In the U.A.E.

Well, we have made it to the Republic of Malawi. We flew from Toronto straight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), which was approximately a twelve hour flight. The flight was one of the most relaxing we have taken before as the service was wonderful and the entertainment options were the best we had ever seen.
Dubai is an interesting city. It is not that old as far as cities in the Middle East go as it was founded as a fishing village in 1830, but it has truly grown from its humble roots. There is the remains of a fort built in 1787 that was built to protect the landward approaches to the town and has also served as a palace and a jail but it is now a museum. Apart from this fort there is not a lot of visible history in Dubai. It is more accurate to describe the city as a monument to shopping malls and I have to admit that there is not much to appeal to me. Everyone keeps asking us if we have been to the Mall of the Emirates which is the largest tourist attraction in Dubai but all we did in our layover was go to an area called Madinat Jumerah to eat on the advice of the tourist booth. I had some authentic Dubai food, which was basically chicken and rice. It was good, but not much different than chicken and rice as you would imagine it. The Dubai "shops" we were sent to was really just a mall disguised as an "old style" outdoor Arabic market, just one that has a Starbucks and sells really expensive Western clothing and is actually inside a climate controlled mall. This area was beside the famous Palm Island that was completely manmade and has a trunk that is all shopping and entertainment areas and the leaves are high priced housing. Dubai was interesting to see but for me the nine hours was probably enough time for me unless I came to spend a large amount of money.

Next we flew to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, a country full of history. More on that soon.

Jules