In the land of milk, honey and oil... not necessarily in that order

So 15 hours on a plane goes by much faster than you think when there's a good onboard entertainment system.

The mother of all travel days started with a quick flight to San Francisco where I lucked into some of their famous fog, a few hours at the MOMA (right), Mexican lunch in the Mission and back to the airport for some duty-free shopping.

Then into the cigar tube. It was an a new long haul Boeing 777. Which was good. The other planes tend to fall out of the sky before the 15th hour due to lack of fuel; these babies have a range of 17,000 km.

After clearing immigration in Dubai (a process of about 3 mins waiting), I found my baggage on the carousel (Singapore is the only other place I know to be this efficient) and met Mayna looking swell and relaxed in a burka. OK, it was a sleeveless black shirt. They can be hard to distinguish.

She had booked a nice place in the old quarter which features the labyrinthine streets one associates with the Middle East. No complaints about the accommodation. I told Mayna that I might get too used to comfort and style and this not be able to travel backpacker style again. She said that India would cure me of that.

Three things I have noticed about here:

1. Smells. Good ones. Incense, potpourri, cologne. People and places smell good.

2. Cranes. It appears that the maxim about the tower crane being the national bird is correct. Despite the recession, there's a lot of construction going on here.

3. Most people are from somewhere else. Just like Vancouver, but more pronounced, most people are not UAE nationals. Lots of Indians and Filipinos.

OK time for cocktails and dinner. Seriously.