Em Bennett

I don’t think I’ve seen an expression like that on Miss Sparky’s face for sometime. n’t think you can truly understand how hard it is to adjust to public washrooms anywhere else in the world until you spend a bit of time in Dubai. So needless to say, when Miss Sparky had to queue among the poop smell in the airport toilets, tread carefully through the puddles of water and old toilet paper whilst squatting above a dirty toilet seat covered in old pee, she was more than a little distressed. And whilst we’ve somewhat adjusted to the speed limits in Australia being perilously low (the basic acceptable speed in Dubai is 120km/hour), we haven’t adjusted to the size of the roads.

And as we’re listening to her telling us all the things she hates about Sri Lanka, and about Asia in general, I suddenly have that epiphany moment about why I LOVE travelling in Asia. And then, as you wade through the crowds of stores selling everything from guitars to washing machines, you emerge again into the hot, thick evening air and are assaulted by the fumes of the tuk tuks and the smell of burning rubbish. The thing about living in Dubai is that life is in monochrome: The people wear black or white; the sand is all one colour; the buildings are white or sand coloured; and the only trees and plants that grow have been placed in perfectly manicured arrangements and tended to hourly by gardeners. Maybe its too many years of living in Dubai, but I love that the people in Sri Lanka are so busy living life, they don’t have time to ‘should’ all over their life.

Since we’ve been here in Dubai, we’ve made some excellent friends. I have met some people whom I’ve really loved spending time with and who have been there with us through some of the toughest times adjusting to a new life. And whilst we’ve made many friends that I know we’ll have for life, most of them are no longer here and that is sad. And if all that fails, I’m seriously considering hiring some new friends and making them sign contracts to stay until we leave 🙂

We’re greeted by the resort manager with the traditional Arabic coffee and dates in a lovely Bedouin camp tent (with air-conditioning mind you). After a couple of hours of desert tobogganing and hanging out in our beautiful campsite, it’s time for our ‘Oman Desert Duning adventure’ in the lovely Wahiba sands desert. The last time we went desert duning, I screamed pretty much the whole time. We spend some time on the dune playing in the world’s softest orange sand and enjoying the spectacular view over the desert.