Day fifteen was one of several days on my trip reserved solely for traveling across the world to a new place.
I had breakfast with Yoann and Jessie, then we also had a cup of espresso to say goodbye. Such white people. I dropped the two of them off on Long Street, drove my rental back to it's home at the airport, then boarded for a long voyage across Africa.
The flight was pretty interesting, as I got to look out the window and see first Johannesburg (much bigger than Cape Town) then Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Across the water we crossed Yemen and Saudi Arabia and then finally into the United Arab Emirates. From my elevation and the cloud cover all of it looked more or less the same, but it was still a cool feeling.
Beside the sights and feely feels, though, Emirates Airlines is the best airline I've ever been on, hands down. Nice staff, plenty of leg room, two full meals, and complimentary alcohol. Not to mention huge TV screens and a selection of something like 400 movies. Plus the flight was only maybe 25% full, so everyone had their own row to themselves. What a ride.
Way too soon the plane landed and I had to leave my luxurious, hedonistic cruise liner and into a thick, muggy, way-too-hot-for-1-AM night. I grabbed an expensive taxi to my hotel, an extremely cheap place I booked on the plane (oh did I mention the plane had WiFi?). The place was swankier than I had expected and the owner invited me up to the roof for shisha and tea. I denied but he insisted very strongly, so not wanting to offend the guy I said ok.
Also on the roof was a contractor from Saudi Arabia who spoke fairly good English, so we talked for awhile before my politeness ran out and I called it quits. Good conversation though. I watched a bit of Dubai TV but was unable to understand anything so I quickly turned it off. While falling asleep in the very, very cold room I missed South Africa. But each place deserves it's full respect, so on to Dubai for real in the morning!
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