Dubai

Busying myself with a couple of good meals, conversation and a few more in-flight movies the time to Dubai passed by quickly.
I just couldn’t wait to get there. I heard tale of the palm tree city that you can see from the air and beautiful architecture. I wanted to see Dubai. But, because our plane arrived during the thick of the night at 2a.m. I missed the palm tree. All I saw was a city of lights.
That didn’t let me down. Just a taste of Dubai would have satisfied me.
It’s like, Lil’ me, in Dubai, kind of like Jay-Z. No complaints there.
We walked through a security checkpoint where we didn’t have to endure jailhouse pat downs or take off our shoes. That felt good.
Then we made it to the main part of the airport.
All within the few minutes of stepping off the plane I saw gold and riches.
Women passed us in fine silk dressings. Some women had every part of their body covered except for their eyes. If I were looking for facial expressions to read how they felt, I couldn’t tell. The dark silk hid everything. Men wore the cleanest of true, white robes. Not a speck or wrinkle showed. I wondered who did their laundry. Whoever did probably completed the chore by hand and not machine, I thought.
I even saw a child less than a year old with two gold ankle bracelets dangling from his little legs. Then to think, I once believed America had money.
During the walk we tried searching for a lounge. There we figured we could wash up in preparation for our next flight. I started to want for a bath. It had been a little over 24 hours since I left my own tub filled my own fresh scented bubbles.
We searched up and down the terminals. But it became near impossible for us, average 1st time travelers to find a nice resting place. I figured something like that would happen, so in preparation for my journey I packed my carry-on with little pre-moistened wipes. At least my face would be clean. The airport did house a hotel, for the rich of course.
So we sucked it up and knew we’d have to wait until our last destination to get a good bath.
I sat content with my clean face and teeth. Then the plan switched to hitting the airport’s shops. Dubai had American things like Cold Stone ice cream, McDonalds, sandwich shops and Duty Free shops.
People were shopping like it was Christmas. I didn’t want to join in just yet, because I had a problem figuring out the currency.
Later, I’d regret that I didn’t buy anything. (I’ll tell you about that) I should have known that anytime I see everybody walking around with store bags, it must be a sale.
I sat in front of Cold Stone for 30 minutes trying to figure out what 1400 (Arab Emirate) Dirhams meant. I’d already spent 800 at McDonalds.
To my joy, the Dirhams and USD factored out to the same amount. I gobbled up my Cold Stone ice cream then had to hurry and wait.
We had another flight, to another country to catch. Before the city’s morning sun peaked to greet us we were off.