Sylvia's Journal

The longest part of the trip is now behind me. I had a good night sleep in Dubai. Arriving in (or departing from) Dubai is starting to get familiar: this is my 7th stop in this city since November 2008. Still, it remains a strange place. Of all the places I have visited in my life this one has the most white SUVs per square inch. It also has the most spotless white-clad men I have ever seen; I have always wondered whether their secret is simply changing clothes a lot. Women, in their black dresses, are at an advantage, for once.

The flight from Amsterdam was full of business men, some with their wives, from all over western Europe, not just Dutch. Apparently Dubai’s economy has not collapsed. It is also a tourist attraction – why is a mystery – and a party place. A group of young women with T-shirts that said something about a ‘hen party’ for someone named Fi on their chests and backs, spent a long time at the cash machine in Dubai’s arrival hall. I guess they plan to have fun and can afford it.

Despite the full flight I was lucky that the seat beside me remained empty. I was so tired that I had fantasies of spreading out on the ground or doubling over on the two seats but in the end managed to sleep, fitfully, in my seat between meal services.

I was greeted outside my hotel as if I was royalty, and then escorted to my room. Check in was done unobtrusively, as if there was no money involved in this transaction (which of course there is, lots of it). The room had a basket of fruit waiting for me as well as an espresso machine and a shower with water coming at you from every direction (this required a sharp mind to understand).

There was too much stuff to explore in this executive suite that I am upgraded to, that I stayed up longer than was good for me. It was such a shame to go straight to bed and not enjoy, even for a brief moment, these luxuries that stand in such sharp contrast to what awaits me in Kabul.

This morning’s breakfast buffet was a multicultural one: French, Korean, Indonesian, Arabic and then the usual stuff. I went for Arabic: various cheeses with olives, hummus. It was just the breakfast we had talked about during our Saudi dinner in Cambridge, last Monday, now worlds away. And now on to Kabul.