I thought I knew my type: classically beautifully, rugged, and ancient, like Quito, Split, Dubrovnik, Venice, Budapest, and Vienna. (Sorry, London, you are wonderful, and not bad looking, but you’re a little…obsessed…with royalty. Let’s just be friends.)  But shiny, too-young, playboy Dubai? Swoon!  I did not see that coming.  Clean cut, English-speaking, meticulously clean and polite, Dubai has all the coolest toys.  Enjoy UK’s Big Ben and London Eye?  They’re bigger (and, ahem, England, not under long-term construction) here.  Want to go skiing and enjoy the world’s biggest water park, in the desert no less, Dubai’s your guy. The weirdest, coolest, tallest, most amazing, record-breaking buildings and architecture? You won’t have enough time. Is it enough to have the tallest building in the world? Nope, better make it into the tallest light show in the world as well, and don’t forget to add an amazing dancing fountain as well, so people shopping at the largest (and likely, most opulent) mall in the world won’t suffer from ennui. It truly seems to be a multicultural, multi-faith, tolerant society. [Admittedly, I have no stats or anecdotes about the LGBTQ+ community.) But I can admire a society where getting stuff done is far more important than division. Seriously, Dubai is dreamy.

It was actually only in the light of the second day that rose-colored glasses grew a little clearer.  In many ways, it is a utopia.  With so much oil, this city is literally lit—the biggest Christmas light displays would be embarrassed by an average February Tuesday here.  Taxes increased about ten years ago…from zero to 5%.  With no homeless population and 100% employment, almost no crime and police presence, it seems too good to be true. It’s worth noting that full employment comes from the policy that if you don’t work, you don’t stay.  Only about 15% of the population are actual citizens.  Everyone else is temporary (even if for nearly a lifetime), and if you lose your job, you have two months to find a new one, or out you go. Seriously. Our tour guide’s wife lost her job and now she is living in the UK with family, while her husband and young son are in Dubai. Employers take care of health care, but they also, often, hold on to passports, as they will be fined if any employee absconds.  There is a fine line, then, between solid employment and possible slavery. (Do you remember the scandal years ago about Indian workers brought to Dubai to build and didn’t get to leave?)  Also, don’t have a child with special needs as there isn’t any social safety net to speak of.

Perhaps I can say it this way—it’s all the good stuff without any of the grace. So it might not be worth having. However, I venture out of my depth into philosophy, so I will wade back in with another picture that I can assure you I did not take.

It was just while we were preparing for Ecuador in December that it started seeming possible, even likely, that our Big Trip would happen.  Even in the excitement of Quito, Dwayne and I would sometimes look at each other and mouth “six weeks”—the subtext being “we’ll need to panic soon”.

I took that to heart and spent all of 2022 thus far in a tizzy, making to-do lists of all the to-do lists I needed to make.  Finally, it accumulated in this last weekend as we began packing,

And this morning, this,

Four months packed in five carry-ons, wrapped up in a decade of dreams and schemes.  Let’s see where it leads, shall we?