The Journey was long but well worth it. After a not-so-terrible 17 hour flight plus another 3-4 hours of airport and transit nonsense I finally arrived in the desert oasis known as Dubai, an emirate (i.e. state) of the United Arab Emirates, aka U.A.E.
While the flight and all wasn't so bad, there was one major foul up that really grinded my gears: Lufthansa forgot to put by bag on the airplane...Thanks Lufthansa; what happened to German efficiency? I digress.
I was off the airplane in no time. I made my way down to baggage claim, and what was waiting for me there? This sign:
Now, the thing is that Askari can be a common name in the middle east, so when I first saw this sign I thought to myself, "how funny, this must be how a 'Smith' feels in the States." But the LH number looked vaguely familiar. I checked it against my bag tag number and my heart sank as I realized the sign was, indeed, intended for me.
I made my way to the Dnata Baggage Services office and the kind lady there informed me that Lufthansa never put my bag on my flight leaving Los Angeles...I was furious to say the least, as I had no other clothes with me - just my photo gear. The Dnata agent told me my bag would be placed on the same flight the following day, meaning it wouldn't arrive until 11:45PM the next night. We wouldn't be home so the bag wouldn't arrive until noon the next day. I really expected way more from Lufthansa. There wasn't an apology, no credit towards my flight or even towards clothes for the 2 days I would be without the essentials. But I digress, the real point of this post are the pictures below.
I haven't taken a photo trip out into the city yet, as my friends and I have either been enjoying the $100 all you can drink/eat 4 hour brunches they partake in here, or busy with work; taking the camera is not ideal when the possibility of drunkenly losing/breaking it is higher than normal.
Without further ado, Below are a few pictures from my first week in Dubai. Hover over the image for a quick description.
