the sunset over Washington on the way out. I slept for about 4 hours out of the 11.5 hour flight to Dubai, read a few books and overall had a good flight.

The best part of the whole flight was the amazing diversity that I found when we got off the plane in Dubai for our 10 hour layover. There are people from all walks of life and countries roaming around the streets and the airport. You’ll have to ask me about the moving walkway guys sometime when you see me in person. ;o) Connections can be made anywhere, even from across the airport on walkways moving in two different directions. You can find family anywhere.

There are women in burkas, woman in western dress, men in robes, people from Asia, Europe, Africa, and beyond. On one of the moving walkways was a woman I assumed to be from Africa who was about 6’2” at least since she was taller than the tallest guy in our group. Surprising, many of the women who are robed (but not in burkas) are from various parts of the world. I guess it is not that surprising really since Islam is a growing religion and has members around the world. Dubai did not quite jive with my preconceived perceptions of what it would look like, nor with what I expected to see as I roamed around exploring. That is one of the best and most amazing things about traveling to different places around the world. People watching and learning about what makes a country click.

Dubai is definitely very warm. When we arrived, it was around 110 degrees Fahrenheit and about 4:30 in the afternoon. Interesting note about the escalators here…they don’t start moving until you step on them. Great way to save energy and reduce operating costs. Also saw a few other neat signs and things around town as you can see from the pictures. I definitely would be interested in stopping for a while on the way back and checking things out.

We decided to get out of the airport (of course) and explore the city using the local Metro Rail System (RTA). I purchased a Gold Class ticket and jumped on board the train. From here, I saw the tallest building in the world, the mall, some amazing architecture and many, many people from all over the world. Guess it makes sense since Dubai is a business and financial capital and has plenty of money to fund various projects.