back to the travel story...

We were traveling from Turkey to Dubai, then New Delhi to end up in Nepal. All of this was to happen within 24 hours. A simple seamless nighttime jaunt to get us into Kathmandu so we could find a meditation retreat that we wanted to do. (Even this ended up not happening, as we eventually found out that we would be separated from eachother to be men with men and women with women for the entire 10 day retreat. Also, I was unfamiliar with the fact that I wouldn't have been able to talk for the entire 10 days...You see we had just gotten engaged only a month before in Greece, and there was NO way I was going without my woman for 10 days NOW...are you kidding me?!)

But I digress...We were late in our arrival at 3AM and were running through the airport to get to the gate to reach our connection. There running with us was a little man, not much older than we were at the time. He was keeping up with us every step until we reached the new gate. The plane was out the window, the door was open for passengers, and this Indian man showed his ticket and ran down the gangway. We showed our tickets and were halted. We stood there and watched our plane disappear into the darkness as we were told we would be set up for the night to figure out why we were not in the computer. It should be fixed tomorrow and we would be put on another flight...at 3AM tomorrow...or would that be the next next day?!...

They took the video camera and SLR camera from me. Or I could take out the film and give them that, basically ruin all of the shots...I was promised that it would be returned when we board the next plane. I gave them the cameras.

We were driven from the airport to a hotel. We were unable to see anything, literally, anything except the road in front of us as we left the airport as the night sky was BLACK! We approached the hotel. This amazing luxurious building coming out of the darkness was quite a site. We were greeted with smiles from everyone. It was an incredible place. Very high end! Not bad for someone traveling the world on only a few dollars a day! This was a country filled with money. We think that we have money here in the US...HA! We found later...

We were set up in a room. The porter dropped our bags, again with a big smile. We were both quite tired, but I wanted to see if I could put some direction as to where we were so I went on to the balcony to see anything...blackness. We went to sleep.

Upon waking in the late morning I opened the blinds that had totally shut out the morning sunshine. Yes, it was bright and daytime. I slid the door open to feel the wall of thick hot air hit my face. I walked out on the balcony and looked out to a horizon of sand. No plants, no life, nothing moving...sand. As far as one could see from this 5th floor.

We decided to go down to get some food and maybe head into Abu Dhabi. We figured we would probably never be here again, so it would be cool to get a cab ride into town and see a few things since our plane wasn't until the evening. We checked with the front desk to find that a ride into the downtown area, about 10 miles, would cost the equivalent of approx. $70. We found that our dollar was worth something in the ballpark of $.05 exchange rate at the front desk...What an eye opener that one was! We now know what it feels like to be financially strapped. We were unable to do anything except sit in the hotel room or walk the grounds.

The place was a grand type of palace with beautiful grounds, marble everywhere, wonderful plants and fountains, elegant. But, there was no one around. The place was empty. It was rather eerie. It was as if we were the only people in the place, excepting the staff. I couldn't quite place what was up...Everyone was pleasant and helpful, but it was weird.

We decided to walk a bit. We went down to see if there was a gym or a pool. We ventured to the basement and followed some signs, although we didn't know what they said. We could hear some music coming from down some hall so we followed that. The halls were long, narrow, and had few doors. As we turned another corner we could see someone sitting on a stool outside a door at the far end of this particular hallway. It seemed straight out of a David Lynch film.

We slowly walked down the hall toward the sound coming out of the room. The man at the doorway was dressed in full Arab attire with the head wrap and such. The middle eastern music coming from the room was getting louder as we approached. By the time we reached the door the man had stood up all the while staring at my woman. I looked into the room and saw a dark bar filled with Arab men. This was where everyone was! The Bar! The place was packed. A few of the patrons looked out into the hallway where we were and stopped and stared at Michelle. She was the only woman around. Hell, for all we knew she was the only woman in the building. The bar filled with men, down a long hallway in a hotel with no one around, with a doorman...It was a bit uncomfortable. We smiled and turned and walked away.

We went back to our room to hibernate and wait for our plane.

Very bizarre...