Jetlagged and beyond jetlagged, seeing as I – as per usual – didn’t sleep at all on the flight here, I am wired and of course excited to be in Dubai. Can’t sleep. Did I miss one night or two nights, with the time difference? So confusing. What day is it? I should be exhausted. And I was. But I think I subconsciously knew I would be woken up at 4:30 a.m. for morning prayer. And so I was. Whew, that’s early. I might have just fallen asleep. Morning prayer, and then prayer five more times throughout the day, is loud. It’s emphatic and melodious and quite nice really, except it takes some getting used to, especially when it startles you awake. Earplugs will be a regular. Echoing on loud speakers across the city and from mosques in the entire UAE, you can hear it wherever you are. There is a mosque every 100 feet. I wait until the Arabic singing has stopped, and close my eyes again. But then our local imam starts up again, summoning to the neighbourhood that prayer was starting. I learn that the first section of singing is to rouse everyone to come to prayer, and then the second part was like a last call of sorts. Just when you start to fall asleep again … I can hear the other mosques echoing in the distance, the different imams singing, the different voices, the varied melodies. It’s all quite cool. Loving it despite the tired. TIP: Bring earplugs but embrace your environment.
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Bevan has to make his fridge more Jenn-friendly, so we stop at Spinneys to stock up. It’s so fun to traipse up and down the aisle looking at all of the different stuff. Love the cereal aisle – “Curiously Cinnamon” seems to be a take on Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I get an apricot-stuffed mini-wheat-type cereal. I notice cream cheese and Laughing Cow cheese on the shelf. Love the gum section, obv. So strange, the refrigerated dog food. Packaged in the way they do polenta. And massive ones at that! TIP: When overseas, go into a grocery store and buy what the locals buy. Noticing the variances is fun. It has been more than 10 years since Bevan and I had seen each other. We taught English together at a training centre in Shanghai, part of a fun and varied group of expat teachers, teaching predominantly students and adults who wanted to study abroad. Bevan and I wrote a textbook together and taught the course. We were in China right when SARS hit, a momentous time when soap suddenly appeared in public washrooms, and spitting was deemed unhygienic. Bevan returned to his native South Africa after China but ended up in Dubai more than five years ago. He’s got a tight contingent of amazing friends here, runs a successful immigration services company and lives in a villa with a cool outdoor kitchen. We kept our close friendship throughout the years, always hoping that we would be able to see each other again one day. Ten years later, with a touch of gray at the temples and the same wonderful soul, Bevan welcomes me with a huge hug and we giggle at the fact that we made this happen. TIP: Watch for opportunities and make things happen for yourself. I have always felt the biggest regrets in life are a result of NOT doing something. As I stepped on to Middle Eastern ground for the first time in the wondrous Dubai airport, I already overstep. I guess I got way too close saying hello to the customs officer at the counter who was scanning my eyeballs. He motioned for me to get back. Way back. Apologizing, I quickly reeled in my hyper-happy demeanour. The loud speaker went off in a melodious Arabic prayer and I looked around, startled.
I texted my friend Bevan on the other side – whom I had travelled 12,000 kilometres to see after more than 10 years – to tell him I was through customs and someone was singing. “That’s the welcoming party I organized for you.” Ahh yes, there’s that dry wit. Some things never change. TIP: Even though you are excited to reach your destination, never lose focus that you are on someone else's turf, and act according to the culture. Too stimulated to sleep as per usual on a plane, I went back to my seat and a paused Brad Pitt fighting off zombies. Now who’s seen World War Z? Was there an entire plane crash scene zapped from my version? Brad Pitt was on the plane, I got the feeling it was leading up to a crash, and then suddenly there was a momentary pause, and Brad Pitt is writhing on the ground, walking away from the plane. I get it, that’s not the type of scene you want to be watching while flying (because scary zombies is what you want to be watching) but man! That looked like it would have been an exciting scene.
Still can’t sleep. I am watching my second movie and it is so strangely interrupted by … a phone call. I look around and see a handset tucked behind my head. OK, yes, this is a phone. And I have a phone call! It’s Gary. The call is identified on my screen by his suite number. He laughs after I fumble the phone in my sleepless fog trying to figure out which way the phone went. “Hiya!,” he began, “just thought you would like your first phone call at 40,000 feet.” Yes … I liked that very much. TIP: Remember when choosing movies that plane-crash scenes, sex scenes and the real grisly parts have probably been censored – pick something else to watch so you don't miss out on the good bits. Also at the fully stocked bar, full of nuts (including us) and fruit and tarts and Veuve, was Mani. Mani was also a pilot, and Mani commanded the room. His personality was big, he welcomed new friends continually to our social hour, even the poor blokes just trying to get to the loo. He made a target of Andres the bartender. He wore some serious bling. Mani regaled us with his incredible piloting stories too, and plenty of hilarious turbulence puking tales – like the big spenders who hired his private jet service. They rolled in with their attitudes, only to be reduced to trembling, green-faced crying baby-men when the ride got bumpy. Mani told us about the high rollers who left the plane carrying out full bags of vomit in each hand. There were many spew stories being traded back and forth between pilots, but they didn’t get old. The best was Gary’s tale about him noticing a man puking in the air on his small plane, which was turned sideways due to bad weather. In an instant, Gary was able to nudge the plane so gravity would halt the mass of vomit in mid-air, only to shift the plane in a nano-second to disperse the lump on the man’s own shirt. “Only three drops hit the floor,” he said. Now that’s a pilot. It’s stories like these that kept us at the bar for hours. Nofel was an inventor. He sold his invention for big bucks. He is on to more, devising a machine for outer space. I saw his prototype. The blueprints. This is real. What’s also real is he is a Bollywood singer with a movie coming out. It’s amazing the people you meet mid-air. TIP: The journey to Dubai was that much more special because of the people I met. Pause your movie and socialize. Everyone is en route to somewhere, and that in itself is a good story. I'm not sure if you should ask just anyone to try on their bling, however. Gary was my flight neighbour and was there at the start. He could see me drinking it all in and not missing a marbled inch. He briefed me on our little suites, and emphasized the bar in the back (which I ended up spending half my flight at). He told me about his experiences on other airlines and how Emirates was unparalleled. He would know. He only flies to get around.
Gary was a pilot. A bush pilot who flew planes of 10 to 20 passengers, and he lived well on his pilot’s salary. But he discovered his life’s mission was to offer himself up to those struggling in third-world countries, and now his home base is in the air, his life's belongings beneath, stowed on our flight. He loved his former life as a pilot, but it was his touching stories about helping out in the thick of unimaginable despair, in such countries as Sudan and the Philippines, which inspired the tears in his eyes. He regaled us with stories of his pilot life, including one intense close call on a flight, saying, “I was about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs.” It was an emotional, life-changing event in Rwanda in 1994 that gave Gary the foresight to know that what he really wanted to do was to help others – he decided his mission in life was to travel the world and give relief to those in war-torn or Mother-Nature torn countries, those who had lost their health, their home, their family, and their will. He was now on his way to the Philippines, and then on to South Sudan. He had just returned from Sudan to Toronto two days before the ice storm hit. From temperatures in the 40s and 50s to our chilling minus 15s and 20s. Ouch. “It’s moments like these,” as he surveys the Business Class cabin, “that you wonder what the poor folk are doing. And I said wait a minute, we are the poor folk. We just got lucky.” It feels good to be lucky. TIP: Make nice with your neighbours in Business Class. Gary and I have been keeping in touch as he saves lives in the Philippines and I don't know the last time I have met someone so interesting. I peruse a noteworthy menu (menu!). Lamb cutlets with blah blah blah deliciousness and red Thai chicken curry sounded great but the fish sayadiah sounded just right – especially since I didn’t know what it was. It was a Middle Eastern dish, and that was how I wanted to kick off the gastro portion. Traipse to the unknown and eat the unknown. Yes I’m well aware it’s just halibut but all done up with cinnamon and Arabic spices – I am pumped. I have every confidence the chef du plane has done a proper job.
TIP: Yes definitely go for the fish. And eat as much of a country's local food as you can. I am given a Bvlgari case with Bvlgari perfume, hand cream, face “emulsion,” and other goodies. Even a Bvlgari-scented wet nap. My bubbly is Veuve Clicquot – a-ha, that’s why it tasted so good.
I went back for seconds, as there was A BAR on my way to the loo. There were bar snacks that looked like the desserts you would see at a white tablecloth restaurant, and gorgeous mini sandwiches stacked on tiered plates. I ate a chicken pesto sammy on a pretzel bun while I watched our bartender Andres pour my champagne cocktail daftly with brown sugar. He would not take the man beside me first who had gotten there before me. “Ladies always first,” he said to the man apologetically. Damn skippy. OK this business-class thing is really feeling good. TIP: Take advantage of the bar. If not for the A-list snacks and free-flowing booze, the cool people will congregate there. Emirates Business Class is just like they say. It is lavish, it is exclusive, and it is warm and friendly and really quite exciting. The washrooms alone are exciting. No more a tiny nook that gets dirtier by the hour, the loos in Emirates are roomy. They smell good. You can spread out in there. Take some time. Look in the full-length mirror. Almost forget you are flying. OK maybe not. But they are pretty nice. And of course they are marble, to match the rest of the cabin. Leave it to me to start off by describing the washrooms. My flight attendant Olga was very sweet. She detected the neophyte shine in my eyes so she took extra time to explain how to navigate my suite. Yes that should say suite, not seat (yeeeee!). Cozying in to my suite with a glass of champagne and my trusty Toronto Star and my Gulf News (sweet!), I have a wealth of entertainment at my fingertips, with a big personal screen above my foot-rest cubby. Brand new movies … ahhh how am I ever going to want to sleep. Apparently I should though, because later a mattress is brought over and my seat becomes a bed. Noise-cancelling headphones, a blanket, pillow, and my mini bar with morning juice is at the ready.
TIP: Yes you want champagne. Look for Olga. |
Jennifer Bill
Published journalist, world traveller, big thinker, fun haver Archives
May 2014
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