Commute

Hello from Dubai!

I have 3 hours to kill before a 5 hour flight that will complete my hop-skip-jump across the world from SFO. This is, by far, the longest commute I have ever made to work. A total of 23 hours in the air or waiting to be in the air. I'm leaving my watch in PST for now to give me some marker of the time that has passed.

Surprisingly, my flights across the US > Atlantic > Europe > Africa was not as terrible as I anticipated. Perhaps that is because I flew Emirates. I primarily fly United (why? I blame mileage plus points) and Emirates was a whole other league.

Positive points on the flight:

• Wet towels before take-off
• Stuffed bears to the children
• Functional (semi-functional) entertainment systems with skycams to show you what the pilots were looking at in the front of the plane
• Lots of edible food
• A travel pack with socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, eye patch and a nifty holster bag if you're so inclined to wear it
• Seats that recline like a La-Z-Boy

I'm so accustomed to domestic carrier service that I kept beaming every time one of the perfectly-coiffed young hostesses swung by to offer me another treat.

"Semi-functional" entertainment center during Reboot #2

My only issue with the flight was the prevalence of screeching babies in my seating area. I don't hate children, but I do have issue when two siblings decided to stand up in their crib and have a screaming contest for an hour. The most infuriating part was that the parents of said children did not manage to quiet their kids. I could have sworn I heard them giggle when the kids went off. In the words of this kid, it's not funny.

But now I am in Dubai, relaxing in a massive mall/airport with the various other Hyderabad-bound travelers. I successfully passed the thermal sensory test (swine flu, still a fear) and got into the terminal in time to hear the call to prayer and to take a peek into the prayer rooms that dot the airport. I also decided to check out the restrooms and was pleasantly surprised to see that Dubai uses all Japanese fixtures. It seems that Japan's Toto is really making a name for itself as the high standard in global toilets.

Those are my musings thus far. Wish me luck on my first day!