McArabia Meal

Yes, I saw a McDonalds, and that's what was advertised. It's quite appropriate for United Arab Emirates though, this place is McArabia. Middle east, but still very westernised.

My main description so far would have to be "yawn". That's for a couple reasons. First, I left Accra in the afternoon, and after a 9 or 10 hour flight (which I should have slept on but didn't), arrived here at 5:30 in the morning, so I haven't had any sleep for many hours. But secondly, it really seems there's not much to do here. At least, not without money. The main things to see here are shopping malls, and "souqs", which in my mind were some kind of traditional markets, but upon seeing them in person, they're pretty much just regular strip malls. I did visit the Dubai Museum which was quite good. But otherwise, just walked around, glancing at goods, but not seeing anything particularly special or particularly middle-eastern that I want to get.

I did manage to change my flight at the airport though. Originally I was going to be leaving on Monday the 26th. Talking to a ticket agent type person at first, I was told I'd have to go to the main Emirates office somewhere and things seemed messy and complex. But then I went to a better ticketing desk, and they were able to do everything for me right away. I figured I'd leave on the 22nd or 23rd. Both were available, so after umming and ahhing for a while, I chose the 23rd. Though I sortof regret it now.

Anyways, the plan is that tomorrow I will get a bus to Hatta, which is a town a couple hours away, near the Oman border (officially we pass through a bit of Oman on the way there), supposedly the scenery there and along the way there is pretty nice, so really I'm going mainly for the trip, not anything particular about the destination. Though there is a historic village there which should be interesting in the same manner as the museum was. I'll return from there later in the same day, it would be too expensive to stay tere for a night. The plan for the day after ( = wednesday) is to go to Sharjah, which is a fairly nearby city (but a different emirate) that sounds more traditional than Dubai. I'll explore there, and spend a night there. Kindof will be surprised if I do see anything particularly worthwhile though. Then on thursday, I will return to Dubai, don't know what I'll do though, maybe hang out at some beach? Or maybe go near the super-fancy hotel (it costs like $70 just to go in, though I think it's like buying yourself a gift certificate that you can use for stuff inside the hotel... still don't really want to spend that). Friday morning, off to the airport to come home, yay!

Haven't really found any other tourists yet. I did chat with a flight attendant on the way here, who has lived in Canada before (amongst other places), we were going to meet up in the evening. But when I called, she was sounding pretty sick. Possibly we'll do something tomorrow evening, we'll see. It'd be nice just to hang out with someone, since not much else exciting is happening. After tomorrow, she'll be off on other flights.

I've tried chatting with locals a bit, but people don't seem very social here. Possibly it's due to a poorer level of English comprehension, though generally everything you see is written in arabic and english. The largest population group here is people from india and pakistan, so you here languages from those areas most.

Not sure if I am getting a little sick too, have a dry itchy throat. Probably from all the air con. Even though it's significantly hotter here than it was in africa, the humidity level seems lower, so it doesn't feel much worse.

I'm mainly just writing stuff cause I'm not in a rish cause this place will charge an hour of time even if I finish early. And I'm not in a rush to go anywhere. I'll glance at a couple stores on the way to a bus stop that should take me back to the youth hostel (which is unfortunately a fair distance from city centre). I may also look for some dessert, I'm in the mood for some chocolate cake. But I might settle for a sundae or something.

Can't think of much more to say, will write again who knows when. It's not overly convenient, but if I don't come up with something better to do...