I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Dubai, typing this entry on my brand spanking new iPad I won at BlogHer care of the University of Phoenix!! I’m in Dubai because I’m headed to Cape Town for work – that’s where Yola is originally from.

The iPad is….spectacular, and well deserving of a post of its own, which I’ll do once I’ve had some more time to play with it. To summarize, though, I will say that I still stand by everything I originally said about it – it is a luxury device. It doesn’t replace anything I already have, but wow, is it am amazing experience. And as you can see, I’m kinda getting the hang of typing on here too.

Back to the story at hand – traveling. So I left San Francisco at 4pm on Sunday. It is now 9pm on Monday, after a 16 hr flight, and I’m in the Emirates Millennium hotel overnight before my 9 hour flight on to Cape Town tomorrow.

Dubai is a hoot. The airport is a hoot, the airline is enough of an experience that it also deserves a post of its own. ….it’s all pretty amazingly foreign and I love it. It’s funny – I was in India about 4 years ago, but Dubai is much more like Israel than india as far as the general makeup and culture. And I don’t mean that in any political sense, but it really is shockingly similar (in a positive way, in my mind). Stupid stuff is familiar to me, the fliptops on soda cans, the selling of “soda water,” the military everywhere.

Part of the familiarity is because I was in Israel over Passover, and here I am in the UAE over Ramadan. I don’t really drink alcohol, so it doesn’t effect me quite as much as it did the 13 year old me dying for a bagel, but the feeling is the same…and I think the word is respect.

It’s respect for the dominant culture/religion of the region, and as a tourist, the subtle (and not so subtle) reminders that this is a major holiday is helpful. I’m not trying to be dumb American and offend anyone.

Cross Las Vegas with middle eastern culture, and you kinda have Dubai. I mean, there’s a waterfall at the friggin airport. Oh, and yeah, it’s hot out. Well over 100 and the sun is down.

I’m not sure when I’m going to get this posted – no wifi in the hotel (but hotel, food, and transportation are free from Emirates so I’m not complaining) – but will post this, using the word press iPad app, as soon as I can get online.