The question is not what you look at, but what you see

Henry David Thoreau

Well now I remember travelling is a kick but oh my gosh is it tiring.  Left house in Seattle  at 6:30 am Thursday catching train to airport carrying the two bags with bike in it. Whew and emirates airline is of. course at far end of terminal.  I needed some exercise so walked it carrying bags forgoing a cart 

Onto the plane at 9:15 and sat in that seat for the next 15 hours except to get up for bathroom. But a great flight. Was able to sleep a bit, had room to move, emirates airline fed us good, two fine meals, dinner and breakfast, lots of snacks( crackers, cheese, pizza, beer, wine. International flights are great.   

Was fun as always nice when they have a displayed map or flight info and where we are. Flew pretty much straight north until we were going straight south. And the best part is seeing parts of the world I had not seen: canadian rockies and Canadian Shield, Arctic Ocean north of Greenland, then down over central Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,  and Iran. All looked like incredible country. Could have been many places. Fields, farms, cities, roads. Mountains looked amazing and we weren’t even over big ranges.  Reminded me very much of Utah and eastern Montana. Interesting how biased we can become reading the news. 

Then Dubai and off the plane. I thought the airport ( bigger (it is)  than Las Vegas and more plush with far better air conditioning.  I did not realize how hot it was until finally got off the metro train a hundred yards from hotel. Then when you stepped outside the building and walkways it hit. 
Room was not ready as arrived at noon so sat in lobby but decided to ride the train about as I had a day pass. Was going to get off and explore side streets but was noticing my exhaustuon and went back and slept. 

Awake and it was dark as in no lights in room. Realized I had not put key card in slot by door for power but it did not work. Tried figuring it out myself but ended up going downstairs and maintenance  guy came up removed a cover off one of light switches, played with wiring and viola all worked. Just be careful of hitting the button which is magnetized to do something with the electricity. Whatever. Sort of like the main bathroom light switch in Delhi which was in the shower. Sometimes they do things differently. 

But room is great 900 square feet (84 meters square) big bedroom, sitting room, dining area, kitchen with laundry 2 bathrooms.  One could get lost In the king bed: all for $200 for two nights including taxes, and a full breakfast. Wifi is slow though. 

Out to eat finding a hole in the wall place which was Indian Chinese food. But my Hindi and or Arabic language skills are non existent, and ended up pointing at pictures. I thought the waiter signaled they were small but was two meals which I ate. Very good lamb and chicken masala with  fried rice. 

Enroute home found a pharmacy and got some cipro for potential problems. No wonder there is antibiotic resistance in the world. Antibiotics require no prescription and cost about $8. In the states that is at least $50 unless they have jacked the price again.   

Ok a full day in Dubai started with a great breakfast here at hotel, then off for the 160 meter walk in the blast furnace to train station. To the Burj Khalifa- the worlds tallest building at 828 meters (2717 feet).  The observation deck is only at floor 143 as I remember some 600 meters up. Not bad for a building which houses 15,000 people. 

It did surprise me the cost of going up there 500 dirhams $(190). Turns out though for that I got to go to highest floor (143) have all the orange juice I wanted a all the dates I could eat, plus there is more I got a explanation of the building. Sometimes the extra money is worth it. 

I did ask if I could walk down but the answer was no. 

Then on to mall of the emirates in hopes of checking out the local ski scene.  Made it  to discover entry (lift ticket was 500 dirhans (about $200). A bit steep for a lift ticket although it seemed to include the 400 meters of skiing with Poma lift and ultra slow quad chairlift, access to sleds ; on the flats, sledding (with 2 turns), penguins. I chose to have a cup of coffee overlooking the sleds and penguins. 

The mall was huge as in ginormous. One can easily get lost and when I finished walking I had done 8 miles. Back via train only feeling the heat when getting on or off train for the seconds while train doors and building doors are both open. No open platforms and walkways to the mall. Everyone I talked with said it was nicer now than a month ago when it was near near 50 degrees (122F). 

All in all it reminds me of Las Vegas strip on steroids, but without the tourists. I am ready to get back on the bike. ​​

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And I fully expect a decrease in these ramblings due to a shortage of electricity and secondary a decrease in internet availability. Especially with pictures. The spot tracker shows recording locations but not showing up. And I just changed batteries. 

J. R.’s Spot location
And also finding this using only the phone much more difficult. My fingers seem to never fit only one key and autocorrect is my own worst enema (enemy)

On to Kathmandu