As-Salam Alaykum From Abu Dhabi

I'm currently in Abu Dhabi awaiting my connection to New Dehli.  Some thoughts and facts from this leg of the trip so far:

View Larger Map

• Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which are seven emirates that have banded together into a federation (of course, the British were involved).  Abu Dhabi occupies 80% of the total area of the UAE.  You're probably more familiar with Dubai - home of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building - and another one of the emirates


• Our flightplan took us straight over Iraq, including Baghdad and Basra... thought that was pretty cool.  Can I claim I've been to Iraq now?  It looks like our flight plan to India will take us over part of Iran... I'm totally going to claim I've been there as well


• In the US I think it's pretty standard to refer to the gulf here as the Persian Gulf.  For the Arab countries, that's the equivalent of Americans referring to Canada as the 51st state, only way, way worse (more like Pakistan declaring the Indian Ocean's new name is the Pakistan Ocean, or Japan renaming the China Sea, Puerto Rico claiming the Gulf of Puerto Rico, etc.), so as an American it was strange to see all the flightplan maps refer to it as the Arab Gulf.  When you think about it, it's strange that we refer to it as the Persian Gulf in the first place since Iran has been an unofficial member of the Axis of Evil for a good three decades now, and most of the Arab countries are officially "allies"


• Apparently in Mideastern and Indian cultures, it's ok to let your kid scream (not cry, flat out scream) for the duration of a 14 hour flight.  I think I may have found a source of alternative energy that they've been keeping under wraps.  Initially the worst offender was sitting right next to me (the risk of a bulkhead exit row) - lucky for him, his family ended up swapping seats with another family... otherwise, only one of us was likely to survive the trip.  My new neighbor's worst offense was repeatedly grabbing me and elbowing my arm off the armrest in her sleep (she was a tough little toddler)


• Despite being ridiculously rich in oil and natural gas, the UAE's national airline is actually pretty poor.  Terrible service, the plane was not in the best state of repair, the in-flight entertainment system was buggy, etc.  The airport is pretty disappointing as well.  I don't know why I'm surprised since throwing money at problems is never the solution (the US government still has yet to learn this lesson as well).  Perhaps a takeaway is that eventually all of our oil money is likely to find it's way back to the US?


• It's hot and humid here... I expected the heat, but really, since when are deserts humid?


• What does the rest of the world have against Diet Coke / Coke Light?  Looking for one here is like looking for the Hidden Imam


• Security is surprisingly lax here.  I realize it's a relatively benign Mideast state, but by Al-Qa'ida's standards, it's pretty much a Western, infidel-ious country.  I guess they have much bigger fish to fry, like the Saudi royal family next door (I think they rank about #3 on bin Laden's hit list, behind the US and Israel)


• I was walking around the shopping area here and saw a suspicious conference going on with three UAE policemen (who of course are very militaristic) and the manager of a luxury watch shop.  I decided I was really interested in the Tag Heuer section they were standing in and parked out right next to them.  To my surprise, they were conducting a shakedown in English, with no effort to be discreet.  I'm not really sure exactly what was going on, but the shop manager was talking about how he and his family are poor and he was giving money and gifts to some woman but ran out and wasn't able to continue doing so.  The policemen were pretty agitated and telling him he just needed to pay now.  I thought this was particularly strange since UAE's rulers are actually pretty smart about how they're spending their carbon fuel windfall - attracting Western businesses and universities to become a Mideast hub.  Subsequently, they're pretty rigid about corruption (at least the kind conducted in sums with less than eight zeros) and perceptions among foreigners.  I would imagine a cop shaking down a shop owner in their international airport would be risking having his hand cut off or something

I think I had a couple of other things I wanted to share, but they escape me now.  I'm off to find a Diet Coke / the Hidden Imam.  If I find him, I'll let him know that Ahmadinejad has been trying to reach him.  Maybe that can be the breakthrough Obama has been looking for.