The Beginning of the End

Since I have been so, umm, fortunate to stay in Dubai for an extra week, I thought I should tell you all about the nice time that I've had during my last days in Dubai. The best part of these last days has been that I haven't had to work. Amazing what a difference that makes! During these weeks of funemployment I've beginning to think that Dubai wouldn't be such a horrible place to live, if I had a better job. Or better yet a husband with a good paying job...

Just a few short days after I set myself free from that one bakery job that I used to have, I welcomed a guest that helped me finally enjoy this part of the world. My very cool friend Trish arrived in the morning on April 3rd, and we set immediately set off for a week of fun. Since we had so much fun, I will have to make separate posts for each day. This post is Trish's first day in town, obviously.

I decided to rent a car, so I was solely responsible for driving us around the town, and I do not need to lie about being incredibly nervous about it. When I drive around an unfamiliar city, I like to have a navigator--preferably a navigator who knows which streets are which. Last August I got to drive around pretty successfully, but this place had a good 8 months to move large buildings and roads to make it feel like driving in a whole new city.

So when I made it to the Bur Dubai/Deira neighborhoods without having to backtrack, make a U-turn, or curse the transit authority, I was completely and utterly pleasantly surprised.

The above photos can give you an idea of what one can find in Deira. I've blogged about it a bit before. It was actually the first "touristy" thing I did when I finally got my first day off. Deira is one of the original parts of Dubai so it is not as polished and clean as the main places. Even though it isn't as pretty, it brings in tourists with the dhow rides across the creek; spice, gold, and textile markets; and historical museums with some original houses.

We first walked around the Bastikaya area looking at the home of one of the old sheiks, and it described the architecture and design of typical arabic homes. One feature that used nowadays, except just as decoration, are the wind towers. These boxy towers directed breezes throughout the homes as early air-conditioning.

Then we got on a dhow and headed across the creek for the souks. It was a hot day, and part of me wanted to swim across. Except that I don't swim.

We wandered the souks, bought some spices (frankincense, vanilla, and saffron), looked at the gold jewelry, and avoided the guys selling knock-off handbags. We ate our first Arabic meal of the week: hummous, kebbeh, and shish taouk.

After getting enough sun to get quite sunburnt, we went to the Souk Madinat--a newer souk designed to look old, and with shops meant for tourists with fat wallets.

But it is the place to buy camel chocolate. So we bought some.

We needed to have some beach time, and although the sun was setting we still decided to get some sand between the toes. I showed Trish the beach with the cool rubberized running track. Sadly the tide was too high for cool tide pools are starfish.

I am sure Trish was exhausted having just arrived from NYC that morning, but she was still game for a trip to the Dubai Mall, which frankly is my most favorite shopping center. We met up with some families from church and had dinner at the food court. Not necessarily the most fancy place to eat dinner. But trust me when I say that Dubai food court options have a tendency to be a bit better than your average mall. We ate at Fatburger. It's pretty tasty.

Then I dragged the sleepy Trish through the mall to look at fancy stuff.

And after wandering around the largest mall with the largest fountain, it was certainly time to call it a day.

In the Event of an Unexpected Volcanic Eruption

At the end of March, employees of British Airways airlines decided to go on strike. I watched strike updates rather nervously because in all of my air travel issues I have yet to experience flight troubles due to a strike. I was due.

However, the strike was short and everything resumed as normal. I packed, set myself free from that bakery job, took a trip to Jordan (that I will be blogging about soon), and waited with anticipation to finally leave Dubai for good.

In two hours from right now I should be at the airport with flight documents in hand, packed suitcase in tow, and a charming new bag on my shoulder. I should be popping the Dramamine and making those final good-byes. Instead I am sitting at my friend's house with clothes strewn about the room I am using, typing this blog, trying to avoid a meltdown, trying not to think about how I am supposed to get home, and wondering if a good bowl of ice cream will solve this dilemma.

All because a couple of volcanoes in Iceland had to blow off some steam.

A few weeks ago I read about their initial rumblings, but nothing came to mind that maybe I should re-book my flights. I, who has a knack for travel scrapes, should have seen it coming. I've had delays due to engine problems, storms, 9/11, undisclosed annoyances, missing pilots, and now finally I can add volcanic eruptions to that list. It's like a dream come true.

But it's actually more like those frantic dreams that you have when feverish. You sleep without sleeping--frustrated because you can't seem to get some elusive thing done. That was today.

On Friday I heard murmurings of flight cancellations due to some volcanoes, and was a little worried--but not too worried--that I might also experience a delay. Twenty-four hours before my flight was to take off, I checked the British Airways Web site, and they stated that my flight was still taking off at the planned time. By the time I woke up six hours later, the plans had been changed, and my flight was indeed cancelled. My options were: re-book or get a refund.

Maybe I should stop and preface a little by letting you know about my proposed flight plans:

Sunday April 18th, 1:45 am: leave for London--visit with friends, get lost in city

Thursday April 22nd: take a train to Coventry to visit a friend and then check out Manchester

Sunday April 25: take train back to London

Monday April 26: fly to NYC--hang out with Angie who is traveling from Utah, visit old friends, buy new bras at the magic store

Friday April 30: fly to Spokane, Washington

My flights to London and NYC were part of a British Airways multi-city package. The trip to Spokane on Alaska Airlines is not. Re-booking with BA would be free, but that's not the case with the Alaska Airlines flight. And I don't want to spend too much extra money getting home.

When speaking with the friendly BA staff on the phone this morning, I was told I could get a flight out of Dubai on the 26th. Do you see a problem? I do. Of course the NYC flight could get re-booked as well, but it leaves me with a dilemma: which part of my trip do I cut out? The part in the UK London or the NYC part? Plus, if I am going to cut out London entirely, I would rather take a non-stop flight to NYC from Dubai, which would save me a couple of hours travel-time. So I decided to look around before making any decisions.

My friend Toria looked at a few sites and we found a flight leaving for London on TunisAir on the 20th. We also found cheap flight from London to NYC on the 26th on American Airlines (not my favorite airline, but the price was good). So I decided to get a refund from BA. After one near meltdown, a couple of dropped calls, and an accumulative time of one hour on hold with the aforementioned BA telephone staff, I got a full refund on my tickets (and an option to leave for London on the 27th. Which I declined.)

I then purchased my TunisAir tickets in cash to leave Dubai on the 20th. I felt good, even though during the whole transaction I lost about $200.

Fifteen minutes after buying my tickets, I got a call from TunisAir stating that they have cancelled all flights to Europe until further notice, and that I need to go back and get my refund. They did tell me that they would let me buy the ticket back if flights are resumed by that time.

So, yeah. This is where I am at right now: sitting on my bed, typing, with a splitting headache, and trying to get some idea how to fix this problem. A friend's husband is stuck in London, and he said it isn't worth trying to get another flight for a full week. (!!!!)

I seriously don't know what to do, and don't really want to think about it.

All I do know is that I need to work on my foresight skills.