Back at long last...

Well my luggage didn't come (hopefully it will turn up), the electricity was shut off for some reason - meaning no hot shower either - I have been in transit for 2 days, am exhausted, but the sun is rising and my laptop has some juice left, and I am happy to be home! The 22 hr layover in Dubai was way too long. I went into the city and wandered all over for about 5hrs, hitting all the main sites, and was just not impressed. Don't know what all the hype is about. The shopping may be good, and there may be some cool new buildings on the way, but the famous artificial palm islands in the gulf have not even started rising, the city center was quite ugly, the massive immigrant labor force was a bit hard to fathom... it only seems good for going to a beach resort and shopping. That of course is a pretty quick judgement, but it's not a huge city/state so I don't know how much more there could be to it.