Not sure if I have mentioned this in a previous entry or not, but my flight from Jakarta to Cairo had a transfer in Abu Dhabi, and as it happens, my connector flight got changed, so I ended up having to spend the night in Abu Dhabi.

Em had warned me to make sure that I wore long pants when I arrived in Cairo, as it was a Muslim country and wearing shorts makes you stick out even more. Well, fine, I packed my pants for Egypt, but wasn't thinking and arrived in the Abu Dhabi airport in shorts. Not that I wouldn't stick out in the first place, but I was a really sore thumb. No one, not one single person wore shorts, and many of the men wore those long, white arabic robes (not sure of the name off the top of my head) or were in nice suits.

The good thing about having your flight changed, is you get everything comp. This probably won't sound very exciting to you, but to me it was fabulous. First off, I got a nice taxi to the hotel, and the cab driver, a Jordanian, told me all about Abu Dhabi (see below). I walk into my room and it's 2 double bed with proper matresses and a box spring (these were, by the way, the comfiest matresses I have slept on by far). On top of that, they had TV that had English (UK and NA) programs. And then, I had a bathroom, a proper one, with a tub and hot water. So basically this is maybe one step up from a Best Western, but after living in bungalows for 2 months, it was a nice treat.

Dinner, oh dinner...it was buffet style and they had all sorts of meat, aside from pork obviously, pasta, cheese, bread, a typical nice buffet. Ate so much, so yummy. For breakfast it was the usual fare, but they had something that I had not found my entire trip, maple (or at least some type of) syrup. Needless to say, I did feel spoiled for the day.

Now, on to the city itself. I now know what having oil does to a city. This place was posh. According to my cab driver (he may have been embellishing a little) everyone, with a small exception, drives a BMWesque car (there were a LOT of nice cars). On top of that, their highways were state of the art, buildings huge and picturesque, beautiful large homes and palm trees brought in to liven up the drive. Yes, I now know what a rich country looks like.

Alright, am in Egypt now, it's really cool but VERY different from what I have seen in SE Asia. I'll write a bit on it when I get a chance. Gonna head out to Dahab tomorrow for some diving and a place you can actually lounge about. Good luck with finals....talk to you soon...and goodbye Ken Jennings, it was a valiant run....